The Soviet Union today demanded that the United States cancel immediately its blockade of North Vietnamese ports, stop its “acts of aggression” against that country and respect the right to freedom of international navigation and trade.
The demand was made in a Soviet Government statement distributed by Tass on the U.S. Government’s actions of mining the entrances to seven North Vietnamese ports and the stepped-up bombings of North Vietnam.
It came two hours after the minefields were activated at the entrances to the ports at 4-30 p.m. (IST) today trapping 31 ships of different nations including 12 Soviet vessels.
The Soviet statement described the U.S. measures, announced by President Nixon on Monday night, as “a new escalation of its aggressive actions” in Vietnam and said they had complicated further the situation in South-East Asia and “are fraught with serious consequences for international peace and security.”
It said “the Soviet Government resolutely insists that the U.S. steps taken to block the coast and disrupt ground communications of the democratic Republic of Vietnam be cancelled without delay, that acts of the US. aggression against the DRV be ended and that the right to freedom of international navigation and trade be respected.”
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{{/usCountry}}Expressing the hope that this “point of view” is shared by the Governments and peoples of aU peace-loving States, the statement reaffirmed the Soviet Union’s support to the struggle of the heroic Vietnamese people.
“The Soviet people have been giving and will continue to give the Vietnamese people the necessary support,” it said.
Warning the United States that it was following “a dangerous and slippery road,” the statement asked, “what would happen if, in response to the unilateral actions of the United States threatening the legitimate interests of a number of States and security of their citizens, these States Act the way States does now to Vietnam.
The statement declared that the only “real way” to settle the Vietnam problem was to respect the Vietnamese people’s right to decide their destiny themselves without any interference and pressure from outside.
“If the United States is really ready to do so, it should return to the negotiating table in Paris,” it said.
The statement suspected that the real purpose of these actions was not to “save the United States from humiliation,” but to save the notorious “Vietnamization” policy which suffered an obvious failure.
It added: “The intensification of the bombings of the DRV territory and Washington’s attempts to establish single-handedly i own rules of international navigation cannot but cause indignation and strong censure. These actions show again to the whole world the piratic nature of the war which the United States has unleashed and continues to wage against the Vietnamese people for many years.
“The mining of the approaches to the ports of the DRV and the attempts to prevent foreign ships from entering its territorial and inland waters create a direct threat to ships and the lives of seamen of many States which carry cargoes for the DRV population. Nobody gave the United States the right to restrict anybody’s freedom of navigation in high seas. The U. S.’ measures are a gross violation of the generally recognized principle of freedom of navigation.”
Declaring that the Soviet Union considered as inadmissible these actions which jeopardized the freedom of navigation and the security of Soviet and other ships, the statement warned that I the US Government would bear the entire responsibility for the possible consequences of its illegal actions.
This new escalation of the war, the statement warned, would not break the will of the Vietnamese people fighting for freedom and independence. “The actions now taken by the United States can only serve to drag out the conflict, to continue the bloodshed, and will inevitably entail new loss of life and destruction.”
Broadcast by Moscow and transmitted by the official Tass news agency, the statement reiterated Kremlin pledges of ‘ “necessary support” for Hanoi.
Western diplomats called the I statement “firm” but said it closed no doors to continued Soviet-American negotiations, especially the Nixon visit. Many diplomats had forecast postponement or cancellation of the visit in protest against the blockade.