Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-12
ROKs Ask Aid From Van Fleet
In Carrying Out Offer to Send
Division to Fight in |ndo-China
Two Laos Pleas
Are Cited; :. U. S.
Stund AssuiIed
BY the Associated Press

SEOUL, Feb. 12-South Korea
said today it has offered full
army division to fight commu-
nism in Indo-China and it asked
for help from retired United
States Gen. James Van Fleet.
The Government information
Office. in a statement indirectly
critical of the United States.
said it had made the offer after
two urgent appeals signed by
the cabinet minister of the Laos
government" one of the three
states of do-China.
A Communist Wet Mimi force
of 10000 men is driving south to-
ward Luang Prabang, capital of
Laos.
Paris Has No Information.
South Korean Foreign Minis
ter Pyun Yung Tai said in an
interview with Associated Press
Correspondent Relman Norm
that his country has offered a
division to anti-Communist fore
es in Indo-China fighting under
the French Union banner.
A source in the French Min
istry of Foreign Affairs in Paris
said it had no information on
such an offer.
In Tokyo. the Japanese news
paper Nippon Times said Amer
lean Air Force units are. flying
small-scale support airlifts for
French troops in Indo-China.
from Japan via Formosa and the
Philippines.
Statement Sharply Worded.
Shortly after the Pyun inter-
view. President Syngman Rhee's
government issued a sharply
worded statement declaring:
From the United States we
ask only that it give us the serv-
ices of its great soldier. Gen
Van Fleet, who achieved such
miracles in creating the Korean
army and in fighting the Com
munistS in Greece.
I'VE want Gen. Van Fleet to
come and help us organize our
own forces and at the same time
train and organize the armies of
1ndo-China. He could. with his
tremendous energy. do both jobs,
and we would cooperate by pro-
viding our own army officers to
help in the training of the Indo-
Chinese"
AS commander of the United
States 9th Army until his re-
tirement late in the Korean
War. Gen. Van Fleet supervised
the training of South Korea
army.
Takes Swipe at U. S.
In a swipe at United States
and United Nations policy in
Korea. the South Korean gov
eminent declared:
Our own war has beer stale
mated by those who pursue a
selfish, personal interest and
who seek to prevent us from
unifying our country. The least
we can do. then, is to nelp a
neighboring nation before it is
completely overrun by the en-
envy.
IF we are not allowed to An
ish our own war or to assist
another free country in distress,
what hope is there for saving
any of the free nations, includ-
ing the United States, from the
Communists?
Some Americans may be OPP
posed to active intervention to
help the spread of Communism
in Southeast Asia, but we be-
lieve that an overwhelming ma
jority of our friends in the
United States will applaud a
realistic approach to the prob
lem. Most of them know, as we
do, that to lose in Southeast
Asia is to give up to Com
munism the whole of the Asian
continent and its adjacent
waters and islands"
Plight of Laos Cited.
The South Korean statement,
although saying Laos had made
two urgent appeals. did not
state they had been made to
South Korea.
Karl Hong-kee, ROK spokes-
tSee TROOPS, Page A-5)