Volume 3, Noe 50 October 15, 1965
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AND ROOSEVELT WAS READY TO ATOM-BOMB GERMANY
The Pentagon is persistently continuing its propaganda aimed at getting American public opinion accustomed to the idea of using nuclear weapons in a further escalation of the war in Vietnam. On September 1O Hisenhower revealed that he had been prepared to use nuclear weapons against China on at least two occasions,
This has now been followed up with the report that Roosevelt was actively considering use of the atom bomb on Germany. In an interview October 7, Lt. Gen. Leslie R. Groves said that Roosevelt called him on the morning of December 31, 1944, to discuss the question. Groves was head of the secret Manhattan Project which developed the bomb,
The conference, according to Groves, included Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson besides himself and Roosevelt,
"Roosevelt asked very definitely if the atom bomb could beused against Germany," said Groves.
"T demurred at first and gave the president a number of reasons why it was less feasible to use the bomb against Germany than against Japan.
"But it may be necessary, Roosevelt told me. He suggested that, if the Battle of the Bulge continued to go against us, 'I should be prepared to use it against Germany.'!
"T replied: ‘If it is necessary then we can do it, Mr. President.'"
_ When news came of an allied victory in the Ardennes a few days later, Roosevelt dropped the topic. :
The implications of this revelation in the current situation are obvious. If a man as sane as Roosevelt was prepared to use nuclear weapons on a country with a white population like Germany, who could call it an act of insanity to use them today against Asians?
In his column of October 15, Walter Lippmann indicates the framework of this propaganda. In his opinion, in the next few months Johnson will face another crisis in his conduct of the war in Vietnam, The tremendous increase in the number of American troops in Vietnam has succeeded only in scattering the Vietnamese freedom fighters and forcing them back into a continuation of guerrilla warfare, But the American public has been led to expect a victory.
"Tf and when no victory comes of all this and the war goes on," declares Lippmann, "the president will be exhorted to put an end to the war by some really decisive blows. The propaganda for
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this new escalation is already being tried out." [Emphasis added. ]
"Toward the end of the year" Johnson will have to decide “whether to engage in a total war in Vietnam or to work for a tentative and precarious peace." But it will be argued that he can win a “slorious victory" by using professional troops. "Such a prospect would have enormous attraction for Lyndon Johnson."
Since Johnson first started escalating the war in Vietnam, it has been completely clear that it pointed toward a nuclear conflict. This is. not just the blind logic of the course started by Johnson, It was clearly part of the Pentagon's original blueprint -- and what is grimmest of all, these Dr. Strangeloves have been deliberately pressing to bring it about.