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86TH YEAR, NO. 238ABILENE, TEXAS, 79604, THURSDAY IVIr 9, 1967CHICAGO (AP) - Sen. Rob-ert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., said Wednesday night the Johnson administration is “working in a vacuum” in Asia and must forge a China policy to help end the Vietnam war successfully.Kennedv, who has been crit i-cal of some aspects of President Johnson's course in Asia, said he is not blaming the present administration or either political party for the lack of “cons-cious policy and direction” inthat part of the world.Rut in a speech prepared forthe University of Chicago's China Conference. Kennedy said, “We do not know...about our goals, our own policies, our ownconception of national interestin* IV.He said the resolution of theVietnam war “will not resolvethe problems of Asia, although the resolution must depend in large part on our attitude andpolicy toward China.“We will ignore China, or think of her as weak, only atgreat danger to ourselves,” he^•aid “But we will never have a sound policy, if we assessChinese power in anything but realistic terms. And we should not, in order to arouse olhers to a real threat, exaggerate that threat to a point where our statements are simph not ere-strategic interests indible to those we wish to influence.”Kennedy ticked off criticisms of administration leaders' statements of whv the United States is fighting in Vietnam.“It has been suggested,” he said, “that we are pursuingAsia;denying the control of other land and resources to Asian communism. Yet less than two years ago we were quite prepared to accept the spreadof Communism in Indonesia- a nation of 10(1 million people, incomparably rufi in resources, standing over the critical straitsof Malacca and flanking thePhilippines.THIRTY-SIX PAGES IN TWO SECTIONS10 CENTS DAILY20 CENTS SUNDAY Assoruiteri Prms f/P)■ *1.^ -.’I• i !■■■■ tmn.“Of course, we want to pro vent the expansion, the acquisition of vast new resources, bypowers deeply hostile to the United States. , . where and under w'hat circumstances should we limit ourselves to helping others, without hazarding large-scale combat or major war?. . .“We proclaim our intention to assure self determination, with American lives if necessary. Kennedy said. “Yet wc support and defend a Formosa whose indigenous people have no voice in government.“We are told 1 hat ‘nation1-must learn to leave their neighbors alone.’ Yet we do not al-wax s leave our neighbors in thi hemisphere alone.Kennedy noted that adminis«-tration backers have said that “we must keep our commitments or meet our obligations.“Of course, we must keep our commitments and obligations “lie said. “But bv what standVards, and toward what ends, an those commitments made'’ How deeply do they extend, and whatmeans will be used to fulfill them?“Thus it is one thing to defend a commitment in Vietnam yet it is something else indeed to fulfill that commitment bv extend-Ving military operations to Thailand and in return makinc anew commitment to that nationas well“None of these —— sweepingstatements pious hopes, grandiose commitment- - constitutea China policy for the future/’Kennedy said “That, policy must be based on the realitvt't. . joFand diversity of today’s Asia;and on a discriminating evaluation of our own interests, capabilities and limitations.”He said there had been attempts to portray the Vietnamconflict as China-inspired.■ Vietnam’s communism isbasically a native growth, with i own revolutionary tradition* o . . • _ • i . * •., *. . - * .-' j . - -. • *v i Sj - * . .* * .....and dynamism,” Kennedy said.
Newspaper Details
Abilene Reporter News
Abilene, Texas, US
Thu, Feb 09, 1967
Page 42
Full Page
Clipped by
Toledo L.
OH, USA 27 Oct 2022
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