Abstract
Autore:
Sica Mario
Titolo:
"La Pira e la ricerca della pace in Vietnam"
This contribution provides a detailed account of the visit to Hanoi carried out in November 1965 by the former mayor of Florence Giorgio La Pira and of the ensuing peace initiative promoted by Italian Foreign Minister Fanfani. A prominent Catholic personality and an all-time pacifist, La Pira had convened in April 1965 a seminar of foreign policy experts on the Vietnam question. The seminar had identified the problem of the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam in relation to the beginning of the negotiations as the key diplomatic issue at that time. From the rather cryptic North Vietnamese statements three interpretations appeared possible: a) the withdrawal must be the result of the negotiations; b) acceptance of the principle of the withdrawal is a prerequisite to negotiations; c) the withdrawal has to be implemented before negotiations can begin. La Pira went to Hanoi in November 1965, was able to discuss the issue with both Ho Chi Minh and Pham Van Dong, and came away with the conviction that the withdrawal was viewed by North Vietnam only as the necessary end product of the peace negotiations. He duly conveyed this conviction to Fanfani, and the latter did the same with the US Administration through US Ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg. The US sent a first, rather lukewarm reaction which Fanfani managed to transmit to Hanoi. However, before the North Vietnamese could react, US planes bombed a major industrial plant fourteen miles from downtown Hanoi. This raid in turn provoked a leak on a US paper about the peace probe. The North Vietnamese promptly issued a statement denouncing the news of the peace probe as a "fabrication", but did not openly challenge the main message La Pira had brought home from Hanoi. The episode helped to clarify both the tactical and the strategic positions of the parties to the Vietnamese conflict and was a harbinger of events to come
