European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Page 4 the stars and stripes Friday april keep playing it Safe Hope doubts Greet bombing pause editor s note Williamc. Baggs editor of the Miami news has made a second trip to North Vietnam. This is the second of his reports on his findings. A by William c. Baggs Hanoi a Vul Quoc than was a Man whose emotions were mixed. Doubts bumped against Hopes inside or. Thanh. The doubts appeared to have the Edge. Two Days earlier he had heard that president Johnson had proclaimed that the unite states was going to confine its bombing of his country to shallow strip of land just North of the demilitarized zone. Now As the hard sprung russian version of a . Army command car bumped South from Hanoi out into the prov inces but still very far North of the demilitarized zone  occasionally remarked that the news from Washington was very Good news. But More frequently he scanned the murky skies for any sign of a . Plane. On the outskirts of Nam Dinh the third largest City of North Vietnam located 56 Miles Southof Hanoi or. Thanh heard the faint cry of the Alert. American aircraft were in the neighbor . Thanh had been assigned As our escort by his govern ment and he seemed to treat the matter As a deeply Persona responsibility. The other Ameri can in the command car was Harry Ashmore former editor of the Arkansas Gazette an now executive vice president of the Center for the study of democratic institutions. Ash More who was an infantryman in world War ii wanted to continue on into the heart of Namvinh. Air Alert or whatever. Or. Thanh however insisted that we divert to a farmhouse he knew some distance fro the City and he said a safer place than Nam Dinh. Ashmore persisted. Had Notor. Thanh heard that president Johnson was going to restrict the bombing to the demilitarized zone which was far to the South. Yes or. Thanh said. He had heard. He grinned his benign Grin and added i heard but i do not  we proceeded to the farm  bombs were dropped on Nam Dinh that Day but twice the sirens sounded and there were planes droning in the sky overhead. The general reaction in Hanoi to the presidential pronounce ment suggested a similar com position of doubt and Hope. Word of the Johnson speech reached Here april 1 by Way of foreign radio broadcasts but Only the More informed persons knew of it. Hanoi s newspaper Sand radio controlled by the government chose not to announce the new restricted bombing policy until april 4, when the word finally came out Over the loudspeakers Ash More and i winnowed along the streets to watch the faces As the announcement was made. The faces did t change expression. To the people on the streets the news they were hearing was a maybe proposition. Their doubts were compounded during the next two Days. Hoang Tung editor of Hamdan the official newspaper Here gave me a list of 12 bomb ing raids far North of the demilitarized zone. Some were 219miles above the line. These at tacks later were confirmed . Embassy persons in Laos. The North vietnamese what Ever else they Are strike a vis iting Westerner As practical people. They did not demur at the suggestion that perhaps these overshot Aerial raids were part of the inevitable draining away of a bombing policy More than three years old. They understood that a Little time was required to inform the Bombar Diers and enforce the new policy of restraint. The North Viet namese accepted these possibilities again their attitude was one of hoping and doubting. On the second Day of the new bombing policy the doubts were compounded by a mystery. Small group of aircraft dumped their Load on a Remote Corner of the country a province far to the North which touched Chin and Laos. This was Mountain territory and the Village bombed had no known value As a military  bombing later was con firmed to this reporter again . Embassy people in Laos and they were As confused As the North vietnamese. The could find no record of any . Or associated aircraft anywhere near the Vicinity at the time of the attacks. It is not difficult to under stand the doubts that the policy of the . Has changed. These people have lived under Ameri can bombs and the threats of bombs since february 1965 when the Aerial attack on North Viet Nam began. This reporter was made pc Rivito the environment when hear Rived in Hanoi on March .30. We reached the thong Nhat hotel at 8 30 p.m., and the air raid sire sounded 10 minutes later. Every one was asked to go to the hotel s shelter a Iping and Narlow chamber of Concrete partially submerged lighted by candles and flashlights and populated by hotel guests from the soviet Union various Eastern european countries Africa and Asia. They All seemed anxious to ignore any ideological differences with an american and just talk. Twas like London in the world War ii Days with a special exotic touch the next raid caught the writer stumbling Down the dark corridor of the hotel trying to find the stairway when bombs fell just beyond the near limits of the City. The windows of an old hotel rattled and flashes of bombs and return fire illuminated the distance. There were Tobe nine More times in the next two Days when the sirens would whine not All actual bombing runs but passes close enough to touch off the Alert. Doubtless the strangest aspect William c. Baggs. ,. Hanoi experiences of life in Hanoi is the absence of the Young. Soon after you arrive in the City you realize that what is missing Are