END THE WAR IN VIETNAM!

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400550031-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: June 1, 1966
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

ORE and more killing is the only answer President Johnson seems
l~ able to give to the worldwide protests against the hideous U.S.
war against the people of Vietnam. It is his only answer to the demon-
strations of the people of South Vietnam against the hated U.S. pup-
pet government and against the U.S. presence in their country, which
have torn to shreds all his protestations about honoring "our commit-
ment to help Vietnam and turn back aggression from the North." It
is his only answer to the demands of the people of the United States
that the war be brought to in end, and to the public opinion polls
that show the sharp drop in his popularity among the American peo-
ple due to the continued escalation of the war.
The Pentagon has announced that another 100,000 troops will go
to Vietnam before the year's end. On June 9, Maj. Gen. Ben Stern-
berg, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, just returned from
26 months in Vietnam, said 500,000 more troops would be needed
there. In his latest news conference (June 18) President Johnson
threatened a still further escalation of the war, and increased bomb-
ing of the North. Even as lie was speaking, the bombing of targets
in South Vietnam by U.S. B-52's from Guam was increased from one
raid daily to three. And the Wall Street Journal reported from Wash-
ington, June 20:
The Johnson Administration is moving inexorably toward another significant
escalation of the Vietnam war the bombing of oil storage depots and per-
haps other power sources in North Vietnam.
Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk-you and all the
others who make U.S. policies-can you sleep well these nights? Surely
if you are human the bloody deeds for which you have been respon-
sible must have murdered sleep. Surely the ghosts move through
your nightmares of the tens of thousands of Vietnamese people-
the figure of 170,000 has been given-killed through the civil war
for which the United States is responsible, the countless thousands
of others maimed, burned by napalm, poisoned by chemicals, the
women and children, the old and the sick killed by our bombs in both
South and North Vietnam, the 24,000 dead and wounded American
soldiers, the ten flaming Buddhist suicides, the three Americans who
have immolated themselves, and now many more deaths as Ky's troops
move in with U.S. equipment to put clown by violence the Buddhist
and student dissidents in Danang, Hue, Quantri and Saigon itself.
Only brute force, which the U.S. Government has supported, has
NEW WORLD REVIEW
June 1966
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enabled Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and Chief of State Nguyen Van
Thieu to stay in power. They have already completely violated their
commitment to the Buddhists regarding a civilian government. The
addition of ten civilian nonentities to the generals' junta was a mean-
ingless gesture. The elections for a constituent assembly, scheduled
for September 11, will be equally meaningless. The Buddhist lead-
ers had expected that the assembly would be empowered to set up a
civilian government. Ky, who has confirmed his previous statement
that he expects to stay in, power for at least another year, has now
declared that this assembly must be dissolved after a constitution is
drafted and then the junta will hold another election for a national
legislative assembly to form the basis of a civilian government. The
Buddhists have stated repeatedly that they will boycott the elections
unless Ky and Thieu resign. But even without such a boycott elec-
tions would be meaningless with the National Liberation Front in con-
trol of about four-fifths of the territory of South Vietnam, an area
with a population of 10 million of the 14 million South Vietnamese.
The Buddhists are a peaceful people-as indeed are the Vietnamese
by nature. Buddhist protests have largely taken the form of moving
their household altars into the streets. In their demonstrations in
Danang, Hue and Saigon, they have made clear that while they are
not "pro-Communist," they are against continuing the war and against
U.S. interference in their affairs, and that only a civilian government
pledged to end the war will satisfy them. The use of armed force
against them, the placing of the militant leader Thich Tri Quang,
greatly weakened by a protest hunger strike, under house arrest in
Hue, and the police blockade of the Buddhist Secular Affairs Insti.
tute compound in Saigon, after an alleged shooting of a policeman
by a Buddhist youth, can only heighten the people's hatred of the Ky
regime.
