President Confident Of Vietnam Victory

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30981, 10 February 1966, Page 13

President Confident Of Vietnam Victory

(N .Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) LOS ANGELES, February 9. President Johnson flew to Los Angeles last night to wish VicePresident Hubert H. Humphrey godspeed on a mission to Asia and said the road to victory in Vietnam may be long and difficult but “we shall prevail,” the Associated Press reported.

Mr Johnson, who conferred for three days in Honolulu with top leaders of South Vietnam, said in remarks prepared for an airport meeting with Mr I lumphrey, “I come back to the mainland refreshed and confident.”

The President said Mr Humphrey would press for rapid implementation in South ietnam of a political and social reform programme which the President said must go hand in hand with militarv' action. He said the VicePresident later would stop in other capitals “to explain what was done at Honolulu and its meaning and to ask for the support of others.” The President said that. both the United States and South Vietnam understand “’that the war we are helping them fight must be won on two fronts." General Matters He said one front is mili-! tary and the other is "the straggle against social injustice. against hunger, disease and ignorance, against politi - cal apathy and indifference." He said the youthful Vietnamese leaders with whom he conferred in Honolulu know “this revolutionarytransformation cannot wait until the guns grow silent and terrorism stops.” He reported that participants at the Honolulu meet-

;ing talked of such matters J specific as agricultural credit, rural electrification, more schools and clinics, antiinflation measures and fertilisers for crops. i Mr Johnson said they talked also of “how to seek, the peace, of how to conduct the war.” He said that concrete targets were set in all these fields and added: “Progress will not be easy; in some fields it will not be quick. But the leaders of both ■W

governments are determined that we shall move forward.” The President said: “We shall meet again in the months ahead to measure the progress." In concluding, Mr Johnson said: “The road ahead may

be long and difficult. But we shall fight the battle against aggression in Vietnam; we shall fight the battle for social construction: and, throughout the world we shall fight the battle for peace. And we shall prevail.”