WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE: U.S. ESCALATES WAR IN LAOS, HILL DISCLOSES; CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE 14 APRIL 1970

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000300010002-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 2, 2002
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 20, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

i,1 WASHINGTON POST
Approved For Release 290/R221c~IA-RDP72-00337R000300010002-3
U.S0 Esca1ates
reasons unrelated to national
security.
'h
iii Censorship took out ofte
transcript all summary figures
ar" ra iLaos - on costs; every refernece to
the Central Intelligence Agen-.
cy's operations, which include
training, equipping, supplying.
js1ose and directing Gen. Vang Pao's
"clandestine" army of UP os
: ;.,
36,000 00 Me o tribesmen in Laos:
all references to the use of
Thailand's forces in Laos; do-1
wasmnaton Pose Staff writer from Laos; .figures showing SEN. STUAiT SYMINGTON
The United States is engaged in "heavy escalation" of the escalation of American air . . . relelases testimony
its air war in Laos while trying to de-escalate the war in ingk pauses""aor therha t in th0 The SymiY~gton subcommit-
Vietnam, a Senate inquiry disclosed yesterday. air war against North Viet- tee was focused primarily subcom on
When the American bombing of North Vietnam ended nam, 1' other critical facts. the war in the north. But both
on Nov. 1, 1968, U.S. air power shifted to hit the predom, Por,ions of the story can be portions of the Laotian con-
reconstructed or estimated, flict interact with the war in
inant.ly North Vietnamese troops in Laos, the record however, despite the deletions. Vietnam, militarily and diplo-
;shows. The, U.S. bombing of Laos, testified William H. Sul- A typical deletion in the matically.
Laos, secretly begun in 1964 by livan, former ambassador in
" r total cost of all U.S. Sullivan, who worked on the
East Asian transcript reads:
fPresident Johnson, was report- ry of and now state for assistant
s, ed to have doubled in Mav, activities in Laos, including 1962 1962 ador' Geneva to Laos accords, became
m-amba ~1969, and nearly tripled last and Pacific affairs. air operations against the no bar, ssad i-to Laos Leonard . 1964, August. After more than 100 meet- Chi Minh Trail, is about (de Unger.
i ings with administration offi- feted) billion a year. Of this,
A Senate head Relations cials, Symington's subcommit- leted) billion y dear billion North Vietnam failed to
subcommittee headed by Sen. - tee on U.S. commitments
Stuart Symington (D Moe Yen is related directly to our ef- comply with the 1962 Geneva
terday made public the van- abroad salvaged 237 pages of forts In South Vietnam." neutrality agreements "from
censored transcript. U.S. air strikes in Laos have their inception," Sullivan testi--month `s results e six President; Nixon pierced the. been reported to run up to 600 fied, withdrawing only a token
str trug ggle wit h h the Executive tive number and retaining About
over . Branch releasing testi? censorship deadlock when he or more sorties a day. 6,000 troop, while the United
mony taken en last October about disclosed, on March 6, ,a few The transcript shows that in States oops but all its bed
the secret U.S. role in Laos. selected portions of U.S. activ- northern Laos the average sor?. men.
It shows that by agreement ities in Laos, emphasizing that tie c6sts'$3,190 and delivers 2.2 United States, in No-
with Laotian Premier Sou- they began under "two pre-'tons of bombs. This would add Th~ vious administrations." up to a cost of $1,914,000,f or a vember, 1962, agreed to provide.
va Phouma the United But the new record shows'day of 600 air sorties. supplies and repair parts for
,States responde ponded in 1st viola- that the war in Laos involves President Nixon on March 6 U.S.-supplied equipment and
tions of 1962 Gen viola- far more than "1,040 Ameri-originally said that "No Amer- other material "as permitted"
'cod Laotian of an Geneva neutrality by ac- cans . . stationed in Laos" lean stationed in Laos had under they Geneva accords,
them tooo. . The U.S. as the President's guarded 'ever been' killed in ground said Sullivan. Then in 1963 share of this North Vietnamese and Pathet
violating
statement listed. combat operations." But the
decision ha s bout
' The hearings disclose, as inquiry, confirming Lao troops broke the accords,
figures
"billions of f dollars," and about he said, by attacking neutral-
200 American lives, the record subcommittee sources put it disclosed in the dispute over forces and "in 1964 North
that "tens of thousands" of that statement, shows there Vist ietnam began markedly tol
indicates. Americans are involved in the have been "something under : et -_ e support to the
tiro, the American Ambassa training, advisory, supply and , killed in Laos." Most of these
dor in Vientiane virtually has intelligence work - operating were airmen, but nearly 50 are
operated as co-commander of from Thailand, from South listed as "civilian and ?mili-
the war in northern Laos: he
controls a U.S. mission of air, Vietnam and from U.S. air- lacy personnel assigned to
craft carriers at sea. the U.S. mission in Laos..
