January 5, 1968

N Vietnamese diplomatic mission in Paris repeats Hanoi's offer to talk with US about 'relevant problems' provided US 1st unconditionally stops bombing and all other acts of war against N Vietnam, statement; says member of mission confirmed to Redmont Nguyen Duy Trinh statement, but that rest of Redmont int is 'pure invention'; French officials say gap between US and N Vietnamese positions has narrowed recently; text of N Vietnamese mission statement; N Vietnam asks Laos, Cambodia and Burma if their capitals are available for preliminary peace talks; Western diplomats discount repts on Laos as site; S Vietnamese lower House rejects idea of coalition govt or formal talks with Natl Liberation Front (NLF); Tran Van Do says he had no contact with NLF reprs during African tour; S Vietnamese officials say N Vietnam told Indonesia of peace talks offer; GB views N Vietnamese statement on peace talks as shift

Johnson Adm launches new program to encourage business to hire hard-core jobless; lrs sent to 400 employers in 5 test cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Antonio, Washington) offering Fed manpower funds for recruiting and training disadvantaged to cos that guarantee jobs to trainees; $35- to $45-million reptdly would be available for program, with avg cost per worker put at about $3,000; program, developed jointly by Labor and Commerce Depts, will require cos to pay workers during training and keep them on jobs after training; contracts to run for 15 mos, with cos given 'incentive' payments after 21 mos to compensate for added cost of employing workers with low productivity; W E Zisch, who heads Commerce Dept program, puts training cost at $5,000 per worker

Rusk defends Adm proposals to cut foreign travel on grounds that tourists must 'share burden' in correcting internatl payments deficit, news conf; links unexpectedly rapid rise in tourism in '67; notes Amer tourists spent $4-billion abroad, '67, while foreign tourists spent only $2-billion in US; Commerce Dept repts $600-million rise in foreign travel spending, '67; Sens Javits and Gore oppose tax, holding it falls heaviest on 'school-teacher' traveler; Javits calls for measures to promote foreign travel to US; Eur Travel Comm takes same stand; Hong Kong travel agents group holds discouraging travel to Hong Kong would have little effect on payments balance

Defense Dept sources rept US arms sales abroad to total at least $4.5-billion to $4.6-billion during fiscal '68 and next 2 fiscal yrs; sales to be mostly to NATO and will help solve balance-of-payments problem; some purchases by specific countries discussed

Hosps Dept repts several voluntary hosps on Jan 1 ended 'gentlemen's agreement' to hold nurses salaries to maximum $200 a yr more than $6,400 paid to nurses in munic hosps; Comr Terenzio lauds move to raise pay but sees devastating effect on munic hosps recruitment and staffing efforts; voluntary hosps deny pact but admit consensus to raise salaries had been reached