Step Up Drive for Peace During Summer
E URGE all our readers to use the summer months to intensify,
their efforts to put an end to all this. Bombard the President,
your Senators and Congressmen with demands to end the war in Viet.
nam, agitate your neighbors to do likewise, write letters to the press, 2
seek out and join-or initiate-peace actions in your own vicinity,
support any peace candidate running in your areal
Votes for peace in the Congressional elections this fall will count
with the President more than anything else. His concern was shown
when White House press secretary Bill Moyers put in several calls on.
his behalf to California during the Democratic primaries. While only is
incumbents won among the candidates critical of the Vietnam war,;
a strong vote was piled up by three peace candidates in Northern:
California, who each polled about 45 per cent or more of the total
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 Keating, both connected with Ramparts magazine, and Philip V.
Drath.
Significant, too, was the vote of 86,149 rolled up by Dorothy Healey,
Communist Party spokesman, for the office of county assessor in Los
Angeles. Mrs. Healey's stress on the negative effects of the war in Viet-
nam on domestic issues was held to be a major factor in her gaining
the largest vote ever recorded by a Communist in this area.
While Howard M. Morgan, hacked by Senator Wayne Morse in
his stand against the Vietnam war, lost his race for the Democratic
nomination for Senator in Oregon to the Administration-backed
candidate, he too polled a considerable number of votes.
With some 100 candidates critical of Administration policies in
Vietnam, the fall Congressional elections offer an important oppor-
tunity to cast a vote for peace. New York has a co siderable number
of such candidates, especially in the ranks of the Reform Democrats,
who are being backed by various peace organizations. Communist
theoretician and writer, Dr. Herbert Aptheker, head of the American
Institute of Marxist Studies, is running on a Peace and Freedom
Ticket in Brooklyn's 12th Congressional District. Dr. Aptheker visited
North Vietnam a few months ago, with Prof. Staughton Lynd of Yale
University, and Thomas Hayden, a former President of SDS.
To assist in the campaigns of candidates "pledged to ending the
war in Vietnam and supporting grassroots anti-poverty, civil rights
program," an organization called the National Conference for New
Politics was set up in New York (with an office at 663 Fifth Avenue)
with offices also planned in Washington, D. C. and Los Angeles. Their
.$500,000 fund campaign to help peace candidates offers one construc-
tive form of participation. They have started a summer workshop
program to train campaign workers, the first beginning June 20 at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Co-chairman of the NCNP are
Julian Bond of SNCC, elected twice to the Georgia House of Repre-
sentatives but denied his seat, and Simon Casady, ousted as President
of the California Democratic Council because of his criticism of U.S.
Vietnam policy.
The summer projects of the National Coordinating Committee to
End the War in Vietnam are described on page 11 of this issue. Assist-
ing in these projects are the Students for a Democratic Society, the
Du Bois Clubs of America and other peace organizations. Special
attention should be given to demonstrations scheduled for July 4th
in various cities, and the Hiroshima Day demonstrations, August 6th.
Among recent peace actions and statements special note should be
given to the grounds on which SNCC refused to participate in the
White House Civil Rights Conference on ,June first. SNCC said:
We cannot in good conscience meet with the chief policy-maker of the
Vietnam war to discuss human rights, when he flagrantly violates the human
rights of the colored people in Vietnam.
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While the Administration headed o any ov -
opposition, a large number of those attending the Civil Rights Con.
ference wanted to call for U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.
Extraordinarily impressive was the three-page ad calling for an end
to the Vietnam war in the New York Times on June 6. It carried
6,400 signatures of educators and professional people from 180 college'
and university faculties in 39 states, representing the very cream of the
intellectual world. It was sponsored by the Ad Hoc Universities Com.
mittee for the Statement on Vietnam and the Committee of the
Professions.
And a salute to the students and faculty members of Amherst and
New York University for walking out of commencement exercises in
protest against the giving of an honorary degree to Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara because they disapproved of his deeds in Vietnam!