ground and intelligence advis- Symington expressed the. There are "two wars" in
ers that coordinates American hope, in making the transcript Laos. One is. what began as a
and Laotian air and ground
there n Laos; public,. that it. will help pre- "civil war". in the north, in
operations "another Vietnam." which the main Communist
r the northern
arranges
trainingbases (p s; in No conclusions or findings forces consist of constantly in-
marine s foir in
at A
Thailand) of Lao troops, and accompany the report, partly creasing numbers of North Vi.
supplies American military because it is incomplete. The etnamese troops; this is the
and economic funds to Laos subcommittee staff noted that air and ground war that the
that are larger than the Lao- It had gained release of 90 per American Embassy mission in
cent of the transcript, but Vientiane is deeply engaged in
tions' own contribution to
chief consultant Walter 11, running, The other war in
their nation's economy. Pincus stated In a covering, Laos is the American air war
The Laotian Premier "made letter that the public's "right against the so-called Ho Chi
d
t
us
it clear that he wante
~: ~h}~}~
o }~, t) 1 say as little as possihRr'I 1X to avo 1, 1 / ,~~l
t . r 2ii~
ib* PA
j American military action , in to avoi e s W 99
administrations or officials for North to South.yjetnam.
{pro-t,vmniuula.J [ aUl..
and its use of the Ho Chi
Minh trail .."
411n the same spirit, of pro-
portionate response to North
Vietnamese violations of the
agreements," Sullivan testi-
fied, "and as part of our effort
to assist south Vietnam in Its.
defense," the United States;
began "air operations" and
considerably expanded its
ground support.
Sullivan insisted the United
States is free to "terminate"
its operations in Laos at any
time.
The "fi.rst U.S. reconnais-
sance flight was flown over the
0106 2p3rt of Laos May 19,
1964, after consultation with
con Uinued
 Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP72-00337R000300010002-3
Primo Minister Souvannalheing very carefully slruc-
Phouma the previous day," tured,"
Sullivan testified. The agreement held admira-
That was acknowledged by bly for six years. The Russians
the United States on June 6 of know what was going on, the
that year-when the first "un- record shows; So did the North
armed" plane was shot down. Vietnamese and Pathet Lao.
But armed escort planes were The American public was de-
secretly added in the mean- pendent upon its newsmen-if
time; the first of these was they could pierce the secrecy
shot down June 7, 1964. barrier.
By agreement between Sou- Sullivan gave the adminis-
vanna and Ambassador Unger, tration's principi explanation
said Sullivan, it was decided for official secrecy about
that "Firing on ground targets American operqtions in Laos:
by the escort aircraft would to maintain the "initial under-
not be acknowledged and standing we had, with the Sovi-
would be kept out of discus- ets" in 1962 about neutralizing
sion with the press on grounds Laos. Even if a Soviet official
of being an operational mat- "reads things in the 'newspa.
ter." pers . . . he does not have to
"The United States began take any official cognizance of
bombing of Lao territory them. But if they are made di,
along the Ho Chi Minh trail in rectly by U.S. officials he does
early 1965," Sullivan said, ini- have to take cognizance of
tially bombing jointly with the them..."
Royal Lao Air Force, For the United States to
said "It involves no stationing
of U.S. combat forces, no com-
mitments and, in comparison
with Vietnam, a fairly modest
and inconspicuous deployment
of personnel and resources."
But Col. Robert L. F. Tyrell,
chief U.S.. air attache in Laos
and actually the U.S. air oper-
ations commander there under
the ambassador, testified that
in addition to conducting air
strikes in Laos from multiple
bases in Thailand, "we have
had aircraft operating from
Danang, Pleiku (in South
Vietnam) ... and also from
the 7th Fleet."
