New Zealand Welcome

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32010, 10 June 1969, Page 17

New Zealand Welcome

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 9. The Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) today welcomed the announcement that 25,000 American troops would be withdrawn from South Vietnam and that they would be replaced by South Vietnamese troops. ‘The joint decision of President Thieu and President Nixon reflects the progress South Vietnam has made in assuming more responsibility for her own defence,” he said. Asked if the reduction in the number of United States

troops would lead to the withdrawal of some of New Zealand’s forces there, Mr Holyoake said: “We shall need to look at the question of withdrawals in concert with our allies.” The Prime Minister said that he would be taking “an early opportunity” of communicating with the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Gorton)’on the matter.

He said it was appropriate that the initial withdrawal should be made by the United States which had been bearing "such heavy burdens.” “Our forces are part of the Australian task force and any decision we make would need to take account of the overall situation and the effect on the efficiency, and therefore the safety, of the force.”

“What we want most of all to see is progress towards agreement at Paris permitting a matching withdrawal of all external forces,” he said. A Canberra report said that Mr Gorton said today that it would be wrong for Australia

to reduce its forces in Vietnam at the present time. “It is necessary to draw a distinction between American force reductions made possible by an increase in size and fighting capacity of the South Vietnamese forces, and force reductions by both sides as a result of agreement with the North Vietnamese. I “We are now dealing only with the first of these. ‘The United States decision to withdraw 25,000 of the half-million men they have in Vietnam was foreshadowed as a possibility in my report to the House of Representatives on May 15 this year. “I then pointed out that if this happened it should be interpreted as a sign of strength because it would mean that the South Vietnamese had so strengthened their own forces that they would remove from the United States some of the heavy burden which that country has borne.”