the children. You do not hear the sounds of nonsense and glee. More than 300,000 children have been evacuated to schools in the Countryside. You can talk to a flock of these children and they Tell you much the same Story As dung Dang Tran a 13-year-old boy. Dang Tran likes his temporary school All right and he will re turn to his Home and the Cit school when the War is Over. But you can t know what it i really like to be uprooted from Home and family. French want next president Cham Henna ids to retain Powers of office i have rifles at Heady Paris up More frenchmen than Ever who look ahead to the end of president Charles de Gaulle s reign want France s next chief executive to Wield just As much Powers the general now docs. An authoritative Public opinion poll also showed this wee that de Gaulle s personal popularity among frenchmen has increased in the last half year and 61 per cent no Ware satisfied with him against 31 per cent  the poll one of the periodic samplings taken by the French Public opinion Institute at the request of the Gaul list newspaper France soil also showed frenchmen approved of de Gaulle s stand on foreign affairs and the Gold  decades frenchmen have debated whether parliament or the president should have the upper hand in making key decisions for the nation. Before de Gaulle Power was concentrated in the hands of the National Assembly and As a result the third and fourth French republics were wracked by disputes among a myriad of parties that often brought governments Down. The Institute s poll showed that 52 per cent of frenchmen want the Power of the president to remain the same after de Gaulle compared with 45 per cent in january 1967. I showed that 24 per cent want the presidency weakened compared with 31 per cent 15 months ago. At the sometime More frenchmen want the Power of parliament to be diminished than in january 1968. Labovites suffer worst poll ratings Ever London a prime minister Wilson and his crisis Ridden labor government suffered heir worst ratings Ever in a British opinion poll published  figures were the first to appear since the Labrut s suffered massive reverses in four special elections lust month. The Gallup poll published in the daily Telegraph gave the opposition conservative party a 24.5-per-cent Lead in popular Ity Over the labovites. This was the biggest advantage gained by any British political party in the last 30 years. A total of 87 per cent of persons questioned Suid they believed the conservatives would win the next general election. Only seven per cent gave labor a Chance. Mimz. Miami Fla. A with chambermaid who double As riflemen and with its own bomb shelter the thong Nhat in Hanoi must be the world s most unusual hotel these Days reports an american just Back from the North vietnamese capital. William c. Baggs editor of the Miami news wrote in a copy righted article that the chamber maids grab their rifles and try to shoot Down american warplanes flying Over the City. These Are Petite Young women who seem frail in their White blouses and Black trousers walking in a kind of child like skip Baggs reported. But comes the air raid and the suddenly appear beneath Olive drab army helmets with rifles Slung across their slender backs. Women appear in other places on the North vietnamese landscape As adjuncts to the established military. Girls who must go to school by Day Serveas traffic cops by night on the new Pontoon Bridge across there River on the Edge of Hanoi. It is a ridiculous sight but it Isan effective performance these tiny girls standing on the edges of the Bobbing pontoons Flash lights in hand controlling the movement of huge army trucks with a frail raised hand Baggs said. The girls assume a role quit necessary in North Vietnam he said a totally mobilized society of 17 million at War against a nation of 200  slogan you hear often Baggs reported is that every one must do the work of two persons. A girl on the Bridge re leases a Man for More tradition Al military duty. However much of the talk impresses the visitor As a kind of necessary National brag Ging. These people need to be convinced that they have he doff the greatest military Power on Earth the United states andean continue to do so come what May he wrote. He said the North vietnamese people shrug off reality with simple Pride when you suggest that your country could level their Lovely capital City of Hanoi in a single Day if our strategists decided on such a policy. Their response is that the United states has bombed them for three years has caused some inconvenience and killed som of their dear ones but that life Coes on and it goes on much Asit did before As they phrase ii Lyndon Johnson started  but for All their Pride intense National sentiment and the stated determination to survive these Are people who mix Hopes with doubts. They have survived a Long season of bombing and the move for peace talks by president John son appeared to stir up thoughts of a time when there would Beno rain of steel and High explosives on their cities and country Side. European edition col. James w. Campbell Usa editor in Chw it Cou. R. S. Michael jr., sap Deputy edit or in Chw Mert Proctor Mana Glnn to Law Elmer d. Frank production Mani gig Henry 8. Epstein circulation Man an unofficial newspaper of and for the . Armed forces published by to commander in chief . European command and printed daily at Dar Miwa a Germany. 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