The air operations center In
Laos is "staffed by Lao and
Americans," said Tyrell.
The testimony revealed that
logistics support for U.S. army
and air attaches In Laos has
been covertly handled from
]American bases in Thailand,
were the "cover title" ' of dep-
iuty chief of the American mil-
itary assistance group in Thai-
land conceals the Laos sup-
port function.
In Thailand, Lao are taught
to fly, their troops are trained,
their planes are repaired.
The tesitmony also showed
that President Nixon's March
6 statement about the number
of Americans "stationed" in
Laos hides the fact that other
American personnel-the
number was censored-"drift
in and out" of Laos on "tempo-
rary" assignment.
Sullivan testified: "The orig-
inal understanding between
my predecessor and the Prime
Minister of Laos was premised
upon statements being
admissions publicly to edd
ue." He did, f
Symington said he discov-!
ered in 1965, when he was In!
Southeast Asia during the 37-~
day halt in the U.S. bombing
of North Vietnam, that in "one
day there were, nevertheless,
378 strikes against Laos, so
that must have meant, at that
time, the planes which had
been hitting North Vietnam
were shifted to hitting Laos."
"Heavy Escalation" -
In 1069, he said "the figures
which Col. Tyrell shows em-
phasize there has been a
heavy escalation of our mili-
tary effort in Laos."
The record disclosed that the
United States is not only pay-
ing more than half the cost of
operating the Royal Govern-
ment of Laos, but until this
year il; was paying, as well,
two-thirds of the costs of
operating all of the Laotian
embagsles in foreign countries.
Symington said that as the
result - of th
tr
sf
ti
e
an
orma
on
Vietnam continues to deny it
t h a t t Laos has experienced
has some 67,000 troops there,, ih h th U S
i
l
said Sullivan, "gives them a
totally - unfair, totally 'legal
protection." . '
"In the meantime you are
deceiving the American peo-
ple and the Congress," count-.'
ered Sen. J. W. Fulbright.
Similarly, Sen. Symington.
said:. "We. say we are an open
society, and the enemy is a
closed society ... Here we are
telling Americans they must
fight and die to maintain an'
open society, but not telling,
our people what we are doing."
Sullivan countered; "I-must
-
say, Mr. Chairman, -that I- con
sider.these hearings as a very
sincere token of an open so-
ciety."
Symington, who is a'mem-
ber of both the Senate Armed
rug e .
nvo
vement
in Its war,' it Is now "impos
sible for Laos to live without
the United States'." ' , ,
Services Committee and For-
eign Relations Committee and.
has inspected U.S.- operations,
in Laos, was surprised to find'
that t h e s e activities were,
greater than he knew.
He told Sullivan that he had
not.known that U.S. forward
air controllers "were working
with Laotian troops in the-
planes with them, targeting
Laotian bombers."
The record showed the,
American forward air control-;
lers were not even requested
by the Laotians, but that the'
U.S. "country team determined
they were necessary . "
.A simiar indication of Amer-
ican control at both the re-
questing and the complying) I
Pao "was considering moving
bd F Ref a o2M/#t$fi2
lines" but the. American Em-,
bassy urged,' :him:..'Sto contin?
CIA-RDP72-00337R000300010002-3
 April 14, 1970, CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-, SENATE
aerospace industry can make a meaningful
long-range contribution in pre-fabricated
housing field, especially in the electrical,
water and air cooling systems for such
homes.... aerospace managment and work-
ers who can build 30 engines for Apollo 11
most certainly have the work experience and
required skills to move in the direction of
providing a new power source for automo-
biles ... a power source that is cheap, effec-
tive and clean. And certainly a team that can
'house' astronauts can come up with a mass
rapid transit vehicle to 'house' commuters,
especially for those who lack job opportuni-
ties because of no serviceable public trans-
portation."
We are attempting to say that we must
view a healthy employment picture in terms
of a balanced, diversified economy, recogniz-
ing that national security is an all encom-
passing concept. We must bring balance and
reason into economic growth . we must
bring enlightenment and imagination into
our policy decisions.
Perhaps a young 17th Century French
philosopher and mathematician said it all
when he observed: "We do not display great-
ness by going to one extreme, but in touching
both at once, and filling all the intervening
space."
Mr. Chairman and members of the commit-
tee, we appreciate your kind attention to our
remarks and again wish to commend you for
holding hearings on the most vital issue of
the tiny.
