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Peace Plan fte jjpfulabelpfite inquirer BACKGROUND AND OPINION Sunday, 30, 1972 5-H Columnists View Aims of Nixon Initiatives -fSSs An Editors Notebook 1 -I JOHN S. KNIGHT William S. White Execution Witness Never Quite Forgets By WILLIAM L. RYAN Associated Press Special Correspondent President Nixon's Indochina peace proposal may' sound logical and fair to many Americans, but the road to peace is littered with snags. There seems a clear danger that the war will be intensified, though perhaps only Behind this sort of assessment is the fact that Hanoi apparently reads the U.

S. proposals as signifying a flagging American will to continue involvement much longer. Hanoi apparently sees big possibilities for its cause in the U. S. political campaign.

"The present situation is creating a great many new advantages for our armed forces," Lt. Gen. Song Hao told a Hanoi newspaper earlier this month. That sounded ominous in the light of reports of a hew Communist buildup. Gen.

Hao indicated what was on Hanoi's mind when he said the Americans "are defeated and are therefore forced to change their strategy." This meant, he added, that North Vietnam was "faced with a new situation with many advantages and bright prospects," although there still would be hardships ahead for the population. The general must have been aware of Nixon's proposals, and what he seemed to say in effect was: "Why settle for less if there's a chance to get it all?" By GEORGE C. WILSON Of The Washington Post WASHINGTON. Nothing the White House has said over the last two days about settling the Vietnam war commits President Nixon to removing the bulk of U. S.

airpower from Southeast Asia. Mr. Nixon in his remarks Tuesday night and Dr. Henry Kissinger in elaborating on them Wednesday talked only about removing American forces from South Vietnam itself not from Thailand where most of the airpower now is based. Further, the President said nothing about removing the carriers, with their fighter-bombers aboard, from the waters off North Vietnam.

Thus, Hanoi under the settlement offered by President Nixon still has. an incentive to hold American prisoners-of-war as hostages against bombings from warplanes in Thailand or at sea. Charles Bartlett By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK WASHINGTON. The central aim of President Nixon's dramatic revelation of-the secret U. S.

-Hanoi peace negotiations was so completely to undercut domestic political attack on his Vietnamization policy that Hanoi would know it could no longer win the war in the halls of Congress and the Presidential campaign. Thus, in confidential talks "with White House aides and his legislative leaders, Mr. Nixon said on Tuesday evening: "What I'm going to say in my speech is an answer to reasonable people with reasonable doubts about how to end the war, but it is not an answer to those demanding total American surrender." In short, by laying out his eight-point peace plan on national television, the President was playing for a strong national consensus for Vietnamization (f Hanoi continues to obdurate. That would mean leaving a residual force of American troops in Vietnam for a long time, together with the continued bombing of supply and infiltration targets in Laos and North Vietnam. But that master political strategy was by no means the only object of Mr.

Nix- -on's stunning revelations. For months, Mr. Nixon's foreign policy experts in the State Department and White House have been puzzled as to how much Peking has learned from Hanoi of the secret American peace initiatives. Accordingly, the President could not be sure that his proposals for what he called "a peace that is fair to both sides" were known to or even suspected by the Chinese Communists. Peking and Hanoi nave been operating on different wavelengths for a long time, a diversion of interests that grew much wider with Henry A.

Kissinger's first visit to Peking last summer. Now, Mr. Nixon's Chinese hosts will have the full story in ample time to study and digest before the President arrives in Peking next month. By DAVID KRASLOW Of The Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON. The major offensive apparently being mounted by North Vietnam was an important element in President Nixon's decision to surface now the secret efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

The planned offensive, which American officials anticipate around the beginning of the Tet new year period on Feb. 15, also probably explains why the North Vietnamese ignored the eight-point peace plan the U. S. offered secretly last October. For one thing, that plan contains a provision for a cease-fire in place and that obviously would bar a Tet offensive.

But the current interplay of diplomatic and military factors even without considering the growing domestic pressures on Mr. Nixon to resolve the Vietnam issue as the Presidential election approaches is far more complex. WASHINGTON. Budgets, deficits, inflation and jobs draw the headlines, but a far more controversial and achingly difficult issue is now lying inert and waiting to explode in the Supreme Court of the United States. The court has agreed to pass some time this year perhaps in the spring, perhaps later on the constitutionality of the death penalty for capital crime.