PPYRGHT
Labor and Peace
THE main imperative for an effective peace movement is mobilizal
tion of greater opposition to the war in Vietnam in the ranks of
labor. There is progress in this direction in the growth of Trade
Unionists for Peace nationally and the formation of a Trade Union
Division of SANE. There arc hopeful signs too in the breaking awa)
of some leading AFL-CIO unions from the warlike policies advocated
by President George Meany. The unstinting support to Administra,
tion policy in Vietnam expressed by the Federation's convention las
October, is today being increasingly challenged by top AFL-CIO
figures.
It was significant that the main speaker invited to address the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers Atlantic City convention was UA
Secretary General U Thant. Addressing the convention on May 24
he made a strong plea for the end of outside military intervention,
in Vietnam and restoration of peace on the basis of the Geneva agree?
ments, urging greater trade union efforts in this direction. The con?
vention gave him a standing ovation.
In his keynote speech Jacob Potofsky, ACW President and an AFL
CIO Vice President, assailed those "in high office" who have sought ta',
stifle dissent from government policies in Vietnam. He also urged,
re-examination of U.S. policy toward mainland China. Secretary.
Treasurer Frank Rosenblum devoted most of his speech to the war inti
Vietnam, which he called "not only dangerous but ineffective and:
immoral as well," and detrimental to anti-poverty and social welfan
programs at home. Continuation of our policies in Vietnam "can un
leash thermonuclear war"; we are not wanted there, cannot win an
.,we are great enough and strong enough to withdraw without seriou
embarrassment." A unanimous resolution opposed escalation of thy
war and called for negotiations for peace.
The United Auto Workers Convention at Long Beach, Calif., Ma
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16-21, passed a much milder resolution against further escalation of
the war and for negotiations; and disgraced itself by attacks on anti-
war student demonstrators. However, the resolution also called for
"re-evaluation" of the U.S. position on recognition of China and for
its representation in the UN and for strengthened trade and cultural
ties with the USSR and other socialist countries.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Emil Mazcy strongly supported the right
of dissent, spoke out against further escalation and for a cease-fire and
a negotiated peace. Mazey has been among the most outspoken labor
officials on the question of Vietnam although, under pressure from his
union, he has cancelled some appearances before anti-war rallies.
However mild the foreign policy resolution sponsored by UAW
President Walter Reuther, it still marked a distinct departure from the
position of Meany and his foreign policy advisor Jay Lovestone, head
of the AFL-CIO International Affairs department. A sharp attack
on the latter was made by Victor Reuther (brother of Walter), in
charge of the UAW's International Affairs Department, in a news con-
ference held during the convention. hex ing that Lovestone's de-
partment is closely bound up with the (1A, e declared: "The tragedy
of AFL-CIO activities in the field of for airs is that they are a vest
pocket operation run by Jay Lovestone.
The foreign policy resolutim of-.whet=17,5,000-member Packinghouse,
Food and Allied Workers Union, passed at their convention in Los
Angeles May 16-20, was the strongest of the three, calling for a cease-
fire and a halt to the bombing in Vietnam. This union and its Presi-
dent, Ralph Helstein (an AFL-CIO vice president), have been out-
spoken in their peace advocacy. The Retail, Wholesale and Depart.
ment Store Workers Union at its May convention, supported a policy
of continued search for peace through negotiations, and opposed fur-
ther escalation. (Many delegates had urged a complete pull-out.) Dis-
trict 65 in New York, largest RWDSU affiliate, its President David
Livingston and its Secretary-Treasurer, Cleveland Robinson, have been
especially active in opposition to the war in Vietnam.
Special mention must be given to the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
and Butcher Workmen's Union. Its Secretary-Treasurer Patrick
Gorman has spoken out repeatedly against what he has called the
"unimaginable tragedy" of the Vietnam war and the union's publi-
cations have editorialized against it. Also active in peace work have
been the Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Workers' Union, the Drug
and Hospital Workers' Union (especially Local 1199 in New York)
and others.