Thank you.
LAS O NEXT STEP IN THE BIG
MUDDY"
Mr. EAGLETON. Mr. President, I in-
vite attention to an excellent article on
Laos, written by the Senator from Cali-
fornia (Mr. CRANSTON) which was pub-
lished in the Nation on March 30, 1970.
The article, subtitled "Next Step in the
Big Muddy, ' lucidly sets forth the haz-
ards of the Laos situation and the danger
that the United States might be drawn
into a wider war in Southeast Asia. I ask
unanimous consent that Senator CRAN-
sToN's article be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the Article
was ordered to be printed in the RECORD,
as follows:
LAos: NEXT STEP IN THE BIG MUDDY
(By Senator ALAN CRANSTON)
WASHINGTON.-The people spoke In.. 1968,
and they spoke against the war in Vietnam.
But now It is 1970, and American men are
still fighting and dying there. Some troops
have been withdrawn, but the Nixon Admin-
istration has never made it plain that it in-
tends to get all our fighting men out of
Vietnam, this year, next year, or any year.
It, like the administration before it, seems
either unable or unwilling to muster the
courage to change our course.
Now there looms the danger of a new Viet-
nam in Laos. The war in Laos and the war
in Vietnam are separate parts of the same
conflict.
The Administration, it seems to me, is pur-
suing a double-risk policy that could keep
American troops in Southeast Asia for years.
On the one hand, there is convincing evi-
dence that U.S. military involvement in Laos
is being escalated in much the same way that
we escalated in Vietnam in 1964. On the other
hand, Vietnamization is beginning to look
more and more like a convenient way for us
to create an army of`South Vietnamese mer-
cenaries to continue a conflict that is neither
in our national interests nor in those of the
Vietnamese people.
The war between Communist and other
factions in Laos had been sputtering along in
a sleepy fashion for years, both sides taking
pains to avoid each other whenever possible.
Sometimes one side would win, sometimes
the other; it depended on the season of the
year and the zeal of the local commanders.
In recent years, however, there have been
alarming changes in the situation. The
United States has created a secret mercenary
army of Meo tribesmen. It is commanded
by Laotian officers, but its men are recruited,
paid, armed, trained and advised by the
CIA, and by U.S. military officers. The regu-
lar Laotian army seems to have been re-
placed on the battle lines by these Meo
mercenaries. That, Nationalist Chinese and
Filipino troops also are reported in Laos.
Last summer, the Meo went on the offen-
sive and overran North Vietnamese and
Pathet Lao positions on the Plain of Jars.
The Meo displayed more initiative and de-
termination than is generally seen in Laos.
Predictably, the offensive alarmed the other
side. A counterattack was launched and dur-
ing the last few weeks, our badly extended
mercenaries were pushed back. So the vio-
lence on the ground has increased, in part
because of American involvement in the war.
While U.S. efforts were helping to escalate
the ground war in Laos, American planes were
stepping up the air war at an incredible rate.
American air activity there jumped from
4,500 sorties a month when the United
States was still bombing North Vietnam, to
between 12,500 and 15,000 a month today.
Much of the increase is our response to ex-
panded use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail by the
North Vietnamese, but American bombing
missions into other parts of Laos are also sig-
nificant factor's.
The exact nature of the bombing is not
known because, like the other aspects of our
involvement in Laos, the operations are
shrouded in secrecy. In almost every way,
the war in Laos has been a secret war. The
Administration has kept it that way because
the United States signed a treaty declaring
we would keep our military personnel out of
Laos.
-Specifically, the Geneva Accords, signed by
the United States and thirteen other coun-
tries in 1962, state that "the introduction of
foreign regular and irregular troops, foreign
pare-military formations and foreign mili-
tary personnel into Laos is prohibited." The
treaty defines foreign military personnel td
include "members of foreign military mis-
sions, foreign military advisors, experts, in-
structors, consultants, technicians, observers
and any other foreign military persons. .."
In short, the United States is violating the
Geneva Accords` and has been violating them
for many years. So the Administration has
tried to keep the press at bay and to avoid
testifying publicly on the real nature of our
involvement in Laos.
The Communists, of course, know ? what
we are doing. It's no military secret to them
that we bomb them or that our mercenaries
attack them. The Communists are violating
the Geneva Accords-and won't admit it.
