#u thant

[dialoogid]

Various Artists - Nachtsonne (199?)

[wellconstructedsentences]

As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us: ‘With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas,’ or, ‘They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them.’

U Thant

[auskultu]

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1963

Secretary of State Dean Rusk declared yesterday that “all explorations to date” into the possibilities of negotiation to end the war in Vietnam had “resulted in a rejection” of the “San Antonio formula,” President Johnson’s terms for entering negotiations. 

Meanwhile, Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “I do not think that nuclear weapons will be required to defend Khe Sanh.” But when asked whether the use of nuclear weapons was being excluded if the outpost faced danger of being overrun, General Wheeler replied: “I refuse to speculate any further.” 

American warplanes made their biggest assault on North Vietnam in six weeks. Two airfields, a bridge and missile sites around Hanoi were the targets. 

A censored report on the interrogations of Viet Cong prisoners who were involved in the attack on Saigon two weeks ago indicated that the enemy soldiers, mostly in their twenties, were well-armed, well-trained and well-motivated, although some acted for such inducements as ownership of a pistol and a New Year’s celebration. 

Secretary General Thant continued his series of meetings with world leaders. He conferred in Paris with Mai Van Bo, North Vietnam’s chief representative in Europe, President de Gaulle and Foreign Minister Couve de Murville. Diplomatic observers were pessimistic and French officials said that they felt the outlook for early negotiations between Washington and Hanoi seemed less favorable than at the beginning of the year.

In a communique Issued In Seoul, the United States and South Korea agreed on a joint program to counter aggressive moves by the North Korean regime. 

In Buffalo, the New York State Democratic Committee voted overwhelmingly to give President Johnson “vigorous support in the forthcoming election.” The resolution omitted direct reference to the President's policies in Vietnam or Great Society programs. 

Nebraska’s Secretary of State, Frank Marsh, entered Governor Rockefeller’s name in the state’s May 14 Republican primary. But an Albany spokesman for the Governor said that he “will disclaim as soon as he is officially notified that his name is on the ballot.” 

A statement signed, by more than 500 of the nation’s law teachers urges lawyers to oppose the Johnson Administration’s Vietnam war policy to demonstrate that “opposition to the present policy is not limited to a few extremists but comes from many moderate citizens.” 

[auskultu]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19,1968

Agreement was reached in Geneva yesterday by the United States and the Soviet Union on the complete draft of a treaty to ban the spread of nuclear weapons. 

The Administration let it be known that President Johnson, in his State of the Union Message, had not meant to stiffen his conditions for a bombing halt of North Vietnam. Officials conceded that it might have been better if Mr. Johnson had used the terminology of his San Antonio statement of last Sept 29, in which he said he would "assume” that Hanoi would not take advantage of the cessation while talks were going on. In his State of the Union Message, the President said: "The other side must not take advantage of our restraint” 

Meanwhile, however. Secretary General Thant appealed to the United States to stop bombing North Vietnam even without reciprocal action by Hanoi. Without a bombing halt, he said, "I do not see any way how the conflict can be shifted from the battlefield to the conference table.” He criticized as "juvenile” the "simplistic” view of each side that the other’s aggression caused the war. 

U.S. marines fought a six-hour battle with a strong Communist force near the outpost of Conthien, south of the demilitarized zone. American officers believed the enemy movement was part of a build-up for a major offensive in the area. 

In London, Parliament voted formal approval of Prime Minister Wilson’s program to reduce Britain's role as a world power and cut domestic welfare spending. Mr. Wilson, in an hour-long speech, appeared tired and subdued. 

Eartha Kitt angrily told Mrs. Johnson at a White House luncheon that American youth was rebelling because of the Vietnam war. "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” said Miss Kitt. Mrs. Johnson, her voice trembling and tears welling in her eyes, replied: "Violence will not solve all the problems.” 

[auskultu]

Sunday, September 17, 1967

During a news conference at his United Nations office, Secretary General Thant indicated that nations sympathetic to North Vietnam would soon be sending volunteer technicians, pilots and engineers to that country. Thant said that he was convinced that if American bombing attacks on the North were called off, peace talks could be started in a month. 

In the ground fighting in Vietnam, American troops met only scattered resistance during a sweep through the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam after three days of intense battles. 

Israel has been assured, in private conversations with American diplomats, that the United States plans to relax its embargo on arms shipments to the Middle East to permit the delivery of two previously ordered squadrons of attack bombers. Despite signs that the Arab position on settling the Mideast war has become more moderate, diplomats in Washington reported a virtual standstill in attempts to arrange a political settlement. 

After a week’s hiatus, negotiators for the Ford Motor Company and the United Automobile Workers union are getting back to the bargaining table in Detroit. But neither side is holding out any hope for a quick settlement.

[auskultu]

Wednesday, March 29, 1967

Pope Paul VI, in his fifth encyclical, declared yesterday that rich nations must bear the cost of developing the poor. The phenomenon of the rich growing ever richer while the poor remain poor carries with it the threat of violence, he said, adding that it was an “intolerable scandal" that vast resources that should go for the relief of suffering humanity were diverted to the armament race. "We must make haste: too many men are suffering," he said.

