"Any Reasonable Solution To War”

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 1

"Any Reasonable Solution To War”

The United States had reached the point where it would accept any reasonable solution to the Vietnam problem, said Mr E. D. Canham, editor-in-chief of the “Christian Science Monitor,” in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Canham is a former alternate American delegate tc the United Nations General Assembly, and a director of the World Peace Foundation.

He is in New Zealand in the course of a world lecture tour for the Christian Science Church.

Mr Canham said that by solution to the Vietnam war, he meant one which would ensure that the people of Vietnam had the right of choice. He believed, however, that the way to get the adversary to the peace table was through strength, not weakness. AH three Powers—the United States, Russia and China—were being very cautious, and some day Vietnam would achieve peace. Mr Canham said there was a large number of persons in the United States who dissented from President Johnson’s Vietnam policy, but there would not be more than 20 per cent of the population opposed to it. “Everyone in the country

is concerned about the problem,” he said, “and everyone wants to see it straightened out. Most people support the President, because that’s what you do in a war situation. “The 20 per cent who are opposed to his policy are often very vocal. The Senate leaders, who dissent are important leaders of the President’s party, but they are not so specific when they are asked what they would do instead. There is not a large and deep division.” Mr Canham said he could see no other solution to Vietnam than that now being attempted. There was a point in the mid-1950s when the United States should have reconsidered, but hindsight was always so much sharper than foresight. “If we could have had a Tito-like state where the antiCommunists in Vietnam were

not in danger of being massacred, that would have been a solution,” he said. “As it is, there would be a bloodbath if the Viet Cong were allowed control. “Our presence in Vietnam now is a barricade against the further spread of communism in South-east Asia.” Mr Canham said he saw the present war as a holding operation. “We are now ready to stay on the dividing line as we did in Korea,” he said. “This should be acceptable to the North. It implies the prevention of a blood-bath. It would work if there were an international constabulary—say an Asian force—to keep order and preserve peace and allow Vietnam to build up its nation.” Mr Canham’s lecture tour is one of the major events marking the hundredth anniversary of Christian Science.