TNAG-0021-FCO40-57-Facilities-for-US-Forces-1968 — Page 95

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DS.11

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sulelu

OF STATE

SECRETARY

D/M.1149.

ISTRY OF DEFENCE

MAIN BUILDING, WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W.L

TELEPHONE 01-930 7022

13th December, 1967.

Dear ty. Hextabh

Thank you for your letter of 29th November, referring to the training given to South Vietnamese and United States Servicemen at the British Jungle Warfare School in Johore.

2.

I should make it clear that the Malaysian Government play no part in this. It is our responsibility. We fully appreciate the concern that is felt about it in some quarters and, as I am sure you will recognize, we do not provide it without careful consideration. But taking everything into account, we think it right that we should do so.

3. You make two points: that it is morally wrong to provide this assistance, and that to do so prejudices the hopes we have of helping to bring the war in Vietnam to an end. On the latter, we have made it clear many times that our aim and duty as CO- Chairman is to bring the parties to the Conference table. The Prime Minister reaffirmed the other day in the House that "everything else will be subordinate to that". But, as the Prime Minister has also said, the provision of this training, which is on a very limited scale, is in no way inconsistent or incompatible with our duty of co-Chairman. It has always been accepted that of the two co-Chairmen, one represents generally a Western and the other an Eastern point of view. The Soviet co-Chairman is very much more involved in the war than we are, with the supply of munitions on a large scale.

4. We have said many times that we have no intention of participating ourselves in the fighting in Vietnam. What the training at the Jungle Warfare School achieves is to enable those trained to profit by the experience in fighting in jungle conditions that our forces have built up over the years. We see no moral objection to assisting in the training of a free country to defend its freedom in this way, and there would be no logic in refusing to assist the United States in the same way.

*

The Rev. John Huxtable, M.A.

M.A..

154/0/10 15/8/vi

5. You mention