Warning In Hawaii Of Long Vietnam War

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30979, 8 February 1966, Page 17

Warning In Hawaii Of Long Vietnam War

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) HONOLULU, February 7. President Johnson and top South Vietnamese leaders prepared today for vital talks on the Vietnam conflict, as the United States commander in Vietnam warned: “We must be prepared for a long war.” Political and military leaders are in Honolulu to take part in a conference called by President Johnson to review the Vietnam situation.

The South Vietnamese Chief of State, Nguyen Van Thieu, and the Prime Minister, General Nguyen Cao Ky, arrived this afternoon and were welcomed by President Johnson.

The United States military commander. General William Westmoreland, warned today that the United States must be prepared for a long war. “We cannot expect the enemy to be defeated in a single battle or a series of battles,” he told a press conference. Asked how the war was going. General Westmoreland said: “I am very optimistic at this time.”

He said South Vietnamese morale was good, enemy losses high and defections quadrupled. President Johnson said when he welcomed the South Vietnamese leaders that the United States must stand firm in Vietnam or risk a new battle with communism elsewhere. “Special Pleaders” The President firmly underlined the United States commitment to South Vietnam and. at the same time, lashed out at critics whom he described as "special pleaders who counsel retreat in Vietnam.

“If we allow the Communists to win in Vietnam, it will become easier and more appetising for them to take over other countries in other parts of the world,” he said. “We will have to fight again some place eke—-at what cost no-one knows.

"That is why it is vitally important to every American family that we top the Communists in Vietnam.” The President said of the “special pleaders”: They belong to a group that has always been blind to experience and deaf to hope. “We cannot accept their logic that tyranny 10.000 miles away is not tyranny to concern us—or that subjugation

by armed minority in Asia is different from subjugation by an armed minority in Europe."

President Johnson, in a reference to rural pacification programmes, which will be one of the chief topics at the conference, told his visitors: “We are making reality out of the hopes of the common people, hope for a better life.” On the eve of the opening session, American officials said that nothing of any great military importance should be expected from the conference. The emphasis on the American side would be on boosting economic and social assistance to South Vietnam’s rural reconstruction programme designed to win the political war against the Viet Cong.

Vietnamese sources hinted, however, that General Thieu and General Ky intended to ask for more United States troops, for a blockade of Haiphong, and for increased bombing of North Vietnam. President Johnson and General Thieu will preside at the first plenary session opening at 8 a.m. New Zealand time on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, Admiral Ulysses S. G. Grant. There will be a series of working sessions in the afternoon. Rusk’s Part These will include a political group headed by Mr Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, and the Foreign Minister. Dr.

"ran Van Do. Others concern riral reconstruction, econotn--i's and stability and health and education. I President Johnson will give Is working dinner at night and liere will be a final plenary session on Tuesday morning fallowed by a joint communique.