13 OCTOBER 1967, Page 27

Vietnam: how to end the war

LETTERS

From lames Filmer Wilson, Robert E. Walters, Barry Rose, Nigel Vinson, Michael H. Beamish, Peter Cadegan, Thomas Cogan, Jr., Lady de Zulueta, Michael Wall, Diana Dewar.

Sir: As a Conservative who cannot agree with either the Government's or the Opposition's policies of support for American action in Viet- nam I am even more dismayed by an American like Paul Pulitzer who—in his letter of 22 September—claims for his country a 'legal, political, moral, and spiritual right' to take one side against the other.

By making up the rules of the game as it goes along, and without listening to the whistle of such internationally accepted referees as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the present administration has only succeeded in disillusioning many of America's old friends and stiffening the resolve of its enemies.

Perhaps communism does seem 'illegal' and 'immoral' to the Paul Pulitzers of this world but to many Asians it has offered the best hopes for a restoration of a nation's honour and self- respect without recourse to the begging bowl. The war against communism—better expressed perhaps as the defence of free enterprise—is not going to be won by the West's present tactics of unconditional support for all those sporting an tat button.