Debate On Bombing; Johnson To Respond

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31315, 10 March 1967, Page 13

Debate On Bombing; Johnson To Respond

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 9. President Johnson is expected today to try to quieten a sharpening debate on whether the United States should halt bombing over North Vietnam in a bid to bring about peace talks.

The President has called a White House press conference and will almost certainly be asked about the proposal advanced by Senator Robert Kennedy for a bombing suspension and a test of Communist sincerity by saying the United States would be ready to negotiate within a week.

The Administration has already said it did not see anything new in the Senator’s proposal and that previous United States bombing pauses had encountered only hostile actions in response. Last night the White House acted swiftly to deny a charge by one of President Kennedy’s top advisers that the Johnson Administration does not want peace talks with Hanoi at present.

The White House spokesman said last night that President Johnson and his leading advisers had made it perfectly clear that the United States was prepared to negotiate an end of the Vietnam war.

The charge was made at a press conference earlier yesterday by Mr Arthur Schlesinger, a well-known liberal and historian and a former adviser to both President Kennedy and President Johnson.

Mr Schlesinger said: “Why else, unless it wished to avoid negotiation now, would the Administration have hardened its terms, demanding today from Hanoi what it did not demand a year ago?” Steady Support Since Senator Kennedy launched his call for a bombing halt in a Senate speech last Thursday there has been a steady outpouring of support from those close to him, such as his brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, widely-read columnists such as Walter Lippmann and Joseph Kraft and now Mr Schlesinger, who was speaking in his capacity of vice-chairman of the Left-of-Centre Americans or Democratic Action.

Other well-known “doves” such as Senator J. William Fulbright have also joined in.

Kennedy Plan

The Kennedy plan elicited an answer within hours from the Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk; and the President may now want to add his own weight to the Administration’s side of the argument and also to stop the growing split on Vietnam policy in his Democratic Party, possibly with an appeal for patriotic support Nearly all the attacks on the President’s policy have come from Democrats.

The Republicans largely are behind him.