After The Kv Visit

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31279, 27 January 1967, Page 10

After The Kv Visit

The Government of South Vietnam expects the struggle in Vietnam to continue for a long time. Even if the military war is ended, a long period of civil reconstruction will follow. The Government is well aware that it can continue neither struggle without material help from other countries. It is now clear that Air Vice-Marshal Ky revived the invitations exchanged at the Manila conference, because he believed that by visiting New Zealand and Australia he could best convey his conviction that his Government’s policy is right, and because he believed it necessary to consolidate support for his country in the future. It must be seriously doubted whether his personal intervention has done much to further either of these objectives. From the beginning, his visit was doomed to suffer from the distractions of the discord over Vietnam and only on one occasion was he really able to achieve what he set out to do. Members of his delegation were ready to describe in detail how the Government of South Vietnam is trying to repair the Vietnamese economy, how it is taking drastic steps to control prices and to prevent black marketing, how it is enlarging the rolls for the promised elections, and, particularly, how it is trying to restore a disorganised farm economy. The presence of such a controversial leader as Air Vice-Marshal Ky inevitably overwhelmed the chances of the rest of the delegation making themselves heard.

Noisy, ill-mannered, but small, demonstrations against the visit have not furthered the cause of those who oppose the war in Vietnam. They claimed public attention to a degree out of all proportion to their importance. On one vital issue the demonstrators found themselves on common ground with Marshal Ky: he, too, dislikes the war in Vietnam. The Vietnamese delegation may have been puzzled by the placards announcing that their visit insulted New Zealand. The greater insult cast in the other direction by some Europeans in New Zealand will not go unnoticed by Asians.

When he revived the Manila invitation—no doubt an invitation extended by the New Zealand Government more out of courtesy than any special enthusiasm for a visit—Marshal Ky said he hoped to dispel misunderstandings. Drives through four cities, airport welcomes, and press conferences cleared up no misunderstandings. The one occasion of genuine importance during the entire visit was Marshal Ky’s speech in Parliament House. He reviewed the aims of his Government in Vietnam and the means by which it hoped to achieve them. The theme of this speech suggested that the Ky Government, better than any of its predecessors, has grasped the need for social revolution and not merely military resistance to counter an armed take-over of the country. It was a theme close to the ideas of the leaders of the Labour Party on civil aid. Marshal Ky had something to say about the difficulty of achieving reforms and advances in the countryside of South Vietnam. He said that the army, in deploying much of its effort to help reconstruct the countryside and to protect the lives of its people, expected to suffer more casualties than it would in a purely military role. The success of a Government in Saigon, and above all the success of an elected Government, is something the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Government will bitterly oppose. The prospect also apparently dismays many persons abroad. It remains what South Vietnam most needs short of immediate peace. Reservations abound about the nature of the Ky Government, but the Prime Minister has left more than a suspicion in New Zealand that, with continued support, he is capable of steering South Vietnam towards effective government and the restoration of peace.