Tougher U.S. Policy Seen

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31145, 23 August 1966, Page 18

Tougher U.S. Policy Seen

The belief that United States policy was likely to become tougher in Vietnam as a result of public pressure to follow a definite policy and end the conflict, was expressed in Christchurch yesterday by Mr R. Gostick, editor of “The Canadian Intelligence Service.”

He said that the approach of the Congressional elections was another factor which woud lend weight to the need for a determined policy to end the war. Mr Gostick is on a lecture tour of New Zealand in which he will address public meetings and organisations in the main centres on communism. “The Canadian Intelligence Service” is a monthly publication with a circulation of 10,000. It deals with communism, the defence of the Crown and the British Constitution, and other national and international affairs. Mr Gostick said the publication was closely associated with the Christian Action Movement in Canada. He said he had been asked the same questions in New Zealand as were being asked in North America. People wanted to know what United States policy was in Vietnam, whether the war was going to drag on indefinitely or as the policy one of “win and get out.” He said the United States bad taken a much firmer stand in the last year. “Public opinion generally in the United States is for

a much stronger line to be taken than has been pursued in the past,” Mr Gostick said. “With the Congressional elections coming up I think President Johnson realises 'he has got to win or else. . . . “United States casualties in Vietnam are fairly heavy now. If no firm policy is adopted, the Democratic Party is going to lose a lot of votes. In the past, all that has been done is to show enough strength to keep the Viet Cong off. This is not sufficient. “The Communists are using Lenin’s idea of a second front against the free world quite successfully. There are engagements in the field at times but all the time they are working in the other fellow’s camp causing confusion and dissension and weakening the will to resist. They have got the world fairly well divided and confused.” Mr Gostick said he believed the United States was making a mistake in refusing to call the action in Vietnam a war. They called it everything but a war. “If they called it a war agitators in the university campus would have to shut up or be in trouble. As it is, the Communists still have freedom to organise and subvert and carry on their game. “If the war was called a war it would reduce the opposition to a very small proportion. “Unless those countries which stand for freedom and democratic government stand closely together and meet communism together it is going to be too bad for all of us. I think victory in Vietnam could be the start of victory for the free world. “If the war goes the other

way and we lose, communism will roll a lot closer to Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It is better to stop communism in South-east Asia than to have to fight it in our own backyards,” Mr Gostick said.