Nearly 700 men and women are in prison death rows across this country and it seems unlikely that any governor will allow the ultimate sentence to be carried out until the nine black-robed men in Washington have decided whether capital punishment is to be allowed to go on, irrespective of existing criminal laws in the states. As for the public, it is not yet truly engaged upon the somber debate which must at length open. But come it surely will, for no question that could be raised could be more divisive, as Britain learned years ago when Parliament at last ended executions, except for a highly limited form of murder done in the course of other felonies. In England, the old establishment the conservatives in the Church of England, in general the hierarchy joined by the majority of the hereditary members of the House of Lords and probably a majority also of all the old ruling class fought to the end to save capital punishment. The Labor Party, the academics in general and the leaders of an emerging new middle class were bitterly on the other side.

It was not, however, really a political argument, or even one resting on differing views of criminology. At bottom, it was an infinitely harsh contest between two profoundly antagonistic views of sin and punishment; of what is owed society by wrongdoers and what is due wrongdoers by way of partial forgiveness. Harriet Van Home John S. Knight did not write his "Editor's Notebook" this week. In short, it was a thicket of emotion very rarely found in tie basically phlegmatic British people 'and one can imagine what is likely to happen here in the far more volatile American society.

It is also a thicket into which this columnist, for one, does not propose to en-tdr. For what is posec here is an insoluble moral and social dlemma, so far as I am concerned, and one is only thankful that no kind of decision is required of him. Still, stirred now are macabre personal memories of the death chamber, in which, earlier in my journalistic career, I stood 13 times to watch a life being taken in the electric chair. These are recollections that will endure forever; and though they go back so many years there are still times in the nighttime when nightmare comes rather as it does sometimes as in dreams the bombs fall again upon wartime London and Jie mines explode again before infantry's feet in Normandy and beyond. One sees a man, htad shaved, brought shambling into the death chamber, the minister or priest nearby.

There is the averted face of another man who is going to throw the switch. The convict may be in a sort of semi-coma; he may instead be shouting and straining against the straps which now enfold him in a dreadful embrace. Sometimes the convict offers prayers, asking divine help and confessing his crime. Sometimes, to the end he denies wrongdoing and shiugs away, or even curses away, the minister or priest who is here for the most grisly of all religious offices. It takes only a little while; but it seems an eternity, until there is a high, thin electric hum.

The man in the chair goes rigid and then into a spasm of convulsion. Then, it is all over; and the lights go high again. dearingly funny ar.d wonderfully womanish about this "Miz" business. I will concede that women's liberation has come a long way since the girls first came to public attention by picketing the Miss America contest in Atlantic City. After an embarrassing beginning marked by vulgar public display and a militant emphasis on Lesbianism, the movement has gained dignity and momentum.

It also strikes me that in this year 1972 women have surely won "the right to control their own bodies." They have the pill, legal abortion, easy divorce and domestic relations courts where delinquent fathers are made to pay their rightful Smith Hempstone There is strong reason to believe that the administration is assessing the current situation and enemy motivations in the context of what happened almost exactly four years ago. The Communists uncorked a massive Tet offensive to demonstrate its disruptive capabilities in South Vietnam, and then agreed to participate in peace talks in Paris in a stronger bargaining position than they were in before the offensive. By MURREY MARDER Of The Washington Post WASHINGTON. North Vietnam's suspicions about President Nixon's trip to Peking may be the unexplained reason why Hanoi broke off secret talks with the United States, many experts speculate. Presidential adviser Henry A.

Kissinger publicly did his utmost Wednesday to discount the probability of any direct link between talks on settlement of the war This Mrs. a top hat, smoked cigars and liked to be addressed as "Mon Frere." She had scores of lovers (including Chopin) but once wrote to a friend that, after 10 years of reflection, she had concluded that no woman would ever find happiness through love and marriage. For the average, normal woman, this sort of reasoning is sheer madness. Women's Lib has much important 'ork to do. Some of us may object to being called "Miz" but we're in agreement with the higher aims.

These aims will never be realized, however, if the movement wastes its substance in saloon invasions and altering the conventions of dregs. and preparations for the President's Feb. 21 visit to China. Kissinger's additional disclosures Wednesday about his secret negotiations with Hanoi's envoys, however, suggested to many specialists that North Vietnam's suspicions about the intentions of Washington and Peking could have been heightened nevertheless. In recent weeks many Nixon Administration officials openly have interpreted North Vietnam's developing military offensive in Indochina as a show of force timed' to coincide with the President's trip to Peking, as well as Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year, on Feb.

