Vol. 4, No. 34 November 4, 1966
THREE HIGHLIGHTS IN JOHNSON'S FAR EAST TOUR
Credit for providing the most graphic description of what were probably the three main highlights in Johnson's "barnstorming" tour of the Far East goes to Pete Hamill of the liberal New York Post. He was one of the crew of reporters assigned to accompany the great leader in the traveling circus.
Outside the airport at Manila, Pete Hamill wrote, "the car carrying Lyndon Baines Johnson to the Asian summit conference passed one of those tar-black eddying creeks, with a crush of iron-roofed shacks dropping away to the water's edge. It was in the district called Paranaque, and coming up from its filthy banks were the inhabitants: Gnarly women, 10-year-old girls holding infants on their hips, hard-eyed young boys in sports shirts and shower shoes, people with sores on their blank-eyed faces and the smell of poverty and disease everywhere."
New York, N. Y. 10010. . HPs
“On the seventh aay | of his journey," continued Hamill, "Lyndon Johnson had finally arrived in Asia." . ;
The second highlight was the scene of Johnson's arrival at Bangkok, the capital of Thailand:
“Lyndon Johnson stepped out of the chopper, to see a vast open square dominated by the black equestrian statue of King Rama V of Siam, and a scene that could easily have been staged by Dino De Laurentiis for a movie starring Steve Reeves.
“Seven goid motorcyles manned by cops in gold uniforms stood at the ready. The King of Thailand's gold Daimler Benz limousine was waiting alongside a gold Mercedes, and rows of Thai troops from all services stood at present arms. Against the far edge of the square, reporters were eddying around a row of scalloped-edge tents, while a middieaged Thai in a green uniform handed out Cokes. A cannon started belting a 21-gun salute, ‘the Star-spangled Banner’ was played, followed by the Thai national anthen, and after that all was silence."
The third scene described by Hamill was the fiesta prepared for the remarkable barnstormer during his performance in Manila. "You caught sight of Johnson riding with Lady Bird in a real live donkey cart complete with a real-live donkey. He was dressed in a silk barong shirt and a red neckerchief, his face sickly in the light from the yeliow bulbs in the acacia trees. With the reins in his hands as he came down the path, he somehow looked like the sort of man who had helped win the West with a cure for gout."
As for Johnson's "peace package," Hamill offered the following candid opinion:
"The communiqué had also stolen a march on the Communists, by saying that the allies were prepared to withdraw troops six months after 'the other side' withdraws theirs to the north.
"This, of course, was patently ridiculous. There is simply no way to sit down and list all the Communists in South Viet Nam, nor for that matter, all the northerners. If it came down just to the northerners, they could easily begin with Gen. Ky. Perhaps the North Vietnamese troops could be relocated north, but they could easily reply that they would agree to do so six months after the Americans leave.
"The communiqué attempted to stir the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese by declaring the following goals: 'to be free from aggression,' 'to conquer hunger, illiteracy and disease,' 'to build a region of security, order, and progress' and 'to seek reconciliation and peace throughout Asia and the Pacific.' These are not even noble thoughts, because they are not, to begin with, thoughts. They are words. Nothing more.
“Nowhere did the communiqué even mention the bombing of North Viet Nam, and on the possibilities of invading North Viet Nam it refused even to be anything like concrete. 'The South Vietnamese people have no desire to threaten or harm the people of the North or invade their country,' the paper said. The key word is 'desire.' We didn't desire to bomb them either. But we're doing it."