BOMBING NORTH ‘ESSENTIAL’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31278, 26 January 1967, Page 11

BOMBING NORTH ‘ESSENTIAL’

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SAIGON, January 25. The former United States Ambassador to Vietnam, General Maxwell Taylor, said today continued bombing of the North was essential to American war strategy, but that there was no military necessity for a ground invasion.

He said troop levels in Vietnam—where the United States now has 400,000 men—would be determined by Communist infiltration from the North and Viet Cong activities. “The ceiling will be placed by the requirement,” General Taylor said. “When Hanoi stops, wc’U stop, he said of the bombing of the north. “While it has not been decisive it certainly makes a substantial contribution to the over-all effect.” Report For Johnson

General Taylor headed back to Washington today with a report for President Johnson on the progress of the war. He used the word “exhilirating" in describing to reporters the political progress of the war-torn country. On the battlefield, he said, initiative had passed to the South Vietnamese and allied forces. General Taylor, who left Vietnam 18 months ago and is now serving as a personal adviser to President Johnson spoke to reporters at the end of a five-day inspection visit which included discussions with all top officials and quick trips in the field to talk to troop commanders. The former Ambassador said he foresaw no change in Hanoi’s refusal to negotiate an end to the war but added

that he expected no such outward sign. He recalled the Berlin airlift crisis in which there was no sign of settlement until the very end. “Certainly this is going to end, as all types of conflicts have, by some kind of agreement,” General Taylor said. He said the agreement might come through the war just “fizzling out” as has been predicted by the Ambassador, Mr Henry Cabot Lodge—who was sitting beside him at the airport news conference.