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 Hanoi replied through a editorial on 27 September. Goldberg's questions were called "insolent and ridiculous, If the issue of whether Hanoi "would or should" enter into negotiations if bombing were halted was not clarified. North Vietnam repeated demands for U.S. withdrawal and recognition of the NLF as sole genuine representative of the Vietnamese people.

CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PAUL MARTIN made a public appeal for a cessation of bombing in his 27 September speech to the General Assembly because, according to Prime Minister Pearson, Canada thinks "this is an essential first step to negotiations" to end the war in Vietnam. Pearson added that the speech did not represent "any big change" in policy, cited his call for a bombing halt of two years ago, his government's continuous effort to bring about the cessation of bombing and commencement of negotiations and said, "there comes a time when we must say in public what we've been saying in private." The bombing halt, lined to a reinstatement of the "intended status" of the demilitarized zone (subject to international supervision), was the first of Canada's four steps-toward-peace proposal. Subsequent steps would include: freezing military operations and capabilities at existing levels; a cease-fire; finally, withdrawal of outside forces whose presence in the area is not permitted under the 1954 Geneva Accords and dismantling of all military bases. Rh