Conduct Of War Attacked

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31319, 15 March 1967, Page 14

Conduct Of War Attacked

Recent events have underlined the fact that America and its allies are conducting the war in Vietnam without morality and without sense, says a statement prepared by the Christchurch Joint Council on Vietnam.

“As for morality, the recent escalation of United States attacks on North Vietnam have made a mockery of the claim that only military targets are being destroyed. Not only are industrial complexes with large civilian work forces now defined as military targets but the United States planes are mining rivers in North Vietnam. Mines are indiscriminate weapons; they explode against civilian craft as readily as against military ones.

“Recent United States mistakes reveal much. When American planes bombed a South Vietnamese village friendly to Saigon, they

levelled virtually the entire village. While the village was hit by mistake, no-one claimed that what was done to it was a mistake. Any village that contains a few Viet Cong finds its entire population under attack. “On the other hand, the United States and the New Zealand Governments claim that the Viet Cong have no popular support, and gain cooperation from peasants by

terror, and then, these ‘terrorised’ peasants are slaughtered as if they were enemy troops. If the Government believes its own statements, this is a slaughter of innocents.

“We will be asked, no doubt why we don’t condemn the assassination of village headmen by the Viet Cong or terrorist attacks in Saigon. In fact we condemn them with horror. But none of us ex-

pected the West to improve on individual assassination by mass extermination and few of us expected the New Zealand Government to endorse such tactics by sending troops to Vietnam.

“As for lack of sense, there is still the talk of wanting our opponents to negotiate while offering them terms no better than surrender. Marshal Ky has made it clear, both while in New Zealand and since his return to Saigon, that the Manila communique means this: not only North Vietnamese troops but the most active of the southern-born Viet Cong must retreat to the North, their supporters must surrender and become Marshal Ky’s subjects; and then and only then, will he agree to the withdrawal of United States troops. “We lament the fact that the Viet Cong stubbornly claim to represent all the people of South Vietnam. But certainly, since most of those fighting with them are from the south, they represent a sizeable part of the population. To pretend they represent no one, to escalate the war while refusing to negotiate directly with the Viet Cong, is to forego any hope of negotation in favour of a policy of military victory.

“It is this escalation and this policy that the New Zealand Government has endorsed by sending more troops to Vietnam,” says the statement.