Vietnam Appeal By U Thant

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31030, 9 April 1966, Page 15

Vietnam Appeal By U Thant

(New Zealand Press Association) NEW YORK, April 8. The United Nations SecretaryGeneral, U Thant, has appealed for a unified, independent and non-aligned Vietnam guaranteed by the big powers, including China and the United States.

The two sides in the Vietnam war, be said, “are speaking two different languages,” and he did not see “any immediate prospect of a reconciliation of viewpoints.” Regarding political unrest and demonstrations in Vietnam against the Government of General Ky, U Thant said: “I think one lesson we can draw from the Vietnamese crisis, and for that matter from developments in many parts of the world today, is the fact that nationalism is still the most potent force in the life of a people. “Whether you assess the

situation in Vietnam or Syria, Ghana or Indonesia, or elsewhere, I think historians may draw one conclusion: that nationalism, more than any political belief or political ideology or political conviction, is the most potent force in the life of a people. This applies equally to Africa or to Latin America, or even to Europe. “Man is essentially an economic animal, and only secondarily is he a political animal. I think this basic fact must be understood in any approach to the problems of the newly independent countries.

“I should like to make one further observation. After 25 years of war and strife and struggle, no people in the world wants peace more, and deserves peace more, than the people of Vietnam.”