Secretary General Thant of the United Nations revealed that he had appealed two weeks ago for a “standstill truce" as a first step toward peace negotiations in Vietnam. In his message to all sides two weeks ago, he suggested that upon cessation of fighting discussion could begin on a reconvening of the Geneva conference of 1954. The Secretary General, in a news conference, reaffirmed his belief that United States bombing of the North was an insurmountable obstacle to Hanoi’s agreement to talk peace. 

In Washington, President Johnson said that the United States had accepted Mr. Thant’s proposal for Vietnam peace talks and regretted that Hanoi had taken what the Administration described as a “negative view." But Secretary of State Dean Rusk urged that North Vietnam accept "some machinery somewhere" to move toward action for peace.

William Manchester asserts in his book, The Death of a President, that Lyndon B. Johnson was so poorly briefed on security when he took over as Commander In Chief on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination that a Russian nuclear attack could have crippled this country’s power to retaliate. Security officials promptly denied the statement.

[auskultu]

Monday, January 16, 1967

The number of American civilians working on aid projects in South Viet Nam is slated to nearly double this year under expanding United States effort to help build up the country. There are now 1,269 Americans in South Viet Nam on the rolls of the agency for international development and the agency hopes to boost this to 2,380 by end of this calendar year.

Rep. George Mahon (D. Tex.), chairman of the House appropriations committee, calls for less talk about peace and more about winning the war in Viet Nain. “We have got to face up to the unpleasant realities that confront us in January, 1967," he says. He also opposes President Johnson’s surtax until every effort has been made to reduce federal spending at home and abroad.

A French magazine editor says Red China has set conditions for remaining out of the Viet Nnm war and the United States is observing them. Rene Dabernat, of Paris-Match, says in a copyrighted interview in U. S. News & World Report that the Chinese conditions, relayed thru the French foreign office, were that the United States not invade Red China, that it not invade North Viet Nam, and that it not bomb the dikes of the Red river in North Viet Nam. The state department declines comment on Cabernet’s report.

Radio Peking says that a "counterattack" by one million workers in Shanghai has put that city under control of Mao Tse-Tung and brought the "cultural revolution" against opponents of his policies to na"turning point." As usual, the opponents of the Communist party chairman are not identified.

United Nations Secretary General Thant reports that a large buildup of military forces on the border between Israel and Syria threatens to erupt Into a large-scale clash "at any moment ." He appeals to both governments to restrain their forces and meet with U. N. officials on the spot to settle disputes over cultivation of the demilitarized zone that have brought recent exchanges of fire.

[auskultu]

U.S. VIEWS ON VIET CHALLENGED BY THANT

William Fulton, Chicago Tribune, 11 January 1967

New York— U Thant, secretary general of the United Nations, today strongly disagreed with the position of the United States that Viet Nam Is strategically vital to western security.

He denied that a communist victory in Viet Nam would threaten other countries of southeast Asia and asserted that the communist Viet Cong are not the "stooges" of North Viet Nam.

Differing sharply with President Johnson's war policy, Thant told a crowded press conference that he felt "there will be no move towards peace so long as the bombing of North Viet Nam is going on,"

Pooh-Poohs Fears Thant pooh-poohed the fears of western countries that Thailand and other nations in southeast Asia would topple to the communist hordes in the event of a cave-in in Viet Nam.

"I do not subscribe to the generally held view that If South Viet Nam falls, then country X, then country Y, and then country Z will follow," he said.

"In my view, the destiny of every country is shaped by its peculiar circumstances, its national characteristics, its historical background, and its own political philosophy,

Believes Its Not Vital "I do not subscribe to the view that South Viet Nam is strategically vital to western interests and western security, whatever its political or ideological pattern may be."

Thant, a Burmese, said he knew the mood of the leaders in Viet Nam. “I think they are very independent,” he said. "They are very obsessed with the principle of nonalignment."

The U. N. official also said he did not agree with the generally held western view that the liberation front, reputed to be the political arm of the Viet Cong Communists' terrorists, was a "stooge" for the Hanoi government In North Viet Nam.

"In my view, the national liberation front, altho receiving perhaps very substantial help from the north, is an independent entity in the same way as the national liberation front of Algeria in the late 1950s when it was receiving very substantial help from Tunisia or Morocco or the United Arab Republic."

Matter of Interpretation Thant was asked whether he considered that the United States had rejected the first stage of his road map toward peace negotiations, that of stopping the bombing without reservations.

"As you all know, the United States reply is that it would it stop the bombing of North Viet Nam provided there was some  reciprocal reaction from the other side," he said.

"So it is up to any one of you to interpret whether it is a rejection or an acceptance, or a conditional rejection or a conditional acceptance."

Smiles Away an Answer Thant, a Buddhist, smilingly declined to comment on reports that Buddhist astrologers said the signs for peace were auspicious. in February.

"I do not want to make any observations on the astrological aspects of war and peace," he said.

Thant noted, aside from his differences with the prevailing western view, that Hanoi had criticized the second point in his peace plan, namely that after the bombing ceases, there I should be a reduction of military effort by both sides.