‘War May Last Long Time’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31111, 14 July 1966, Page 15

‘War May Last Long Time’

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, July 13. President Johnson last night held out to China the prospect of eventual reconciliation, but emphasised that the war in Vietnam may last a long time. White House officials described the President’s speech as his first major statement on China. In it, they said, the President sought to look beyond the immediate conflict in Vietnam to the situation that could emerge in Asia after the war ends.

The President’s statement on the longrange attitude of the United States toward China was essentially a reiteration of what other Administration officials, such as the Secretary of State (Mr Dean Rusk), and the Vice - President (Mr Hubert Humphrey), have been saying recently.

And both the President in his speech, and Mr Rusk at a news conference earlier in the day, sought to counteract what the Administration regards as excessively optimistic interpretations in the newspapers of recent statements by Administration officials on how the war is going. Administration officials have been saying that Hanoi knows that it cannot win the military conflict, citing reports received through diplomatic channels. “One can be encouraged without believing that the war is over,” Mr Rusk said at his news conference. Not Over Hump “We are not over the hump yet,” he declared. “We haven’t begun to see the end of this thing. There has not been the necessary decision on the other side.” He said that on his recent trip through Asia, he had found no indication or belief that Hanoi had decided to give up military action or to negotiate. President Johnson, in his address to a convention, discussed the question of China and listed four essentials for peace in Asia. His fourth point was “reconciliation between nations that now call themselves enemies.”

“A peaceful mainland China is central to a peaceful Asia,” he said. “A hostile China must be discouraged from aggression. A misguided China must be encouraged towards understanding of the outside world and towards policies of peaceful co-opera-tion.” Saying that lasting peace

could not come to Asia while the people of China were isolated by their rulers from the outside world, President Johnson said that efforts by the United States to persuade Peking to admit American newspapermen, scholars and medical specialists have been rejected. “We persist because we believe that even the most rigid societies will one day awaken to the rich possibilities of a diverse world,” he said. “And we persist because we believe that co-operation, not hostility, is the way of the future. “That day is not yet here. It may be long in coming, but it is clearly on its way. And come it must,” he said. Durable Bonds The peace the United States sought in Asia was “a peace of conciliation, between Communist States and their nonCommunist neighbours, between rich nations and poor, between small nations and large, between men whose skins are brown and black and yellow and white, between Hindus and Moslems and Buddhists and Christians,” he said. “It is a peace that can be sustained only through the durable bonds of peace,” he continued, “through international trade, through the free flow of people and ideas, through full participation by all nations in an international

community under law, and through a common dedication to the great tasks of human progress and economic development.” The three other essentials listed by President Johnson as necessary for such a peace were:

The determination of the United States to meet its obligations in Asia as a Pacific power. To prove to aggressive nations that the use of force to conquer others “is a losing game.” The building of political and economic strength among the nations of free Asia. On the question of aggression, the President said: “As long as the leaders of North Vietnam believe that they can take over the people of South Vietnam by force we must not let them succeed.” He added: “We are fighting a war of determination. It may last a long time, but we must keep on until the Communists in. North Vietnam realise that the price of aggression is too high—and either agree to a peaceful settlement or to end the fighting.” Addressing Hanoi directly, President Johnson told the Communist leaders that military victory for them was “out of the question” and that when they turned from the use of force, they would “find us ready to reciprocate.”