GREAT SOCIETY AND VIETNAM

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 9

GREAT SOCIETY AND VIETNAM

Johnson’s Home And Foreign Aims (N.Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 13. President Johnson coupled a new peace appeal last night with a pledge to fight on in Vietnam “as long as aggression commands us to battle” —supported by a record 112.8 thousand million dollar Budget devoid of any general tax increase.

In his State of the Union address to Congress he emphasised his continuing drive to bring Hanoi to the conference table to negotiate a settlement of the Vietnam war.

He reported that “so far we have received no response (from Hanoi) to prove either success or failure” of the peace effort.

To the cheers of the assembled senators and representatives, he said that there were no arbitrary limits to the United States search for peace.

Signifying bis own lack of knowledge of what the Communist side might do, the President said he could not predict what the future might require. Whatever Cost

If peace did not come, he said, the United States would stay in Vietnam “whatever the cost and whatever the challenge.

“We will act as we must to help protect the independence of the valiant people of South Vietnam,” he said. “We will strive to limit conflict, for we wish neither increased destruction nor increased danger. “But we will give our fighting men what they must have: every gun, every dollar, and every decision —whatever the cost and whatever the challenge.” The President summed up his thinking on Vietnam in the words: “. . . We do what we must.

“I am hopeful, and I will try, to end this battle and return our sons to their desires. ‘We Must Stand’ “Yet as long as others will challenge our security and test the dearness of our beliefs with fire and steel, then we must stand or see the promise of two centuries tremble. 1 believe you do not want me to try that risk. And from that belief your President summons his strength for the trials ahead.

"The work must be our work now, scarred by the weaknesses of man, with whatever guidance God may offer us, we must nevertheless and alone with our morality, strive to enable the life of man on earth.”

“Let me be absolutely clear,” he added sombrely. “The days may become months, and the months may become years, but we will stay as long as aggression commands us to battle." In his foreign policy review, the President pledged anew to build bridges with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and said he would seek an expansion of trade with those countries by the removal of special tariff restrictions.

On foreign aid, he placed what officials described as a new emphasis on helping those countries which helped themselves.

He said he would give “a new and daring direction” to the foreign aid programme, and proposed to spend 1000 million dollars in the next fiscal year to fight poverty, illiteracy and hunger abroad and to help other countries

to control their population growth. The President’s anxiouslyawaited report on Vietnam did not convey anything new. Obviously he was waiting for the other side to make its move, particularly in relation to the peace offensive. Some Hints

But he did throw out some hints to the Communist side. One, that at any peace conference the United States would “consider the views of any group,” and another that “we will respond if others reduce their use of force.” He was believed to be saying that the views of the National Liberation Front, the political arm of the Viet Cong, would be heard in any settlement talks, and that if the Communist side reduced its military activity in South Vietnam there would be a favourable response from the United States even if there were no formal cease-fire. Rich Enough He described the nation as rich enough to afford to fight in Vietnam and to push ahead with the social welfare programmes of his great society. Of the total budget spending, he said 58,300 million dollars would be set aside for defence.

The President flung a direct challenge to those Congressmen who have called for cuts in the great society, asking them whether they wanted to sacrifice the sick, the poor, the uneducated. Mr Johnson reiterated the offer to negotiate on the basis of the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and 1962, and to discuss any proposals. Mr Johnson devoted much of his speech to the war in Vietnam, insistently repeating his desire for peace. Of a settlement, he said: “We seek neither territory nor bases, economic domination or military alliance in Vietnam. “We fight for the principle of self-determination —that the people of South Vietnam should be able to choose their own course, in free elections, without violence, terror and fear.

“We believe the people of all Vietnam should make a free decision on the great question of reunification.”