Speaker Condemns U.S. Policy

The second International Forum turned from the relative calm of English politics to the turbulent problems of an emerging South East Asia last Wednesday evening.

Maximo Soliven, publisher of the Evening News of Manila, gave a scolding denunciation to United States foreign policy towards Laos and South Vietnam and predicted that, "The red flag will fly over Laos soon."

Soliven traced the background of the communist movements in Laos and Vietnam and insisted, "We in South Asia can not be happy with a neutral solution even though the United States apparently is."

Any toleration of neutrality can lead only to a communist infiltration and an eventual take over by the communists in Vietnam, he declared. As an example of infiltration, Soliven cited a report that the Vietcong a communist army, has 25,000 soldiers in Vietnam now, whereas it had only 20,000 in Vietnam "before neutrality was established."

Soliven asserted that the people of Laos have no common heritage and that the many tribes which make up "what is known as Laos" do not even realize that they belong to the same country. This has complicated the problem of trying to unite the Laotian people into a cogent fighting unit capable of resisting the advancing communists.

The pro-western Royal Laotian army has tended to stay aloof, while the communist Pathet Lao has moved into the villages and lived among the people. The Pathet Lao did not have to invade Laos, they used a process of "complete encirclement through osmosis."

The problem in Vietnam, Soliven said, centers around the President and virtual dictator Mo Diem, who has an inflexible will and who will not tolerate any opposition within his country. Diem has appointed close relatives to high government positions and these people have proved very ineffective. Such rampant nepotism is not unlike contemporary politics in Massachusetts, he added.

The people of Vietnam are not satisfied with the rule of Diem and therefore they do not resist the guerilla tactics of the Vietcong. Soliven warned that "You can pour money into South East Asia but if the people are not in favor of the government, money will be of no use in resisting the communists." The United States has been content to send billions of dollars to Vietnam, without gaining the loyalty of the people, he claimed.

Soliven suggested that the people in Asia desire the spiritual elements of life and that, "the United States should export democracy and not dollars."