‘lnvade North To End War’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 17

‘lnvade North To End War’

(NX Press Association—Copyright) SAIGON, July 27. The South Vietnamese Premier, Nguyen Gao Ky, said today that the quickest way to end the war is to invade North Vietnam and “destroy the Communists in their sanctuary.”

The only other way to win the war in Vietnam, he said, would be to wait for the North Vietnamese people to overthrow their Communist regime and this might take five to 15 years.

Premier Ky was answering questions at a news conference. His mention of an invasion of North Vietnam followed similar remarks made in a magazine interview in which he raised the prospect of expanding the war to China. “The Vietnamese are ready to carry on the struggle for another 20 years,” said Premier Ky. “But if the allies are not patient, then we have to destroy the Communists in their sanctuary,” he said.

“I won’t say there is no desire to invade North Vietnam,” he went on. “I’m saying that bandits must be punished, and this punishment can’t be limited. The North Vietnamese should be destroyed in their own sanctuary.” Flanked at a long table by his President, Deputy Premier and Cabinet Ministers, Premier Ky replied quietly and evenly to reporters’ ques-

tions in a government press bureau conference room. Asked what should be done if Hanoi decides to put captured United States airmen on trial for “war crimes,” the Premier said: “Strong measures must be taken to stop this cold-blood-ed murder.” As for retaliation for any such trials, he said: “We don’t necessarily have to limit ourselves to bombing Hanoi and Haiphong. “Most of the people have already been evacuated from those cities. There are a myriad of other ways we can strike back.” He did not detail the other possible retaliatory measures.

‘World Conquest’ The Premier said he did not believe that China would enter the war at present. “But Chinese or North Vietnamese, they are Communists just the same and they’ll carry on the policy of international communism—world conquest. "If not today, they (the Chinese Communists) will enter the war in South Vietnam or elsewhere in South-east Aasia in five years. “Then the entire free world will have to take action,” Premier Ky said. Earlier, Lieutenant-General Nguyen Huu Co, DeputyPrime Minister and Defence Minister, gave an optimistic

review of the state of the war, claiming that South Vietnamese and foreign allied troops had disrupted every major campaign planned by the Viet Cong this year. Since the beginning of 1966, he said, the allies had confirmed killing 30,141 guerrillas. About 60,000 more had been killed or wounded and carried off by their comrades; 4200 had been captured. This was five times the allied casualty rate, he said. The enemy now had about 300,000 armed men in South Vietnam, General Co claimed. North Vietnam was reinforcing them at the rate of about 5000 to 6000 men a month. Six hundred trucks were being used to ferry the men and some 200 tons of supplies a day along the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos, he said.