198,000 Troops In S. Vietnam Army

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30592, 7 November 1964, Page 16

198,000 Troops In S. Vietnam Army

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 6. The assistance being given to South Vietnam by the United States was “easily the most effective assistance” being given by any country outside the area in the defence of South Vietnam, the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) said in Parliament today.

“I don’t know how the South Vietnamese would defend themselves without this,” he said. However, the Prime Minister refused to agree with Opposition questioners that United States aid was the

“greatest single contribution” to the defence of the area. “The greatest contribution is being made by the South Vietnamese themselves," he said. The South Vietnamese army comprised 198,000 men. with about the same number in civil and local defence corps. The American military contribution fluctuated between 16,000 and 20,000 men. The Americans were restricted to an advisory and support role, Mr Holyoake said. In reply to other questions, Mr Holyoake said he knew over 50 per cent of the South Vietnamese budget went on defence. Mr Holyoake had orginally been asked by Mr D. S. Thomson (Govt., Stratford) whether comments attributed to the former Labour Prime Minister (Mr Nash) that “South Vietnam was now being defended almost exclusively by the United States” were in accord with the views of the minister’s advisors.