Newspaper Finds Cliches

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 13

Newspaper Finds Cliches

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) NEW YORK, Mar. 13.

The “New York Times” yesterday criticised the Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk, for repeating “most of the cliches” about United States Vietnam war policy, saying he “sounded . . . like a broken record.”

An editorial comment on his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday asked: “. . . Can the United States afford to continue on its present course of escalation of this unpopular, unnecessary and unproductive war in the

wrong place at the wrong time against the wrong enemy and for the wrong reasons?” Herewith a partial text: “. . . When the Secretary responded to questions on the issue uppermost in the minds of the senators and foremost in the thought of the nation —Vietnam—he sounded, as has been observed before, like a broken record. . . . “Rusk repeated most of the cliches he had uttered during his last public appearance before the committee on this subject on January 26, 1966, and occasionally since then. “The Secretary of State continues to treat Vietnam as two countries, contrary to the Geneva accords, and to insist that the United States has the obligation unilaterally to ‘ensure that people leave their neighbours alone’. He continues to insist that the Tonkin incidents were unprovoked in spite of impressive evidence to the contrary. . . ~

“He continues to laud unreservedly the ‘resilience and efforts’ of America’s Vietnamese allies in the face of overwhelming evidence of Saigon’s deficiencies. He continues to place the sole blame on Hanoi for the failure to achieve peace negotiations.

“He continues to insist on reciprocal de-escalation in response to any American bombing halt, refusing to recognise that the risk in a halt to the bombing may be considerably less than the risk in continued bombings. “His testimony implies a readiness to escalate the American military effort still further. . . . “Can the United States afford to continue on its present course of escalation of this unpopular, unnecessary and unproductive war in the wrong place at the wrong time against the wrong enemy and for the wrong rea--1 sons?”