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EXCERPT FROM PM LEE KUAN YEW'S MEETING WITH

LOCAL AND FOREIGN PRESS AT TELEVISION SINGAPURA

5 Nov 1967

Menon:

But, Mr. Prime Minister, you said you are afraid of escalation. At the same
time, you are against the Americans backing out. Does that mean that the
status quo should be maintained?

Prime Minister:

We are going into the technicalities of the war. I don't think the status quo
is bearable, militarily or psychologically, for the American people and the
President. Because from the people, the pressure is on the Congressmen
and the Senators on to the President; and from the newspapers on to the
public, back to the people, back to the Senators, back to the Congressmen,
on to the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defence. I am
not an expert in these matters but I think it is far better to concentrate on
the political side -- on what the Americans called "pacification", but what I
would call consolidation of a national identity, pride in being themselves,
in being South Vietnamese. And that can only be done by South
Vietnamese themselves.

You know what happened when the British governors were in charge. They
said, "Communism, great terror. You will all become robots." Nobody
believed a word of it. I didn't. I joined the Communists, as you know, to
push them out. But I had no doubts in the years that I and my colleagues
were with the Communists that when the British were out, the Communists
would want to be in. They were not going to allow me to be in. And,
therefore, we made contingency plans. And the British were skillful enough
to step out of the arena and give us the buttons that controlled the state.

We won not because of guns. We couldn't win because of guns; we won

because of policies -- social programmes, housing, education and health,
jobs, a sense of identification of a people with the achievements of the
whole community. And Singapore is, with justification, proud of the
modest progress we have made.

I am not saying that we are equal to New York or even for that matter
Chicago or Los Angeles. But compared to what Singapore was in 1954 or
1959 when we took office you will agree that it is a healthier place not just
for you but for the ordinary people. It is a better place to live in because

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there are more homes, all the children are in school, unlike before. there are
more clinics; there is more medical care and attention; more scholarships
for the bright, and scholarships for all Malays. I know that UTUSAN and
the BERITA HARIAN who are represented here have sort of belittled this.
But let us be quite frank.

Every Malay that goes to school or to University or to the Polytechnics gets

it all paid, which is more than we give either to a person of Chinese or of
Indian descent. And I think that made the difference. That is why
Singapore feels that it can do it President Johnson embarrassed me by his
praise because it was in such a Texan terms -- extravagant, big. But he was
praising not me. He was praising Singapore. I can't do it without Singapore
and the people, the team. It is like an orchestra and a conductor. I may be or
I may not be a good conductor but if I don't have a good orchestra, with
first violin, second violin, the oboe, the double bass, the clarinet -- the
whole range of instruments -- there would not have been the beautiful
melodies that have reached not just Washington but Scarborough and
London. Scarborough is 400 miles from London. But people have come
here, they have seen. We have improved on what the British gave us. This
is the only way out for South Vietnam. And it cannot be done by
Americans. It must be done by South Vietnamese.

Selvaganapathy:

Mr. Prime Minister, when you said that the...

Prime Minister:

No... I don't want to stop you but how about giving the others... I am
particularly interested in our UTUSAN and BERITA HARIAN friends
because they blacked me out so completely in all their reportings. It is just
little captions here and there that give the Malay people in Singapore a very
distorted view of the world. But, mind you, being a free press, well, it is
your newspaper, you do as you like.

Ong Beng Chuan:

Sir, do you feel that America's fear that Singapore might turn into a third
China, might result in their miscalculation and push you to the wall.

Prime Minister:

I think that is a very real possibility, this belief not just in the State
Department among their Southeast Asian experts but among the people at

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large. Americans at large believe that Singapore is in China. They see

pictures with shops with Chinese signs; they see me and they say, "Ah
Chinaman." If they believe that we are going to be extensions of Chinese
power -- by Chinese I mean the People's Republic of China -- they they are
going to take certain preventive steps, not themselves of course, because
that will be too obvious but they can... There are any number of people
around in the region who would do the job for them but who cannot do the
job for them but who cannot do the job unless they supply the aircraft and
the ships. As Lord Louis Mountbatten explained to me about the landing
after the Japanese surrender, it was so complicated that even after the
surrender the whole operations had to go on. To cross water, you need
ships and aircraft. None of our neighbours can manufacture these ships and
aircraft. They were supplied primarily by the Russians -- for a different
purpose, mind you. In the end, it was used to ends which must have grieved
the Russians who supplied the weapons because the conservative estimate
is 300,000 Communists die, perhaps more, and perhaps a lot of people who
happened just to be sitting by or walking next to a Communist.

I want to know and I haven't got a clear answer from the Americans. They
Russians are not giving spare parts now in the same quantities. I want to
know from the Americans whether they believe that Singapore has the right
to survive as a nation, as a people. Or whether they also are going to start
supplying aircraft, missiles and ships. If they are then in 10 years, a very
dangerous situation can take place. It is like in the old days, in feudal days.
When the princes fought, they never went into the arena. They sent their
knights. So you adopt or you are adopted. All right, if America adopts so
and so, we will be adopted by so and so. Whatever happens, we will never
be cowed. I would rather be dead, fighting, arguing, than be emasculated,
turned into a political and economic eunuch. I think the Americans ought to
know this. And I told the Americans this.

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