The United States is violating the Accords-
and won't admit it.
"Civilian" pilots hired by the CIA and AID
fly our mercenaries and their supplies around
the country, and the government covers the
whole thing up as a relief operation to pro-
vide supplies for refugees. When the planes
are shot down, the embassy in Vientiane
simply attributes their loss to bad weather
conditions. The Administration conveniently
forgets how this practice distorts and per-
verts the whole concept of foreign assistance.
Meanwhile, our military planes blast away
from the air with a considerable degree of
immunity. There are those who seem really
not to care if the same friendly village is
hit three times-as actually happened in
Laos-or if women and children in unfriendly
villages are burned to death. Money for the
secret army and the disguished air flights is
buried in CIA and AID budgets, hidden from
S 5687
the people and their elected representatives.
A congenial host perpetuates this sham
by piously repeating from time to time that
"there are no foreign troops in Laos except
North Vietnamese." Souvanna Phouma
knows perfectly well. that his statement is
nonsense. Enterprising reporters have proved
it nonsense. Senators and Representatives
know it is nonsense--and are asking the Ad-
ministration to set the record straight.
President Nixon has responded by issuing
what he calls a precise description of Ameri-
can activities in Laos.' He reported, among
other things, that "no American stationed
in Laos has ever been killed in ground com-
bat operations" A day later, the Los Angeles
Times disclosed that Capt. Joseph K. Bush,
Jr., an American military adviser, was killed
in ground combat at Muong Soui, on the
western edge of the Plain of Jars, on Feb-
ruary 11, 1969. The White House acknowl-
edged that Captain Bush had been killed by
hostile fire, and stated that the President
had not been told of his death. He, like the
American public, learned about it from an
American press which, fortunately, has re-
fused to be intimiated by the Administra-
tion's efforts to soften or silence its report-
ing of the wars in Southeast Asia.
The White House then went on to argue
that Captain Bush was not killed in Laotian
"ground combat operations." However, he
was awarded a Silver Star posthumously,' and
the citation says that he killed two enemy
soldiers before he fell while defending a
compound at Muong Bout.
It is impossible, perhaps, to define "ground
combat," there being so many ways to inter-
pret the mission of men who, in fact, engage
in ground combat. But there is a second
nicety of definition in Mr. Nixon's state-
ment 'that we must not gloss over. The three
key words are "stationed in Laos."
I have asked the President how many men
not "stationed in Laos" have been killed
there. The question needs answering because
I have talked with young Americans who
were stationed in Vietnam and who tell me
they were sent across the border into Laos.
They say they were armed, and on military
missions. They say they were under orders
that, if captured, they were to tell the enemy
that they had become lost, misread their
maps, and strayed into Laos. They were to
say that they thought all along that they
were inside Vietnam.
One former GI tells me has was sent with
others to pick up American dead in Laos and
to bring them back to Vietnam. The slain
would then be counted as casualties in Viet-
nam, not casualties in Laos.
The President's statement on Laos also
sought to persuade us that most of the inter-
vention on the ground in Laos is by North
Vietnam, not by the United States. He de-
clared that 67,000 North Vietnamese troops
are in Laos, and compared this to what he
declared to be a total of 1,040 Americans
directly employed by the U.S. Government
in Laos, or employed on contract by our gov-
ernment, or by government contractors, in
Laos. But Mr. Nixon rnade no reference to our
army of Meo mercenaries. They change the
comparison considerably. Estimates of Meo
troop strength run as high as 40,000 men.
I have asked the President to divulge the
maximum number of Meo tribesmen that
have been on the American payroll during
the Johnson administration, and during his
own Administration.
There are those in the present Adminis-
tration who seem determined to make an-
other bad little war into another bad big
war. But it won't be as easy to embroil the
nation as deeply in Laos as it has become em-
broiled in Vietnam. The U.S. Senate has
made it more difficult for this Administra-
tion-or any adminnistration-to send full
battalions and divisions of American troops
into Laos. Congress adopted an amendment
to the Armed Services Appropriations bill,
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 S 5688
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -SENATE April 14, 1970-
Offered by Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, stipu-
lating that none of its funds could be used
to Introduce ground combat troops into Laos
or Thailand without prior consent of Con-
But even with the Senate amendment,
even with the strong concern and criticism
in Congress, and the accurate and deter-
mined reporting by the press, 'we're already
knee-deep in a new Big Muddy.
