RESIDENT JOHNSON’S offer of “unconditional” peace talks has been turned by Hanoi and Peking. This is hardly surprising; the Americans followed up this “peace offer” by making the biggest raid yet on the North and by flying dangerously near the Chinese island of Hainan. Next day they landed more marines in the most northern part of South Vietnam. The offer of aid is unlikely to impress the peoples of South East Asia. After all, the amount offered is only a small fraction of that used to bolster up the succession of dictatorships in Vietnam. Cambodia found it essential, in maintaining independence, to reject American aid long before the present crisis.
Yet, Mr. Wilson greeted this “ini-
tiative”. He claimed it proved his
“behind the scenes” pressure had
done more good than public denun-
ciation by his Parliamentary critics.
The reverse would appear to be the
case: the very fact that President
Johnson made his offer indicates that
the world-wide protest movement is
having some effect. Mr. Wilson
should join Lester Pearson, Canada’s
Liberal Prime Minister, in calling on
the Americans to stop the bombings.
Nobody can regard the American
proposal as serious until the bomb-
ings cease. Mr. Wilson’s silence
becomes more and more compromis-
ing to the whole Labour Movement.
THE WEEK — April 14, 1965