Vol. 4, No. 21 - June 24, 1966-°°
PERSPE CTIVE MONDIALE
Vol. 4, No. 21 So _ dune 24, 1966°-""
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WILL CONTINUE TO STEP UP WAR IN VIETNAM, SAYS JOHNSON
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As Ky's troops reduced the points of resistance in Hué, he told the press June 18: "As far as I am concerned, it's all over. We are over the hump."
What the premier meant was that both Danang and Hué, the strongholds of Buddhist political opposition to his regime, are now occupied cities. To all intents and purposes they are now equal in status to the rest of south Vietnam.
Ky's military victory, however, by no means signifies that ‘he is "over the hump" politically. In fact the military victory was a substitute for political victory and only served to further emphasize the isolation of the Ky regime from the very forces it claims to represent.
Without political support, Ky is now even less able than before to conduct a military . struggle. Part of his forces must be detailed to maintain control in his main base of operations.
It is quite clear that still more of the actual fighting in south Vietnam will now devolve on the American troops and the . auxiliaries brought in from South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
This appears: to have been realized by Johnson. At a press conference June 18, he stated: "In the light of the full information available to the President of the United States, we sincerely feel that the national interest required.that we persist in our present policy. That policy is to bring to bear the ground, naval and air strength required to achieve our objectives. I must observe that this does not mean that we shall not increase our forces. or our operations.
Johnson admitted that American public opinion is divided . over his policy in Vietnam and that "A minority of our people, it is true, are willing now to pull out." He sought to balance this: off by claiming that another minority wants the U.S. to "use our total power" while others agree with.his policy.
He also noted that in the primaries held by the Democratic party not a single candidate who opposed Johnson's policy in Vietnam was able to win. The vote in the primaries is confined to registered members of the Democratic party, of course, and this outcome was expected. Voting for Democratic candidates who wear the mantle of peace is scarcely an effective way of winning peace -as the 1964 presidential elections proved rather decisively.
Johnson's insistence on carrying on the escalation of the war is absolutely certain to stir up an antiwar movement such as the United States has never seen before. Ky's "victories" in Danang and Hué will turn out to have helped this process along.