Some of the official organs of the Teamsters' Union have registered
opposition to U.S. policy in Vietnam. The Missouri Teamster of
April 8, said editorially that critics of the Vietnam war were truly
patriotic, and that "Peace is the only salvation for us and the con-
ference table is the only road to it."
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The monthly magazine Labor Today devoted its last summer's'
issue to U.S. policy in Vietnam and has had numerous articles oppos?
ing the war in the months since.
All of the former CIO unions which are now independent, have'
spoken out against the war. The International Longshoremen's and
Warehousemen's Union and its President Harry Bridges and its organ
The Dispatcher have consistently opposed the war in Vietnam. A stand
against the war has been taken by the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers' Union and its President, Albert Fitzgerald, by the
Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers' Union and by the State, County and
Municipal Workers.
Meany and the ILO-Soviet T.U. Visit Blocked
A PARTICULARLY flagrant example of Meany's reactionary stand
was his boycott of the 50th Conference of the International Labor
Conference held in Geneva the first three weeks of June. Meany has
long labored, hitherto successfully, to keep trade union representa.
tives of any socialist country from any official positions in the ILO. -'i
When for the first time this year such a representative, Leo Chajn of
Poland, was chosen conference President, the AFL-CIO walked out-
although the U.S. employer delegation continued to participate.
Another breakthrough was the election of Pyotr T. Pimenov, Secretary
of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, to the ILO
executive committee. Only pressure from the Administration pre.
vented Meany from pulling the AFL-CIO out of the ILO altogether.
Meany's action in this case led to a serious breach between the
UAW leadership and Meany. Walter Reuther, in a letter to Meany
denounced the boycott of the ILO conference as "unwise, undemo-
cratic ... and unauthorized," Reuther also issued a statement that
the UAW was "deeply disturbed about the growing negative characteri
of the AFL-CIO policy in the field of international affairs...." There:
were bitter exchanges on the subject in the AFL-CIO Executive Coun.
cil where the 18 to 6 vote upholding Meany showed stronger support,
for Reuther's position than expected. The Council will have a special]
session in the fall to review the foreign policy positions of the AFL.;
CIO. i
The UAW had invited a group of eight officers and members of the
Soviet trade unions to visit this country, by arrangements made;
through the Citizens' Exchange Corps. When the Soviet visitors'
visas were withdrawn two days before their expected arrival, Victor"
Reuther discovered this was Meany's doing. He reported that Under..'
Secretary of State U. Alexis Johnson had finally agreed to admit the:
group if it added a half dozen non-trade-union representatives, thus'
supporting the Meany viewpoint that Soviet trade unionists are not
"true representatives" of Soviet workers. This evil Meany-State De.
nartment collusion to prevent normal exchanges between U.S. and
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Soviet trace unions must be opposed and reverse uc exchanges
offer one of the best means of exposing the fallacy of the anti-Com-
munism on which U.S. reactionary policies around the world are
based.
And much more must be done to mobilize labor action for peace.
Many of the union statements noted above have unfortunately
been emasculated for fear of offending the President and losing his
support on domestic issues, and have been couched in terms of sup-
porting his peace efforts-though no such efforts exist. It is urgent
that it be fully understood that continuation of the war in Vietnam
is incompatible with the anti-poverty program and other gains for
workers promised by Johnson. With their sons being drafted in in-
creasing numbers surely the time must come when the workers realize
that only U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam is in their real interests.
Soviet Support of Vietnamese People
THE Soviet Union has been consistent and firm in its support of the
Vietnamese people in their fight against U.S. aggression, and in
its denunciation of U.S. imperialist policies in Southeast Asia. It has
provided whatever assistance the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
has requested for defense aganst U.S. bombing attacks, and has made
clear its readiness to step up this aid if the DRV requests, even to the
sending of volunteers.