15. What now has been added to the public record by the Nixon Administration suggests even more circumstantial connection between these events. By PETER LISAGOR Of The Chicago Daily News WASHINGTON. A portrayal of an snemy filled with insecurities and deceits, as well as an unshakable resolve, has emerged from an account of the secret negotiations with North Vietnamese delegates at the Paris peace talks. The source of this inside view has been Henry A.

Kissinger, President Nixon's adviser on national security affairs who has surfaced as the central figure in private talks over a 30-month period. Kissinger had revealed in a news conference Hanoi's hangups and the Nixon Administration's adoption of almost every position urged upon the White House by its principal war critics. 'He also has admitted that a major motive of the President in laying the secret record bare was to compose the "domestic disharmony" caused by the war. Hanoi has barely budged from the argument that can be fairly paraphrased in this way: "You've got to stack the deck for us, or we won't play." Calling Her 'Miz'IsNoHit With Florida's Primary Is 3 -Man Race Polls by the Democratic candidates show the Florida primary settling into a tight three-man race between Hubert Humphrey, Edmund Muskie and George Wallace. The rest appear to be pretty well out of it although John Lindsay, mounting an expensive campaign by radio and television, has a substantial following among Jewish and black voters.

Since Humphrey counts heavily upon these two blocs, the Lindsay campaign is currently regarded as a major asset by the Muskie camp. The Soviet courtship of the Japanese is considered unlikely to blossom, despite Tokyo's irritation with the Nixon Administration. The Japanese retain their dislike and mistrust- of the Russians, and they have found them extremely "difficult in the long negotiations over mineral and timber projects in Siberia. China has less of the resources needed by the Japanese and offers a less promising market for their goods, but the Japanese regard good relations with Peking as far more important than anything the Soviets have to offer. The Nixon offer to withdraw all American and allied troops after a cease-fire in Indochina was a new slight to the South Korean government, which received no advance notice of the offer.

It was also inconsistent with what Nixon officials told the South Koreans a year ago when they said they would like to pull one division out of Vietnam. The State Department said then this was a matter in which the United States had no interest and they should negotiate the withdrawal with the South Vietnamese. The President is urged by aides to have more meetings with the top leadership of Congress and he is described as very much at ease with the Democratic leader in the Senate, Mike Mansfield," and Speaker Carl Albert. But the chemistry between the President and House Majority leader Hale Boggs is brittle, so the President balks at regular meetings because it would be awkward to exclude However, Mansfield has agreed to reconvene Congress after the Democratic convention, and this is a major concession because it will tie the Democratic nominee to his legislative role at a time when he will prefer to be mounting his campaign. One of the ablest Nixon appointees, Selective Service Director Curtis Tarr, is likely to be tapped for the top-level State Department post that will be created by passage of the Foreign Assistance Act.

The new job is under secretary for security affairs, a role designed to put all the nations to which the United States has major security commitments under one jurisdiction. Tarr, a former college president, won White House respect by dealing skillfully and tactfully with the touchy issue of the draft. Well, What's Money for If Not to Spend? share of child support. Now, if the liberation of women is to go forward, let them concentrate on those matters which will lift women to a higher level in our society. The "female slavery" they constantly complain of is best alleviated by more education for women and equal pay for equal work.

Though the movement has shown a heartening progress in the political field (don't underestimate that Women's Caucus), it still strikes me that there's too much of what might be called the George Sand Syndrome in the membership. Madame Dudevant (who took the pen name George Sand) wore male attire, including riches or, indeed, of the riches. Indeed, it might be argued that the purpose of having money is to spend it and that the manner of disposing of the stuff is less important than the act itself. Be that as it may, the folk-memories of those who have had money for a long time, people like the Howard family of England who have been wealthy since Henry VIII heaped lands and titles upon the Earl-Marshal of England, instinctively tells them it is neither fitting nor safe to make ostentatious display of their wealth. Even Howard Hughes in his sound-proof suite in the Caribbean (if there is a Howard Hughes) may hear in pensive moments tumbrils rattling across cobblestone streets.

For the rich know, if the poor do not, that there is a greater disparity of income in this country than most people realize. There are, for instance, 3,000 super-rich American families with annual incomes of more than $1 million; at the bottom of the scale are 12.8 million families with annual incomes of $5,000 or less. The graduated federal income tax, adopted in 1913, was designed to lessen the gap between rich and poor. But there are both loopholes in the law and ways around it which the very rich, with their batteries of. lawyers and accountants, find little difficulty in exploiting.

