International Seminar

pared for a long and uphill struggle," Cheong declared, adding that the bombings of North Vietnam "will have to continue until they are discussed with Hanol." He suggested "some sort of quid pro quo" be arranged, with America calling a halt to the bombings if North Vietnamese regulars return to the North.

In the meantime, he said, America should "study her image in Asia, particularly in South Vietnam, and try to do something about it."

"It is a pity," he said of this country, "that she is so misunderstood in a place where she is trying to do so much."

But Yoshiyuki Tsumuri, program officer of the International House of Japan, Inc., cautioned that America's image promises to go from bad to worse as the war continues.

While saying that he was "almost in 100 per cent agreement" with Cheong, he declared. "There is every indication that this war is coming to be a racial war."

"It is virtually impossible to distinguish between the Viet Cong and non-communist Vietnamese," he explained, and as a result. American military men in Vietnam indicate a growing mistrust of all Vietnamese civilians.

The one European on the panel. Edgardo Bartoli of Italy, characterised his country's attitude to wards America's Vietnamese policy as "a blur, but a blur that is generally in favor of United States intervention."

"We think that we cannot ask the Americans to be absent from Asia after asking her for 20 years to be present in Europe," declared Bartoli, who is political editor of II Mundo.

But if the United States plans to escalate the war further, he said. "Europe should be consulted. Through what channels and with what results, no one can say. But she should be consulted just because she would be affected by any results.

"More American presence in Asia would mean less American presence in Europe," he explained.