Rusk Believed To Warn Of War With China Soon

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 15

Rusk Believed To Warn Of War With China Soon

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 27.

The American Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk, had in elTect warned that it was possible the United States would be at war with China by the end of the year, or soon after, “The Tinies” said todav.

He gave the warning to members of the Administration who wanted to enlarge the war in Vietnam, the newspaper’s Washington correspondent said. The time was at hand for President Johnson to decide future American policy in the war.

“With the war going badly and a state of siege in Saigon the growing consensus is that something must be done before the country collapses like an old tent upon the hel mets of the 20.000 American advisers,” the correspondent said.

The assumption that the aggressive measures proposed to teach North Vietnam a lesson would not provoke China w r ere questionable, to say the least.

The correspondent said President Johnson would not willingly embark upon a course that could extend the conflict outside South-east Asia and perhaps help to resolve the Chinese-Soviet dis-

pute. But he was under considerable compulsion to do anything that might prevent complete collapse in South Vietnam.

The correspondent said Mr Rusk and other senior advisers concluded that American intervention in North Vietnam could invite war with China. But for other senior advisers the powerful arguments . gainst extending the conflict were largely irrelevant to the present situation.

They claimed only stern emergency measures could prevent, an early collapse in South Vietnam and the eventual surrender of all Southeast Asia to China.

“Negotiation finds small favour because of the belief that any dealings with China would be fruitless,” the correspondent said. “The view is that talks would be no alternative to defeat or war, but a shameful preliminary for a Communist takeover of South Vietnam.”