Indeed, if the poor are always with us, so too are the rich. Being fewer, they are, with the exception of the Frosts and the Palleys, just less conspicuous. The NEW YORK, N. Y. Oh, I try, I really do, but I cannot keep a straight face when addressed as "Miz." But in my smiles there is confusion.

I never know' whether to reply, "Yessir, Massa" or "Dat's not me, Boss." This "Miz" business may be the one feminine mistake that will bring a touch of humor to the Women's Liberation Movement. For there's no dodging the fact that "Miz," which is the way Gloria Steinem says we are to pronounce our new official designation of is a regional and colloquial expression with racist overtones. Fortunately, it has also become archaic, surviving chiefly in novels where black children are pickaninnies and the common affirmative is sho-nuff. Naturally, the women who are fighting for female equality did not intend the term Ms. to be comical.

Nor, let it be stressed, were they conscious of the antebellum connotation in the pronunciation "Miz." But most people who use it invariably follow up with some tiresome banality in Down South dialect. The original motive behind the designation Ms. was to erase the distinction between the married Mrs. and the single Miss. The message has taken rather a long time to get through.

To my eye, Ms. has always been a Latin term, "manus-criptum." Echoing the sentiments of many a wurnan, I have frequently stormed, "I do nr wish to be addressed as 'Manuscript Van Home'." It's bad enoigh in this aye of nhiencv that hundreds of people are under the impression that "Van" is my middle name. in any case, just won't do. I have a married name, which I like to see preceded by Mrs. And a professional, maiden name which may correctly be preceded by either.

But call me "Miz" and you're currying favor with the wrong missus. In defense of the new designation, Women's Lib says that if "Mister" gives no clue to a man's matrimonial condition, wrhy should not women be permitted the same noncommital label? The argument has a certain validity, particularly if you're a legally married lady on the prowl. But proof that confusion beclouds this latest edict from the liberation front is found in the oddly addressed envelopes we're all getting these days, i.e., Ms. John Doe. One of the criticisms leveled against Women's Lib is that it tries too hard to be unwomanly.

It is also charged with a lack of humor. But there's something en jf INI If pNPM WASHINGTON. A fortnight ago, David Frost, a television personality, took some 60 of his friends to Bermuda for lunch. More recently, art dealer Reese Palley defrosted David by -flying 737 of his intimate chums to Paris for a weekend. Frost's junket, attended by such luminaries as former Cleveland mayor Carl B.

Stokes, chess champ Bobby Fischer, writer James A. Michener and sometime economist John Kenneth Galbraith, probably didn't set him back more than about $12,000 and he fcan write it off his income tax-anyway. That Frost should wish to stuff his guests with lobster and veal po-jarsky before hurrying off to Bangladesh to interview Sheik Mujibur Rahman, whose people are dying of hunger, is largely a matter of the entertainer's own sense of values and propriety, if any. Palley's party cost an estimated $250,000, including $150,000 for the charter of two Boeing 747s, $50,000 for hotel rooms (guests paid for their own food) and $50,000 for entertainment, all of which would have kept a good many Bengalis in rice for a while. But Palley's trip also is tax-deductible he's opening a gallery in Paris and, in any event, he regards the whole thing as just "a new way of merchandising." There is, of cours, nothing new about the public extravagance of the nouveaux Passengers on One of Two Jets Chartered by Reese Palley $250,000 party was just a.

"new way of merchandising" The only thing to remember about the rich is never to take them seriously, which is to say at their own value. For -as Ernest Hemingway once remarked to Scott Fitzgerald, there is only one difference between wealthy people and the rest of us: They have more money. And while it is true that money can't buy happiness, most of those who in their lives have been both poor and rich are prepared to admit that the latter state, with all its problems, is infinitely preferable to the former, despite all that business of the camel and the eye of a wit of man has yet to produce a political or economic system free of disparities. The Soviet Union has its pawpered bureaucrats with their dachas, automobiles and Black Sea vacations just as imperial Russia had its oligarchs; only the route to material possessions, not the fact of them, has changed. Perhaps that is the way it should be.

Perhaps we need the nouveaux riches to provide us with comic relief and the riches to encourage the arts. Perhaps we need to be able to believe that there is always the chance, no matter how slim, that our ship will come in,.