International Seminar Panel Views Chinese Threat to Southeast Asia

"The United States has finally come to realize the necessity of dealing with the situation in Vietnam more sensibly," Daniel Lee, of Korea, asserted Wednesday night in the summer's last International Seminar.

Representatives of five Asian countries focused their attention on the threat of Chinese communism in the whole of Southeast Asia. Lee pointed out the far reaching significance of the Vietnam war when he added. "We appeal to the conscience of the American people to realize and their moral duty to re-unify Korea and Vietnam. We owe this to the men who have given their lives for freedom." Lee noted that 35,000 American soldiers were killed in Korea, but Korea is a still divided, and Chinese still occupy North Korea. "The mistaken in Korea should not be repeated in Vietnam," he said.

Carmelo Quintero, of the Philippines, stressed that the problem of Vietnam is Red China. The crucial decision for the United States, he explained, was "what it will permit Red China to do it." If the United States and Southeast Asian countries "make an agreement with Russia," he felt that China can be prevented from maintaining the nuclear weapons it will surely otherwise have in the near future.

Joseph Ambrose, of Malaysia, concluded that the only way out of the Vietnam problem may well be "to carry the war into North Vietnam." He pointed to the instability of the South Vietnam government and the low education level of most of its citizens as prime reasons for the success of the Viet Cong.

Malasia, he reminded the audience, is the only country in Southeast Asia where the Communist party is outlawed, "and therefore does not exist." Because health and education are directed and controlled by the federal government in the Malaysian states the standard of health is improved and "the people have a chance to get the highest education."