THE WAR: Signals in the Fog

In the midst of war, diplomatic signals course between enemies like radio waves through clouds of static. Lately, however, for all the rhetorical fog, some interesting messages have been broadcast on the critical and anguished question of repatriating prisoners of war in Viet Nam.

Last week, North Viet Nam’s official news agency reported that Hanoi will accept South Viet Nam’s unilateral offer to return 570 sick and wounded North Vietnamese Army prisoners of war. Although the announcement’s significance may prove to be as wispy as dozens of earlier initiatives from either side, there were two hopeful signs. For the first time, Hanoi implied an admission that North Vietnamese forces do indeed fight in the South—a point that Hanoi has refused to concede in the past. It is not merely a preposterous semantic game, for the U.S. is trying to negotiate in Paris a mutual withdrawal of all foreign forces from the South—and any such agreement would obviously be empty if Hanoi failed to acknowledge the presence of its troops there. Also for the first time, the North Vietnamese responded to a unilateral repatriation offer by South Viet Nam.

Fourth Year. Hanoi set precise conditions for the repatriation. South and North Vietnamese ships flying Red Cross flags are to rendezvous in the South China Sea off the DMZ at 10:30 a.m. on June 4; there must be no military activity within an 18-mile radius of the rendezvous point on that day; Washington and Saigon must announce ahead of time “the number and characteristics of the ships transporting the patriots to be released.” If those instructions were clear enough, however, what Hanoi was up to remained murky.

As always, the question remained whether such minor concessions represented the beginnings of a break on the difficult prisoner-of-war issue or were merely an isolated exception. As for the American P.O.W.s held by the Communists, Hanoi has still shown no sign of deviating from its position that the U.S. must publicly announce a specific withdrawal date. Then, if the North Vietnamese decide that the timetable is “reasonable,” discussions about the release of U.S. P.O.W.s can begin, says Hanoi.

The Communists repeated that formulation last week as the Paris peace talks entered their fourth year with each side, depressingly enough, blaming the other for failing to stop the bloodshed. North Vietnamese acceptance of Saigon’s offer to return captured N.V.A. soldiers evidently remains independent of the question of repatriating American prisoners, which is one of the most difficult and dangerous obstacles to ending U.S. involvement in the war.

In recent weeks, however, both sides have increased the frequency and ingenuity of their initiatives. Nixon’s proposal to have all prisoners interned in neutral Sweden for the duration has apparently come to nothing. But Hanoi has seemed to crack open a few doors toward broader negotiation, although the Communists will probably let serious initiatives wait until the U.S. withdrawal proceeds still further and the South Vietnamese elections approach next fall. By then, American bargaining leverage will be diminished, and there may be signs of new political alignments in Saigon more amenable to making concessions that could bring peace.