The Press TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1966. North Vietnam’s Threat

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31121, 26 July 1966, Page 16

The Press TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1966. North Vietnam’s Threat

Wars progress with inexorable logic; and the war in Vietnam is no exception. The sporadic clashes of a few years ago have gradually extended, step by dangerous step, to the committal of more than 200,000 American troops, the overt use of North Vietnamese regulars, and the bombing of oil installations perilously close to Hanoi and Haiphong. But North Vietnam's threat to try captured American airmen as war criminals is more than another small step along the path to total war. It would be a giant stride towards annihilation and certain defeat As President Johnson has said, accusations (before any trial) that the airmen are war criminals are “deplorable “ and repulsive ”. The threat is so fraught with dangers, not only for the people of North Vietnam, but also for the world, that debate on the legalities is scarcely even of academic interest In fad, the 1929 Geneva Convention on prisoners of war, which was revised in 1949 to increase the protection of prisoners in enemy hands, does apply when hostilities have not been preceded by a declaration of war. Even if, as North Vietnam claims, the struggle in Vietnam is a civil war, the convention lays down that those captured should be treated humanely. North Vietnam is a signatory to the convention. Breaches of the convention have been documented by both sides in this bitter wan but “ escalation ” of reprisals on the scale threatened by North Vietnam would be a suicidal step. President Johnson has answered the threat with commendable restraint in the hope that Hanoi may the more easily withdraw. But it would be unwise to read into the President’s remarks any irresolution. Retaliation would be swift, certain, and terrible. It might bring China to North Vietnam's aid and the world to the brink of war.

But there are hopeful signs. The threat has been made only by North Vietnamese diplomats in Peking and Prague and not yet in Hanoi. It may remain only a threat to allay growing anger and despair among the unfortunate victims of American air raids in North Vietnam. It could not but serve to unite divided American opinion on the prosecution of the war—a division Hanoi has been eager to exploit. It may be regarded, too, as an act of desperation in the face of superior American power and, as such, a sure indication of Hanoi’s weariness with a war it cannot now win. A crisis, such as this threat has provoked, is not an unusual prelude to the settlement of seemingly insoluble problems.