Jakarta, April 7: Direct American military intervention in Vietnam is under active discussion now, General George Brown, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the press here to-day.
After a 45-minute consultation with President Suharto, General Brown said “direct American military intervention in Vietnam is obviously one of the options.”
“I could not even guess what the possibilities are, but I am sure it is under active discussion,” he added.
“As you know, there are a great number of people in the United States who would not favour that intervention. After all, we lost some 50,000 soldiers in Vietnam and we have incurred huge expenditures for the training of the South Vietnamese military.”
“We have a law prohibiting the use of military forces without congressional approval, especially reinitiation of military action in Vietnam and Cambodia,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Defence Secretary, Mr. James Schlesinger, yesterday indicated that a report to President Ford on the military situation in South Vietnam warned that the Saigon forces would be defeated without more U.S. military aid.
The report, given to the President on Saturday by General Frederick Weyand, the Army Chief of Staff, after a visit to South Vietnam, was described by Mr. Schlesinger as “realistic”.
Interviewed on the CBS “Face the nation” television programme, Mr. Schlesinger declined to go into the substance of General Weyand’s assessment.
Published – April 08, 2025 03:51 am IST
