Sept. 14, 1964 - Secretary of State Dean Rusk said today that the U.S. had appealed to the leaders of South Vietnam to put their differences “on ice” and get on with the job of saving their country.
The Administration has made “some headway” on that point, he reported, and has found several other reasons for solace in the collapse of the weekend coup d’état against Premier Nguyen Khanh in Saigon.
Like other high officials in Washington, Rusk did not belittle the difficulties he expects in establishing a stable South Vietnamese Government. He also reiterated forcefully the Administration’s determination to “avoid the extremes” of withdrawal, “bogus neutralization,” or major war in Southeast Asia.
Rusk held a news conference today primarily to give his assessment of the situation in South Vietnam. He called attention to a statement he had made earlier as part of a luncheon address to the Economic Club of Detroit.
The course in Vietnam, the statement said, is difficult and costly in lives, money, and resources.
“It taxes our ingenuity and tries our patience,” he went on, but it is the policy of wisdom and, if we stick to it, of ultimate success.”
“For all the twists and turns of fortune that may still be ahead,” Rusk asserted, the policy of helping South Vietnam put down Communist terror and subversion and to stabilize its own Government “is the wisest and the best” policy.
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