Bundy Encouraged About Vietnam

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31321, 17 March 1967, Page 5

Bundy Encouraged About Vietnam

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright) KUALA LUMPUR, March 15. The United States Assistant Secretary of State for South-east Asia, Mr William P. Bundy, said today that the military situation in Vietnam showed a clear improvement.

Mr Bundy, who visited South Vietnam for four days on his tour of the Far East said in Kuala Lumpur: “I came away with a more encouraging feeling than I have had on any previous visit.” He told a press conference: “On the military side things are going much better.” Politically, there was a remarkable degree of progress in the Saigon Government’s efforts to introduce a new constitution and he found confidence and the capacity to carry this through. “This does not mean the other side is not tough or is fading away,” he said. “It is a question of when

they come to realise this is not going to work.” Mr Bundy said Hanoi had not put out any serious peace feelers but only started a propaganda campaign to stop American bombing of North Vietnam “in return for vaguely worded promises to talk in some fashion about something.” The United States had learnt its lesson in South Korea, where, he said, the Communist side exploited armistice negotiations to gain a military advantage. “The war went on for two years after that, and we had more casualties after than before,” he said.