WILSON ON VIETNAM

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31093, 23 June 1966, Page 13

WILSON ON VIETNAM

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, June 22. Mr Wilson said today the Vietnam war would never end in a military victory. Replying to questions in Parliament about his forthcoming visit to see President Johnson in the United States, he said there had to be a political solution. One member of the Leftwing of the Labour Party, Mr David Winnick, said the British people had no stomach for “this colonial war the Americans are engaged in.” And another, Mr Michael Foot, said Britons were opposed to the “barbarism resorted to by our American allies.” 1954 Agreements

Mr Wilson said the problems would certainly not be solved by policies which simply represented a victory for communism “and there would not be a victory for the other side either.” “It has got to be settled by a political solution by all the parties coming to the confence table,” he said. “Then let us get to Geneva and get a political settlement within the ambit of the 1954 agreements.” Both Sides As for Mr Foot’s charges of “barbarism” which includes the bombing of North Vietnam, Mr Wilson said: “I am afraid all modern war involves barbarism.

“So far as the Vietnam war is concerned, I have said many times there is a great deal of atrocities committed on both sides. Therefore the only answer is to get the war i ended.”

■ The Prime Minister went on: “I do not think we will do very much in the way of civilising a war of this kind.

“Certainly, the matters of which you complain—and 1 know you would be equally condemnatory of methods used by the other side, such as infiltration by North Vietnamese troops—are inevitable

in the conditions of this war.” Continued Support Another Labour Left-wing-er, a former Australian, Mrs Anne Kerr, said large sections of the British public were utterly sick at heart at the British Government’s continued support of American policy in Vietnam.

She urged the Prime Minister to make it clear that the only people carrying out

bombing raids in Vietnam were the Americans. Mr Wilson said he thought the great mass of the British public agreed with the government that what was wanted was an end to “this ghastly war.” The British Government was opposed to the bombing of cities like Hanoi and Haiphon in North Vietnam.