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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04604 to 363-04611.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04604 to 363-04611
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Title
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Article about the Honolulu Conference and its legacy
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Description
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Original Title 'honolulu", Keever's title: "1st Honolulu Conference: 'Light at the End of the Tunnel'; 2nd Honolulu Conference 'Shadows on the Work' in Paris Peace Talks." Article draft about the mood of the two Honolulu Confrences. Written for the Christian Science Monitor
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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zcze sag
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honolulu 1 (normass/deepe)
(This is the first of a three-part review of developments from the
1966 Honolulu Conference to the second one held this weak)
SAIGON JULY 19-From the first Honolulu Conference
gushed the
Allied optimism of victory in the Vietnam war. Now, 881 days later,
during the second Honolulu Conference, victory is a forgotten, although
not a lost, dream. and Vietnam is sje suspended decisively between
the brinks of more war or peace..
For Vietnam, reliable sources predict the current Honolulu
conference is more likely to surface a radical shift in American
foreign policy towards the magic label of peace and the beginning of the
end of this bitter war.
For America, however, Allied sources here voice the fear this
Honolulu conference may spin the United States into a rigid pattern
of withdrawal, not simply from Vietnam, but from the rest of the world,
until the end of this century.
==more reuter
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honolulu 2 (normass/deepe)
"Honolulu will proga probably give shape to the Vietnam peace
settlement that will evolve within the next year," one American
that MEANS
officer explained.
"And is the beginning of Fortress America.
All of our Allies will know that, they will all make various noises
about it. And in due course,
all will make the top their separate
adjustments with Communism-Soviet Communism in Europe and Chinese
Communism in Asia."
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The present Honolulu Conference-far more historic than the first-
is regarded here as significant, not as a meeting of the two Allied
Presidents, but for revealing the decisisions of decibisions of one of
them-President Lyndon Johnson..
"President Johnson has only two choices," one American source
explained.
"He can at act as a lame-duck President, stall for time
at Paris and keep open as many options as possible for his successor with them
V
to decide whether to soldier on or to withdraw. Or, he can be
the absolute President and do as he wwants, for he has freed himself
from the political dictates of the voters.
"A month ago, I thought it was impossible for LBJ to limit the
options of his successor, that to do so would be a new low in political
morality.the immorality of making a decision binding on the new President.
But
now I see significant evidence Johnson has taken this decision-
made this decision, that an actions have been planned, although we do
not yet see any substantial steps taken for the implementation.
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He continued:
"What do we need a Honolulu Conference for? It is either a
propaganda gesture for the Vietnamese and the world, or else it portents
a radical change of policy, and President Johnson is getting the boys
all lined up to carry it out.
"If it is a radical change of policy, it could be only one thing-
out. The conference could be only to work out the methods, speeds,
decencies and mechanics of up pulling out.
"There was one significant indication of this-when Cal Clark
Clifford (Secretary of Defense, who just visited Vietnam) said we are
going flat out to re-equip the Vietnamese Army--even at the expense of
American troops. That is acceptable only if the Americans are withdrawing.
That statement was an indication of a state of mind designed to make it
easier to withdraw with a less guilty conscious."
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The American and Vietnamese delegations sent to the two Honolulu
Conferences show a marked contrast. Some of the goc faces are the same,
but the men are different. President Johnson is again the host, but he
is no longer seat seeking re-election, which was as it was commonly
in 1966
assumed he would, impr
Nguyen Ver Thiet again heads the Vietnamese
delegation. Last time he was a ceremonial and largely obscure chief of
states this time an elected President whose position has been legalized
on paper but is shaken by speculation of a "coalition" government with
the Communists.
Lt.
And many important faces are missing. Robert McNamara, considered
in 1966 as one of the more powerful men in the world, now "in the
said.
as one observer here wate
limbo of forgotten things,"
Gen. Nguyen Huu Coe, then McNamara's counterpart in Vietnam,
from Vietnam for his corruption and now living in luxury in Hong Kong.
General William C. Westmoreland, in 1966 a national hero leading the
fight for freedom from his Pentagon East command in Saigon,
to Pentagon-on-the
invisible general."
since exiled
now transferred
aton Batetemo Potomac where he has become "an
Henry Cabot Lodge, the American
ma "mandarin"
from Boston, now replaced as Ambassador by Ellsworth Bunker, the American
9
the star
"mandarin" from Vermont. Pre Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky
of 1966 conference, now an elected Vice President who is distrusted by the
VIEWS
Americans for his anti-negotiation mood and mistrusted by his own President
for his "young turk" capriciousness.
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2020 006
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honolulu 6 (normass/deope)
In some ways, the Honolulu delegations are significant for thoir
absentees. In 1966, a thorough military review was made at Honoluluş
this time the new American commander horo, General Creighton Abrams,
was dropped from the invitation list because "he would have been a
fifty fifth wheel. They are discussing polti political matters."
In 1966, the battleory of the was the rural development of
Vietnamese villages. This time, Amorican Ambassador Robert Kaner
in charge of the program, remained in Saigon and the Vietnamese
"pacifier"
In this
conference, the foous seemed to shift to ferde foreign affairs and
economic matters-the post-war economic development plans.
delegation was represented only by a lioutonant colonel.
VTA
more router
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From this vantage point, the second most important member
of the American delegation--and the American delegation is calling the
shots is considered to be Clark Clifford, who had just completed
a five-day on whirlwind inspection tour of Vietnam. He had spent
only 25 minutes being briefed on the pacification pror program.
Unlike McNamara,
who asked poinp pinpoint questions of captains and
majors, and took voluminous notes only he could read,
Clifford met in closed-doow door executive sessions with generals and
left the note-taking to an aide.
American generals, who in the past
had prepared charts, graphs and reams of statistics for McNamara
ordered 8 x 10 photos printed to illustrate for if the Secretary
Clifford desired to know the surrounding terrain and helicopter
operations. Unlike Ma McNamara, who was articulate in with his
staccato, machinegum sentences, Clifford was equz equally articulate
ins with his limp/buttery drawl. "Clifford is very smooth," one
observer commented while watching Clifford tour Danang. "Or more
accurately he's slick."
= =more reuter
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Potential
The net impression of Mr. Clifford's tour here--and alweathervane
for Honolulu He was not a Secretary of Defense e appointed to
prosecute a war, or to manage the mechanisms to prosecute it.
"ust £1
appointed to rationalize, and verbalize its ending.
He was
The first Henu Honolulu Conference, held in February, 1966,
or sometimes suite
opened the "second front" of the whole Vietnam war,
"the other war"--for Vietnam's political and social developme betterment.
or the "other wer" is hard half-a-world away
Now, the "second front"
in Paris.
The first "light at the end of the tunnel" sparked in
Honojo Honolulu 66 has now been transmuted into "straws in the wind
in Paris. # McNamara's statistical measures for amber and green roads,
pacifiod, half-pacified and contested villages have now disappeared
in the simple arti arithmetic of timing the teacup-talks and coffee-breaks
in Paris.
Tomorrow: 1966--Honolulu or Hollow-lulu
end reuter
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Date
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1968, Jul. 15
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Peace; Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States; Morale
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B10, F38
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
