‘Massacre’ If U.S. Leaves

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31346, 17 April 1967, Page 3

‘Massacre’ If U.S. Leaves

“The Press’* Special Service

WELLINGTON, April 16.

If the Americans pulled out of Vietnam now there would be the greatest massacre the world had ever seen, Lieutenant* Colonel W. C. T. Foley said in an address to the Wellington AfterCare Association.

Colonel Foley was commander of the New Zealand force in Vietnam from June, 1964, to September, 1966. “Many people say the Americans should go home. But if they did the Viet Cong would carry out mass murder,

looting and rape, In their usual terrorist methods,” be said.

There was also a great deal of criticism of the number of American bombing accidents. But fewer had been killed in Vietnamese bombing accidents during a year than had been killed on New Zealand roads during the same period. Colonel Foley said few people were told of the tremendous amount of civil aid being given to Vietnam.

There were 37 countries contributing aid and more than 40,000 Americans giving civilian aid.

These people were risking their lives each day to help the Vietnamese achieve a better way o f life. Colonel Foley said there was no way of estimating when this war, th® dirtiest

the world bad ever seen, would end. “I am convinced the Americans with their technical and military superiority will win eventually. “It is just a matter of when Ho Chi Minh will recognise this and come to the peace table.

“I have had dealings with nearly all the Asiatic races and I have been most impressed by the Vietnamese. “They are a very proud and capable people. “I can see a terrific future for South Vietnam when the war is eventually over.”

South Vietnam was comparable in size to the land space between Invercargill and Rotorua.

This area, three-quarters of which was mountains and dense forest, populated by

about 15 million South Vietnamese, 60,000 North Vietnamese, and one million South Vietnamese and allied troops. Saigon, originally a beautiful city built by the French for half a million people, was now crammed with two million and a half. Many of these were refugees from the North and country areas of the South. Any European who ventured out of the city areas did so at the risk of being shot or knifed by Viet Cong. The safest way to travel from city to city was by air. ' The problem now facing the. Vietnamese was partly due to the vacuum left by the French.

Apart from building a few cities and roads the French did next to nothing for the people. i;