Cold response to Ford’s aid plea

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33816, 12 April 1975, Page 15

Cold response to Ford’s aid plea

Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright > WASHINGTON. April 11. 1 he United States Congress has given a generally . 'jecepUon to President Ford's request last night for . in military aid to South Vietnam and Si S2S)m in economic assistance.

Democrats, who have big majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, mainly thought the President was unrealistic in believing an additional flow of arms would help South Vietnam to survive.

Some felt the President. in his State-of-the-World address to Congress, missed a chance to end the American domestic conflict over Vietnam. But some Republicans and a scattering of conservative Democrats said they were willing to go along with Mr Ford’s appeal to give the Saigon Government one more chance to defend itself. Key Congressmen stood' by earlier predictions that 1 no more military aid would be approved, although it ap-| peared Mr Ford’s request forS>US25Om in economic and humanitarian assistance was viewed more favourably. Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey said the President would get humanitarian but! not military aid from Con-j gress. I

■- Some Democrats accused .(the President of misjudging the mood of the country in : raising from SUS3OOm to E$US722m his . request for ! I South Vietnamese military .laid. I Democrat Representative John Brademas, of Indiana, 11 said: “President Ford mis--51 judged the mood of the s I country and the Congress, - and the realities of the situ3|ation in South Vietnam.” if Senator Birch Bayh, of In- . [ diana, voicing sentiments of jl many other liberal DemoJ crats, said: “I felt sorry for j|him because he : s trying to .1 do what he feels is right, r ’but he missed a good chance jitp put Vietnam behind us. , There cannot be consensus . or bipartisan support for a t speech that is unrealistic.” [ t< Senator Henry’ .lackson, a t! candidate for the Democratic' •[Party’s 1976 Piesidential 1 I nomination, said Mr Ford.

I “is asking that we open the | old divisiveness that had i been previously resolved . . I d hoped he'd move away ■ from any confrontation [(with Congress).” Saigon pleased Bui the Repub'ican House leader representative, John Rhodes, of Arizona, said: ( "The President deserves a [ great deal of credit for , recommending some tough action, despite political opposition . . ." The appeal has been greeted enthusiastically in Saigon, where a Government 1 spokesman, Mr Nguyen Quoc Cong, said it meant “at least that die United States Administration will never abandon South Viet-[ nam.” He saw the President’s message as “orientated to-: wards morale-boosting.” The speech was seen as “a: big encouragement to the! South Vietnamese people! and soldiers for the fight to stop Communist aggression | in our country.”