asked the Minister for External Affairs if he considers that Ireland can initiate any movement to bring about an end to hostilities in Vietnam; and, if so, if he will take all possible steps in the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Vietnam Hostilities.
2.
The only hope I see of a final and stable conclusion to the hostilities in Vietnam is that the Vietnamese and those Great Powers involved directly or indirectly should agree that it is in the interest of the sorely afflicted Vietnamese people and of world peace that a cease fire on land, sea and in the air should be arranged to allow negotiations to begin as soon as possible.
The negotiation of an agreement to bring about lasting peace would be greatly helped if it were to be announced now that the agreement arrived at would be guaranteed by France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and, if possible, by the Peoples Republic of China and the United Nations. To be really effective and lasting, and to ease the dangerous tension between the Great Powers, a peace settlement in Vietnam should, I believe, form part of an area of peace and limited armaments agreement between a group of countries in South-East Asia.
I have often outlined the principal elements upon which I suggest an area of peace should be based: that the group would agree to settle their differences peacefully, to limit their armaments to police level, to declare their neutrality, and to exclude all military bases from their territories on the conditions that each and all of them would be guaranteed against aggression by the United Nations including the Great Powers.
I first put forward the suggestion for the organisation of areas of peace at the General Assembly of the United Nations in referring to the situation which existed in the Middle-East in 1958 when Great Powers sought to make use of the rivalry and bitterness between the States of the region in order to achieve power and influence in the area.
Since 1960, I have advocated that the solution suggested for the Middle-East should be applied to South-East Asia including Vietnam, and it has received public approval by some of the states in the area. I intend to keep pressing as best I can for its full implementation.
Would the Tánaiste care to express a view on the opinion of U Thant that both sides could be brought to the conference table if the bombing of North Vietnam were stopped?
I have the greatest respect for U Thant. He may have knowledge of the situation in South-East Asia that I have not got. We have to use our own judgment on this matter. In my belief, the programme I have outlined would give lasting peace and not a mere ephemeral cease fire which, as everyone can see from events in Vietnam in recent years, is very likely to be broken.
The Tánaiste gives us his view that U Thant may have some information that is not readily available to him and to other people. The Tánaiste will remember that U Thant arrived at this view after visits to various important cities in Europe and in Asia?
He may not be at liberty to disclose to anybody all the information he has.
The Tánaiste does not believe that this would be a solution in present circumstances?
I am afraid that if there were to be a one-sided cease-fire, it could not last for long and that the Vietnamese people would go on suffering until we can get an agreement and, also, we want pressure upon the North Vietnamese people from the people who are helping to prolong this war by supplying arms and other facilities to them. In my belief, they have the key to the solution in their hands if they want to use it.
Is the Tánaiste also aware that the view expressed by U Thant with regard to the possibility of bringing the two sides to the conference table after the cessation of bombing of North Vietnam is also the view expressed in recent months by Pope Paul?
I think the Deputy is misled by the leading article in the Irish Times yesterday. It is not true that the Pope asked for the simple cessation of bombing. I have here all the statements which His Holiness made on this issue right from very early on and in one of them, which is typical of the others, he made reference to the Christmas truce in 1966 and he said:
Now it is hoped that both parties to the conflict might prolong this truce and from this pause in hostilities it might be possible to proceed to fair negotiations, the only way to arrive at peace in liberty and justice. Once again this makes evident the real strategic point of this sorrowful and paradoxical situation—man's heart. Goodwill holds the key to peace. The difficulty is born of the fact that this key must be turned at the same time by the responsible leaders of both sides.
Is it not obvious that, stripped of all the talk, it takes two sides to make peace?
Hear, hear.
I did not hear the Deputy.
Is it not obvious that, stripped of all the talk, it takes two sides to make peace in this country as in any other?
If someone would tell Ho Chi Minh to go home we could settle the whole business.
A Deputy
And L.B.J.
L.B.J. will go as soon as Ho Chi Minh does.
Further, and finally, the cessation of all hostilities would be the admirable solution but may I come back, for the purpose of bringing both sides to the conference table, to my original point? It was the view of U Thant as expressed in recent weeks, no matter what anybody else might say, that if the bombing of North Vietnam would cease, there was a possibility of bringing the two sides to the conference table. I think our Government, through the Tánaiste, should certainly consider this in order to make the first move to finish this awful and dirty war.
I do not know that the Deputy realises the seriousness of the situation in Vietnam and in the area. There are a number of countries in that area who are very afraid of what happened to Tibet happening to them.
Hear, hear.
That is the truth of the matter. I have pretty long experience of studying war and revolutions, sometimes engaging in them, and I do not believe that a truce will last unless it is a real cessation of hostilities in the air and on land and on the sea, and I believe that if the Soviet Union would only press upon the North Vietnamese to agree to a complete cessation of hostilities, negotiations would start which, we hope, would lead to a lasting peace and not just a partial cease-fire that might be broken within 24 hours.
Hear, hear.
I would like to ask the Tánaiste a question. He has heard the Chairman of the Labour Party tell us what he thinks about Vietnam. Would he think it desirable that the Chairman of the Labour Party ought to tell us what he thinks of the communist invasion of Laos?
This is the sort of comment that is expected from Deputy MacEntee.
We cannot have a debate at Question Time. Question No. 3.
Give us brown bread and a half ounce of tea.
Would Deputy MacEntee agree with the Fascists taking over in Greece?
Order. Question No. 3.