American Counter-Offensive Expected Soon

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30477, 26 June 1964, Page 11

American Counter-Offensive Expected Soon

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, June 25.

The United States is speeding up planning for strikes by the South Vietnamese Air Force against Communist supply bases in Laos and North Vietnam and infiltration routes leading from Laos. Also being considered is the use of America’s overwhelming advantage in air power before committing any United States ground combat troops in Southeast Asia.

The “escalation” of U.S. pressures against the Communists may come into play if the North Vietnamese and Communist Chinese persist in pushing insurgency in South Vietnam and Laos. U.S. officials also are considering sending another 500 to 600 of the Army’s anti-guerrilla special forces to South Vietnam.

General M. D. Taylor’s appointment as United States Ambassador to South Vietnam is the most dramatic signal yet to China that America is determined to check the spread of communism in South-east Asia at all costs.

It underlined American commitments to preserve the independence of Laos, Thailand, and South Vietnam, and it emphasised that Washington was not speaking idly when it warned that further Communist advances may lead to war in Asia. General P. D. Harkins, the retiring United States military commander in South Vietnam, told President Johnson yesterday that the war against the Viet Cong was being won and that final victory would come with “time and patience.” The President awarded him his third distinguished ser-

vice medal, the Army’s highest non-combat award. General Harkins said the new government of General Nguyen Khahn, the Prime Minister, was beginning to take hold and programmes which the United States had helped him to devise were beginning to show results. “We have a good base, the Government has the initiative, I think there is determination and will,” he declared. “All we need now is time and patience.” A Democratic Senator, Mr Wayne Morse, has told the Senate the United States is headed for a major war in Asia where “thousands of American boys will die.” He said he had just come from a briefing on the military situation in South Vietnam held by the Secretary of Defence, Mr Robert McNamara, and the joint chiefs of staff. “If the United States continues following the course indicated by this briefing, we are headed for a major war in Asia,” he said. “We will be hated for 500 years and we will be known as the nation that was chiefly responsible for scuttling the United Nations.

“The greatest threat to the peace of the world is the United States.” Senator Morse said the situation in South Vietnam should be put before the United Nations. President Johnson reached over the heads of all the Army’s four-star generals to pick two comparatively young lieutenant-generals to head the Army. As chief of staff, succeeding General E. G. Wheeler, who becomes chairman of the joint chiefs, the President selected Lieutenant-General H. K. Johnson, who was thirty-second in rank on the Army’s list of general officers. He is 52. As vice-chief of staff, the President chose 49-year-old Lieutenant-General C. W. Abrams, a tank officer, thirty-fourth on the Army list.