Internal Stability Vital For Asian Nations, Fairbank Asserts

"We are constantly put in the position of having to support a no-good general in Laos or a 1920's militarist like Chiang Kai-Shek," a noted historian claimed yesterday, describing the dilemma of U.S. policy toward shaky strong-man governments in the Far East.

"Internal political stability is our major need" for the containment of Chinese Communist expansion, John K. Fairbank, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History, declared yesterday before the Hillel Round Table of World Affairs. "At the moment," he said, "I'm afraid we are not breaking even."

"At the present time the political situation is not developing strength," Fairbank stated. "We can cling to our hopes and support strong-man rule or possibly we can find some new way of working with the people" toward more stable government.

"Political aid" aimed at "helping along internal political development" might prove a more effective defense against Communist pressure than economic aid to unstable regimes in Laos, South Korea, and South Viet Nam, Fairbank suggested.

"In all these places you find certain unhappy political weaknesses," he said. "South Korea may be free now, but it still hasn't solved its political problems." President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Viet Nam has a "'son of heaven' complex," he continued, and strong-man rule in Thailand has alienated the support of the moderates.

Fairbank suggested the Peace Corps as a possible means of educating the politically immature people of Asia toward civic responsibility.