The People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) for South Vietnam presents a new peace plan at the Paris talks. Nguyen Thi Binh, foreign minister of the PRG, attending the peace talks for the first time in three months, outlined the eight-point program, which was similar to another program first presented in May 1969. In exchange for the withdrawal of all U.S. and Allied forces by June 30, 1971, communist forces promised to refrain from attacking the departing troops and also offered to begin immediate negotiations on the release of POWs once the withdrawal was agreed to. The PRG statement demanded the purge of South Vietnam’s top three leaders: President Nguyen Van Thieu, Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky, and Premier Tran Thien Khiem. This demand was a major inhibitor to any meaningful peace negotiations, since the United States refused to abandon Thieu.
This Day In History: September 17
