The Ford Administration may try to forge a link between U.S. aid to Israel and its efforts to persuade Congress to vote supplemental aid to South Vietnam and Cambodia, Peter Lisagor, Washington correspondent of the Chicago Daily News reported today.
“Neither President Ford nor his spokesmen make the link explicitly. But in their emphasis on U.S. credibility as an ally and on the ‘moral commitment’ to embattled nations, they hope to make an implicit connection between Israel and Indochina,” Lisagor wrote. Because the Democrats who control Congress and even a majority of Republicans are not expected to support Ford’s $300 million aid request for the Saigon regime, the Administration is seeking to enlist the support of Congressional supporters of Israel, Lisagor said.
“It is not a novel ploy,” he wrote. “The late President Johnson often sought to prop up waning support for South Vietnam by insisting to pro-Israeli groups that they should not make distinctions in the U.S. effort to aid countries under siege. Meanwhile, the Administration is “coming down hard on the ‘moral commitment’ made by the U.S. in the Paris peace agreement to help South Vietnam defend itself. Administration sources concede that the ‘commitment argument’ might have to be made in the future in connection with aid to Israel. But supporters of Israel generally reject that argument,” Lisagor said.
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