There was no basis whatever for speculation in the U.S. press
that this policy was changing because of statements by Premier Alexey
Kosygin in his June 8 election speech, in which he spoke of "sober-
minded" leaders of the United States being concerned about how to
get out of the war in Vietnam. He probably had in mind people like
Senators Fulbright and Morse. Premier Kosygin and other Soviet
leaders have declared repeatedly that they want better relations with
the United States, but that no improvement is possible as long as U.S.
military aggression in Vietnam continues. During his recent visit to
the United Arab Republic, Kosygin made his strongest attacks yet
on U.S. policies in Vietnam. In the election speech, he made a special
point of the failures of U.S. policy in Vietnam and the constant
worsening of its military position despite all the troops and equip-
ment poured in.
In a speech on June 17, during his state visit to Finland, Premier
Kosygin pulled no punches in condemnation of U.S. policy in Vietnam.
He declared that U.S. unwillingness to heed world opinion was lead-
ing it "further and further to international isolation." Calling NATO
an organization "injurious and dangerous to peace," the Soviet Premier
warned of the danger that the European states drawn into NATO
"perhaps even against their will and desire, can become involved in
military conflicts started by American ruling circles anywhere in the
world." In a joint communique, the Finnish Government endorsed a
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Soviet proposal for an East-West conference on European security.
All Soviet leaders in recent speeches have condemned aggressive
U.S. policies in Vietnam and elsewhere. Mikhail Suslov, CPSU Cen-
tral Committee Secretary and Politbureau member, in an election
address in Leningrad June 7, dwelt at length on the exacerbation of
world tensions by U. S. imperialism, which he termed "the principal
reactionary force today." He assailed the "criminal war against the
people of Vietnam" being carried on by "the U.S. interventionist
army," denounced recent U.S. provocations against Cuba, and warned
against the new dangers of German militarism and the efforts of the
German Federal Republic, encouraged by the U.S. imperialists, to gain
access to nuclear weapons. Similar strong statements were made on
behalf of the Central Committee of the CPSU by A. N. Shelepin,
also a Secretary of the Central Committee and Politbureau member,
in an address in Outer Mongolia at the same time, and likewise by
N. V. Podgorny, Politbureau member and President of the USSR
Supreme Soviet Presidium. He too assailed the "criminal war of the
United States" against the Vietnamese people and called U.S. impe-
rialism "the leading force of world reaction."
And on June 10, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CPSU,
told 6,000 constituents of the Bauman Electoral District that "our in-
variable policy is to render every kind of support to the peoples de.
fending their freedom and independence in the struggle against im-
perialism and to help the liberation and revolutionary movement."
He declared:
The goal of Soviet foreign policy is to wage a consistent struggle against
the aggressive policy of imperialism, for peace and the prevention of thermo.
nuclear war, for the affirmation of the principles of peaceful coexistence of
states with difffferent social systems.
Brezhnev continued with a demand that U.S. aggression against
the Vietnamese be stopped, and a settlement made in accord with the
proposals of the DRV and the South Vietnam National Liberation
Front. He said U.S. atrocities had resulted in the growing isolation
of the United States, that U.S. imperialism was suffering a serious
defeat and that the USSR was doing everything in its power to or-
ganize an anti-imperialist front in support of Vietnam. He declared:
The Soviet people are linked with the heroic Vietnamese people by bonds
of fraternal friendship and militant solidarity. Our country and other socialist
countries provide and will continue to provide on an ever-growing scale, tho
necessary assistance in the just struggle of the people of Vietnam.
Our aid is of a diverse nature. It is military and economic aid. It is active
political support of our Vietnamese brothers. We are taking new measures
and making new efforts to help speed up the victory of the heroic Vietnamese
people. We are firmly convinced, comrades, that the Vietnamese people will
absolutely win outl
etin s throu h.
out the USSR protesting the U.S. war in Vietnam. J. S., June 20
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