“No Purely Military Solution”

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31627, 13 March 1968, Page 16

“No Purely Military Solution”

There was no purely military solution to the war in Vietnam; the successful outcome of the conflict would also depend to a large extent on improved economic, political and social structure, said Sir Stephen Weir in Christchurch yesterday.

Having a sound administration was very important, he said. This would give the Vietnamese man in the street the prospect of a Government he could look up to and have a voice in, and the promise of a better life.

To uphold a sound political administration a military campaign was necessary which not only stopped the North Vietnamese but showed the South Vietnamese that the allies were capable of holding the rural areas in permanent security.

“That is a military problem which has to be solved,” he said. “The South Vietnamese cannot stand up to the Viet. Cong if they have no protection. The average man, before committing himself, has to have an idea who is coming out on top.” Sir Stephen Weir recently completed six years as New Zealand Ambassador to Thailand, the Republic of Vietnam and Laos, and as the

Dominion’s representative on the council of the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation. Sir Stephen Weir said he did not think the war was properly understood by the man in the street.

Many saw the Vietnamese fighting his fellow countryman and concluded it to be a civil war. Thete was sufficient evidence tn show that

I the South Vietnamese were being assailed by their northern- . countrymen in pursuit of an ideological conquest. Sir Stephen Weir said that the recent Tet offensive had surprised the allies by its scope and magnitude. The result had been to provide a psychological set-back to the

allies but there was no real military set-back. “In due course we will get over it. What we have to watch is that we do not lose our patience and our staying power,” he said. “On the civil side New Zealand could make its most effective contribution to the war by providing experts rather than capital. There is tremendous scope for technical experts, agriculturists, university lecturers, social aid workers and teachers of all sorts.'’

On the military side it was F or the Government to decide Although voices of dissent at New Zealand’s military involvement might be heard in the Dominion there was none from the Asian nations—“ln fact, quite the reverse.”

“If the allies do not succeed in protecting the political integrity of South Vietnam, it bodes ill for the future of neighbouring countries of South-East Asia. These countries feel that if we fail in Vietnam it will be their turn next,” said Sir Stephen Weir. In an address to the Christchurch Returned Services’ Association last evening, Sir Stephen Weir said there was a genuine fear among the countries on the periphery of Asia of expansion by Communist China but there was also a growing strength among them. The most significant event in the last 10 years had been the turn-about of Indonesia by the counter-coup of 1965. This altered the situation considerably. “I don’t believe this would have happened but

for the intervention of the allies in Vietnam,” he said. Japan was showing signs of becoming interested in helping her undeveloped neighbours and Thailand was fast developing in the economic sphere. There were hopeful signs of growing political, economic and social collaboration among other countries on the Asian periphery, and added to this, China was experiencing her own internal troubles.

“This sense of responsibility and collaboration is of vital concern to our own longterm security,” said Sir Stephen Weir. He said he did not believe Chinese expansion would take the form of nuclear warfare or armies marching in line abreast. Both would involve unacceptable risks. Her territorial conquests would be made by subversion and terrorism, weapons of which the free world knew little and had been slow to recognise. Armed forces were necessary to meet force, but anything New Zealand could do to help build up the economy of these countries would strengthen them against this erosion.

He said that the Anzus Pact became the cornerstone of New Zealand’s foreign policy. It was the first defence arrangement made outside the realm of the Commonwealth. Two generations of New Zealanders had fought in the Middle East, but he believed that never again would New Zealand by-pass South-East Asia.