Explosion in Vietnam
EVEN before Parliament debated Vietnam this week a new awareness of the horror and danger of the situation there was apparent. The blowing-up of the American embassy in Saigon, and the prospect of fresh retaliation against the Communists of North Vietnam, created it. Such a sudden act of violence is easier to comprehend than the long and confused struggle which has led to the heightened conflict today.
America decided late but wisely that the aggression directed from North Vietnam against the South must be stopped. Those policies which are now being put into effect have been under serious discussion for at least two years. The White Paper which detailed the extent of• Hanoi's aid to the Vietcong could have been released many months earlier. Yet month after month the United States held back. Partly the long run up to her election had crippled the ad-. ministration's power to act. Partly the administration was itself for. a long time divided, and partly it was naturally reluc- tant to incur the odium of many people in many countries of appearing deliberately to have stepped up what had become known as 'the war that can't be won.' The heavy price of this delay is inevitably that the rest of the world does not easily believe that the American purpose is firm. Hanoi is gradually learning that it is; some of the US's closest allies seem still to have their doubts. Yet, having taken so long to decide and having prepared the ground so care- fully, it is unlikely that President Johnson will now quickly back down.
There can no longer be any excuse for not knowing what American policy is. She has shown her determination to stand by a friend when asked to do so. She is showing that; in Asia as in Europe, there is a line beyond which her opponents cannot go. She seeks no wider war. She has no wish, as the President has indicated, to overthrow the regime in Hanoi. The conditions of the fighting have been laid down with unusual clarity. If the Chinese send help, America will not hesitate to retaliate within the Chinese borders. If Hanoi does not change her policy, the attack will go on. If. when a settlement finally conies, Hanoi does not respect it, it is implicit that America will resume her. attack. And for this settlement there can be only one basis, however it is worded : that aggression be stopped and the two sides agree to co-exist.
The outbursts on the American use of gas and napalm are symptomatic only of how little influence Britain can have on Ameri- can policies if she plays her cards wrong. Here were incidents which could be iso- lated, against which the familiar muddled protest could be made. They have little relation to the war as a whole, to the scale on which it is now being fought, or to the issues it is being fought for. The Prime Minister is, of course, in an exceptionally difficult position. It would be hard enough for anyone to* hold hands with President Johnson and with some of Mr. Wilson's left-wing colleagues at the same time. It is harder still to do it on a majority of three. At the outset of American retaliation Mr. Wilson mistakenly calculated that the crisis would soon be over and that he could hold all sides together without ever finally com- mitting himself. This has not proved to be so. Mr. Gordon Walker's visit to South- East Asia is welcome, but it cannot contain criticism from Mr. Wilson's left.
This is not to expect that Mr. Wilson, or any British Prime Minister, would en- dorse American policy entirely. It is a policy not without flaws, some minor, some more serious, but with its general outline we would expect any British government to be in complete agreement. Yet this policy will not succeed by fire-power alone. The present stepping-up of the conflict should never ,divert attention from this. What America is fighting for now is tiot victory, but for the right to a new start. Even if aggression and subversion from the North were to cease entirely, South Viet- nam would still be in trouble. This time there must be Americans who can speak the language, who can work with the local people, who can show them how to raise their own standard of living. We cannot really believe that the West is so ill-equipped that it is incapable of giving and helping without reaching for its guns at the first cries of 'neo-colonialism.'
It would be 'foolish to pretend America does not know this, though it is not easy to' do something about it. •It is going to take a very long time to produce results. Britain cannot pretend that we are going to bring all parties to the conference table. That is a matter for countries more directly involved. We can offer, however, to help set the country on its feet when aggression has ceased. And meanwhile we can offer firm and friendly support for America in her appalling task.
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