Pressure To Use Nuclear Weapons

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31329, 28 March 1967, Page 18

Pressure To Use Nuclear Weapons

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, March 26.

The United States Defence Department was being urged to use nuclear weapons to attack targets in North Vietnam and to destroy tunnels used by Communist troops in South Vietnam, the “Washington Post” reported on Friday.

The newspaper did not identify those calling for the introduction of nuclear bombs in the war beyond describing them as “nuclear weapons specialists,” presumably in the Defence Department The Johnson Administration had no immediate comment on the report but officials said privately they could not see President Johnson, no matter how frustrated he was by continuing war, agreeing to take such a grave step, which could well lead to a world conflict. The “Washington Post” report from its Defence Department correspondent said the type of nuclear bomb being advocated against Communist tunnel networks housing military headquarters and supply dumps, would explode after burying itself in the ground by a secret technique. It would be a relatively elean bomb, but the blast would shake the ground for miles around, collapsing tunnels in the earth as well as structures above ground. It would also kill any troops near the blast The report said this type of bomb also “would be for hard-to-destroy targets, such as steel bridges, in North Vietnam.** “The ‘hawks* among nuclear

weapons specialists contend that the United States should exploit its technology to save the lives of its troops and win the war as quickly as possible,” the newspaper report said.

The United States Defence Department said on Friday that there was no requirement tor nuclear weapons in the present situation in Vietnam, and their use in the war was not under consideration by military authorities.