Meanwhile, the old Big Muddy oozes along,
sucking up lives and dollars at a steady rate..
.There is a great danger that the Nixon Ad-
ministration still seeks victory in Vietnam;
at the least, it is obviously planning to use
American artillerymen, airmen and support
troops to prolong the conflict.
Under Richard Nixon, Vietnamization
has become just another way of paying for-
eign -troops to fight a war the Administra-
tion wants to wage. In Laos we hire mer-
'cenaries; In Vietnam a more sophisticated
method is used. The Saigon generals forcibly
conscript Vietnamese boys into their army.
We pay their salaries indirectly through for-
eign assistance; we provide their arms, equip-
ment and training directly. Then these
youngsters go out and do the dirty work
for us and for the repressive dictatorship
which most of them dislike and distrust. The
dirty work, of course, is to kill other
Vietnamese.
The President's form of Vietngmiza,tion will
not end the war. It will prolong it. His form
of Vietnamization does not mean that we
are going to pull all our troops out. Some-
,inCluding combat troops--will, be in Viet-
nam Indefinitely. A secret timetable is not a
timetable at all; It is a device, whereby an
administration attempts to claim credit for
the things it does, meanwhile hiding all
that it isn't doing or could bedoing faster.
It is as if a railroad announced that all its
trains were running on time-but refused to
publish a timetable,
President Nixon's form of Viptnaipization
means we shall continue to prop up the
Thieii-Ky clique-as repressive and unrepre-
sentative today as it has ever been. I would
support a policy of providing a truly repre-
sentative government in South Vietnam with
enough assistance to match the outside as-
sistance given to insurgents who seek its
Overthrow. But the said fact is that there
is no representative government in Saigon,
nor any sign that one will emerge in the
future. The sea fact is that, instead of mov-
ing toward peace in Vietnam, we are simply
moving toward another kind of war-a war
that resembles on a much larger scale the
conflict in Laos.
Unlike the war in Laos, the war in Vietnam
is no secret. The American people are aware
of it, hate it, and want us. to get out of it.
After a grace period for the Nixon Adminis-
tration that lasted ten months, Americans
and their elected officials renewed their de-
mands for an end to that war.
Reacting to this pressure, the Administra-
tion began the gradual withdrawal of front-
line American combat troops-while our air
and support troops remain the same. Fewer
American lives are being lost, the number of
troops in Vietnam is going down instead of
up, and the immediacy of the war begins to
fade from public concern.
To keep it fading, the Administration has
attacked the mass media-which has re-
ported the war to the. Americanpeople as its
reporters have seen it. At the same time,
reporters In Laos who tried to tell the story
found that they had thereby forfeited some
of their rights to protection as American
citizens.
On February 24, the press reported that
one plane per minute was leaving the secret
American-run base. at Long Cheng in Laos. It
also revealed that many armed Americans in
civilian clothes were active in the battle then
sputtering on the Piain, of -Jars. The plucky
reporters who filed that story were arrested
by Laotians. And the American ambassador
in Laos promptly declared: "The American
Mission has lost any interest in the press
whatsoever because of what happened this
afternoon."
I was under the illusion that embassies
overseas were supposed to protect American
citizens, not to wash their hands of them. But
the secrecy of this dirty little war has prob-
ably given Ambassador Godley the illusion
that he is a Roman proconsul. It's no wonder
then that he speaks more like Pontius Pilate
than like an American official. It is the kind
of mentality that got us into the Southeast
Asian quagmire in the first place.
The American press continues to report on
American activities in Laos and Vietnam. But
it will take more than journalism to keep
Laos from becoming another Vietnam, and
to keep Vietnam from turning into a giant
Laos. Specific steps must be taken:
All our fighting men must be withdrawn
from both countries.
The withdrawal must be on a timetable
announced in advance.
If a true representative government should
come to power in South Vietnam, the United
States should provide enough assistance to
match the outside assistance given to in-
surgents seeking its overthrow.
