LAOS INCURSION Nixon lauds South Vietnamese

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 21

LAOS INCURSION Nixon lauds South Vietnamese

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 23. President Nixon last night praised the performance of South Vietnamese forces in Laos and said confidently that it was good enough to permit the continued return of American troops from the IndoChina war.

The President said that he would announce next month another troop withdrawal that would continue the American withdrawal at least at the present rate 12,500 men a month.

The President told a nation - wide audience that the three major goals of the Laotian campaign had been achieved. He said that these were to ensure continued American withdrawals from South Vietnam, give protection fol troops remaining there, and provide proof that the South Vietnamese, man for man, could defend themselves against their Communist foe. Mr Nixon in an hour's

interview devoted mainly to Indo-China, spoke with high optimism about the progress of the war, the Laotian campaign, and the prospects for continued United States disengagement. Facing Howard K. Smith, of the American Broadcasting Company in the White House library, the President discounted the impact made by press reports and television films depicting the South Vietnamese withdrawal as a disorderly rout. He said that they gave only a small part of the picture and did not show how well most of Saigon’s troops had performed. Disclosing reports from the American commander in Vietnam, the President declared: “This is General (Creighton) Abrams’s assessment—that the South Vietnamese have now passed a milestone in their development. . . . “They fought extremely well. Now they are withdrawing. Some of their units have not done so well. “But 18 out of their 22 battalions, as General Abrams has pointed out, are doing extremely well and, he says, will come out with greater confidence and greater morale than before.” Victory or defeats Mr Nixon said that discussion over whether Laos was a victory or a defeat was understandable, but he said that this was not the type of operation that could be described in typical terms of victory or defeat, because it was not to conquer but to disrupt supply lines and defend South Vietnam. In those terms, he said, “we cannot judge it even after it is concluded. We can only see it in long-range perspective in terms of reducing the risk of American withdrawal and insuring the ability of South Vietnamese to defend themselves.”

He said of speculation that the Chinese might intervene and American casualties would soar, “none of those things happened” in the Laos operation. He said that if the United States “were to throw in the towel” it “would suffer a blow from which it might never recover in Asia, Europe and the Middle-East.” Smith asked what were his objections to setting a deadline for final troop withdrawal. “Since it is so easy to do why don’t I do it? The answer is it would not he in the interests of the United States,” Mr Nixon said. He said that setting a date would torpedo any chance of a negotiated settlement.