DRAFT PRESS RELEASE

10/14/66

Governor Rockefeller today announced appointment of a State
Planning Coordination Board Special Subcommittee composed of
citizens and State officials to plan for the economic growth and
development of New York State in the Post-South Viet Nam period.

"It is imperative," the Governor noted, "that in addition
to the ongoing planning activities now being coordinated by the
recently established Office of Planning Coordination, that the
State make a special effort to prepare for the effect of the
cessation of hostilities in South Viet Nam which will have a
profound impact on the New York State economy and the needs of
its people. For example, we must be fully prepared for an
adjustment period accompanying the end of such hostilities which
are now drawing upon a tremendous portion of our State's human
and material resources.

"Involvement by the United States in military hostilities
results in special patterns of tremendous expenditures through-
out the Nation and in New York State. The lives of many people
are importantly affected--men and women serving in the Armed
Forces, as well as those presently employed because of expanded
military production. The curtailment of the production of
military material will require adjustments in the demands,

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markets, and employment conditions. I am asking this Special
Subcommittee to advise me regarding the public and private steps
required on a regional basis to offset or compensate for, to
the extent possible, these changes.

"We in New York have made unprecedented advances in providing
for education and advanced education, in establishing and con-
ducting training and retraining programs responsive to known
needs, in development of financial and advisory services to
business, and in promoting programs of comprehensive importance
such as medical assistance, and for abatement of air and water
pollution.

"In this instance it is of special importance, however, that
our plans and programs be designed to meet the particular needs
of an individual, who through no fault of his own, has had his
education, his career, or his business development plans seriously
interrupted."

The Governor asked that a special review be given the educa-
tional and retraining needs of returning veterans and those
displaced by a change in an area's industrial makeup and that
advisory and financial services for business development be
explored.

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He also requested a careful review of the impact of the end
of the country's involvement in hostilities on employment in the
several regions and consideration of the need to plan for
specialized promotional and industrial development activities
on the basis of known regional economic characteristics.

Staff assistance for the Special Subcommittee will be provided
through the Office of Planning Coordination.

The Governor appointed Martin P. Catherwood, Industrial
Commissioner; Keith S. McHugh, Commissioner of Commerce; Ronald
B. Peterson, Director of the Office of Planning Coordination;
James E. Allen, Jr., Commissioner of Education; and Samuel B.
Gould, President of the State University of New York, as the
State officials, and the following representatives of business,
labor, educational, and financial communities:

(Names suggested by R. B. Peterson; they have not been
checked in any way.)

Dr. Ralph S. Halford, formerly Dean, Graduate School
of Business Administration at Columbia

Philip Young, member of U. S. Civil Service Commission
under Eisenhower

Dr. John W. Graham, Jr., President of Clarkson

Guy Suits, Gerald Phillipi, or Ralph Cordiner of
General Electric

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David Rockefeller

William G. Gisel, President, Bell Aero Systems

Alfred C. Neal, head of Committee on Economic Development
in New York City

Labor Representative

"In making these appointments," the Governor said, "the
needs are real, the timing uncertain. I urge your immediate
attention to this important request."

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# A ROCKEFELLER CALL FOR A NEW VIETNAM POLICY

The Governor of New York, Nelson A. Rockefeller, now has concluded that American policy in Vietnam needs urgent review and profound revision. Until now, the Republican Governor had steadfastly supported the Democratic Administration's decisions and actions in Vietnam. He no longer believes he can do so. He now finds the sum of these decisions and actions to be "a failure to be faced". And he appeals to the Administration to lead "a courageous and honest act of national self-examination".

There follows the full text of the interview in which Mr. Rockefeller states his stand and his reasons.

Q. The present moment in the war in Southeast Asia appears clearly marked by two events: a slackening of progress in Vietnam and a quickening of debate in the United States. In these circumstances, have you revised your own views on American policy?

A. I have had to revise my views -- painfully but definitely. You know that I supported the President and our government in their military effort from the outset. With them, I have hoped that this effort would restore general peace, deter Communist aggression, and guard Vietnamese freedom. I am, therefore, no conventional critic. If a government has

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months since we moved from the role of advisor to combatant
in Vietnam. It is 20 months since Senate Majority Leader
Mike Mansfield came back from Vietnam to warn that the conflict-
threatened to become, to grave excess, an American war. It is
18 months since the President and the South Vietnam Premier
met in Hawaii to join in hopeful pledges of peace and democracy
for the Vietnam countryside. After all this, it hardly seems
precipitate now to question the wisdom of the course we have
set. And with the size and the cost of our effort, it hardly
seems wise to defer any longer the obvious need: a courageous
and honest act of national self-examination.
Of the premises in
relate our policy is based.

Q. Can you expect this not to be construed as a
partisan critique or maneuver to serve the Republican Party
in 1968?

A. I expect the facts to speak for themselves.

First: I had myself endorsed an Administration policy that I
now believe demands urgent restudy. Second: since I am not
and will not be a candidate for the Republican Presidential
nomination next year, I think I can ask to be heard as one
speaking with no regard to next year's election. And third:
since I believe critical decisions should be made now, I
obviously am thinking in terms of national action by the
present Administration -- not partisan action against it.

Q. What kind of restudy or reappraisal are you
urging?

A. I am urging a persistent and imaginative
quest for peace through negotiation. The terrain for this

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in these. We are fighting a war growing ever larger and
bloodier -- avowedly against our national desire. We continue
increasing our commitment in that war -- precisely as popular
support for it, at home and in the world, continues decreasing.
We declare our gravest concern to be the containment of Chinese
Communism -- while Peking alone can rejoice in a conflict that
menaces Hanoi, wracks Saigon, alarms Moscow, and divides Wash-
ington. I cannot scan any of this and find in it much proof
of American statesmanship.

Q. There inevitable follows the question: what
would you do precisely?

A. There are no wonder drugs or Aladdin lamps or
flying carpets in world affairs. I recall the answer of
Charles Evans Hughes to the question of what advice he would
give the Secretary of State: "I should ask for an opportunity,"
he said, "to go through the papers." Today, I would probe
those papers exhaustively for any opening -- through Moscow
or Bucharest or Peking -- to begin a serious dialogue with.
Hanoi. Has not our government strived to do just this? I
would believe so. But all I know is that the striving has, to
date, failed. The true problem now is not to assign the blame --
but to seek the cause -- for this failure to get to the
conference table. A critical part of the cause clearly is the
fact that Hanoi, reasonably or not, does not believe Washington's
desire for peace. To this scepticism, I fear we have contributed
by a kind of rhythmic accompaniment of almost every appeal for
political settlement with an announcement of military escalation.