It may be more hygienic for us at home to
know that our tax dollars, which pay for
bombs and napalm and foreign mercenaries,
are responsible for more and more of the kill-
ing in Vietnam, and American foot soldiers
for less and less. I submit that to the Viet-
namese girl who is raped, it make little dif-
ference whether Americans of South Viet-
namese assault her. And it makes little
difference to the people of a Vietnamese or
Laotian village whether the American weap-
ons that kill them are handled by American
citizens or American mercenaries. They are
dead: we helped kill them. Surely that is all
that counts to those who may survive.
And it is all that should count for us. No
matter how you slice it, or paper it over, or
patch it up, this is an unjust, immoral and
unnecessary war. I am truly sorry for the
people of Southeast Asia who bear the bur-
den of it. They deserve better leadership than
either side in the conflict can give them. But
we cannot select their governments for them,
and we cannot order their societies for them.
That is their responsibility, not ours.
Our first responsibility is to peace. The
Nixon policy will not bring peace- --it will
only bring more war and more killing. As
long as we continue to support an unpopu-
lar government in Saigon and as long as we
refuse to send a top-level negotiator to Paris,
there will be no peace in Vietnam,
Our second responsibility is to ourselves.
And we cannot begin to meet that responsi-
bility until we get our troops all the way out
of Southeast Asia. The issue is not whether
Americans fight the war or Vietnamese light
the war. The issue is the war itself. The issue
cannot be diffused. It will not go away.
It will haunt the dreams of a generation
of Americans for years to come. We shall not
be whole again until it is ended. We must at
last be true to the best of our heritage, not
to the worst.
THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
KATYN FOREST MASSACRE
Mr. GURNEY. Mr. President, in April
1940, the Soviet Union cruelly and ruth-
lessly murdered more than 15,000 Polish
officers. These young men were com-
pletely defenseless, having been captured
during the Stalin-Hitler rape of Poland
which began in September 1939, The site
of this infamous deed is a name which
still brings shudders of revulsion to free
men: The mass graves were located in
the Katyn Forest in eastern Poland.
Invading German armies discovered
the mass graves at Katyn containing
more than 4,000 corpses,. The Interna-
tional l ed,Cross was summoned and in-
vestigated, fixing the blame on the Rus-
sians. The Reds made an effort to lay
this vicious massacre at the feet of the
German armies, but subsequent investi-
gations, including one by Congress, leave
little doubt that the Soviets were re-
sponsible. We also learned that the Rus-
sians loaded more than 11,000 bodies of
these young patriots on barges, sailed
them into the White Sea, and sank them
by shelling them.
Mr. President, on the 30th anniversary
of this melancholy event, it is well for
Congress to remember this tragedy and
pay tribute to the brave young men who
fought and died defending Polish liberty.
When we sit down to negotiate with the
Soviet Union at Vienna and elsewhere,
we should remember that we are dealing
with a regime which countenance mass
murder and used mass murder as an in-
strument of its national policy.
World War II began, as we know, in
defense of Polish freedom. It ended in
the subjugation of Poland. The Russian
masters of Poland doubtless had an
easier time setting up their puppet
regime because of Katyn. Had these
young, vigorous, talented, and freedom-
loving officers survived the war, they
doubtless would have opposed the ty-
rant' of a Stalin puppet regime in 1945,
just as they fought a Hitler-Stalin take-
over of Poland in 1939.
WOMEN AND THE LAW
Mr. TYDINGS. Mr. President, equal
justice under law is one of the funda-
mental principles on which our Nation
was founded. The legal realities, unfor-
tunately, sometimes fall short of this
principle.
I am speaking of legal discrimination
against women.
In a most interesting article, entitled
"Women and the Law," in the March
issue of the Atlantic, Diane Schulder, a
New York attorney, discusses flagrant
injustices in the areas of employment,
civil rights, welfare law, criminal law,
and abortion law.
It is time to stop treating women as
second-class citizens. To all persons con-
cerned with injustice in American so-
ciety, I commend this thoughtful ar-
ticle. I ask unanimous consent that it
be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article
was ordered to be printed in the RECORD,
as follows:
WOMEN AND THE LAW
(By Diane Schulder)
The United States Constitution once
blatantly described the black man as three
fifths of a man and the Supreme Court de-
cided that black people did not qualify as
"citizens." Women in our legal history have
not been treated much better. Most sex-dis-
criminating laws have been explained as
"protective" of women; women's innate in-
feriority has been assumed. The Supreme
Court made this clear in 1908:
.. , history discloses the fact that woman
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