REACTION TO BOMBING

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32893, 17 April 1972, Page 13

REACTION TO BOMBING

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 16. United States officials said last night that the bombing of the main North Vietnamese port of Haiphong spoke for itself—an attempt to destroy supply lines feeding the Communist offensive in northern South Vietnam.

In intensifying the air war and taking it so far north, President Nixon had clearly signalled his determination to use the only weapon available to him — massive air power — regardless of the political and diplomatic hazards at home and abroad. The President is known to have carefully calculated the risk of wrecking his diplomatic initiatives towards China and the Soviet ' T nion and of provoking a new antiwar backlash in the United States that might harm his prospects for re-election in November. With the American troop withdrawal apparently irreversible, especially in an election year, the President is now relying on some 600 fighter-bombers and 150 852 s in the Indo-China area to save his Vietnamisation policy and the South Vietnamese Army itself.

The initial reaction of some observers was that the President would not have taken such a serious decision as attacking Haiphong if the bombing of military targets in southern North Vietnam was having any major effect in slowing down the Communist ground offensive. From the first reports in Saigon it was not clear if aircraft had bombed the port itself — the off-loading facilities for weapons brought in on Soviet and other ships — or if the raids had been confined to supply depots outside the port. Military observers, however, interpreted the an-

nouncement of the military command as meaning that the port facilities were not among the targets so far. This was because of the risk of hitting Soviet ships and causing a serious international crisis that could affect the President’s plans to fly to Moscow on May 22 for summit talks with The Soviet leaders. The White House last night refused to comment on the

raids or to give the reasons why the President had ordered them to be launched. The Pentagon and the State Department also had nothing to say. As the first news bulletin arrived from Saigon, the President was hosting a dinner at the White House for Latin American diplomats attending the annual assembly of the Organisation of American States. He returned earlier in the day from a two-day visit to Canada, where he indirectly but pointedly criticised the Soviet Union for supplying heavy weapons being used by Hanot in its current offensive in South Vietnam. Senator Edward Kennedy last night deplored the extension of the United States air attacks on North Vietnam to Haiphong. “I think this is a reckless re-escalation of the war, a wanton response to the utter failure of the President’s Vietnamisation policy,” he said.