REALITIES BEHIND JONSON'S "PEACE OFFENSIVE"
7 A year ‘after the first air raids were “launched. Over north . Vietnam, ‘Johnson is set to cut short his month-long pause and ~ renew the bombings. Calculating that it has squeezed the -Haximum — propaganda and diplomatic benefits out of its phony “peace offensive," the administration can now go ahead with. the stepped-up military offensive it has been preparing. , er
General Earle G. Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has gust outlined the central concepts behind the strategy of. ‘the Washington war makers. He told a congtessional hearing January 22 that "Our objective out there is to défeat., together __. with the Vietnamese forces, thé main-force. Vietcong units and the North Vietnamese forces that have: been introduced. me
To justify. the administration! Ss. request, for ‘a. $12, 300, 000° - 000 supplementary military appropriation, he elaborated on this a policy in testimony given before the Senate Armed Gervices Commit-— tee. _Wheeler stated that he particularly wanted to declare that in south Vietnam the United States was facing "the first of the -wars of national liberation which have - been preached by the Soviets and by Mao Tse-tung, and there. is a very igportant stake here) rest- .ing upon whether we win or lose." ° oe .
"T believe," he went on, "that if we lose this’ war, which’ we. do not have to "Losey. that we will have more wars of national = liberation to. face up to with the. prospect of greater losses. under. less favorable circumstances. -.
This military spokesman “has ‘the virtue ‘of being t blunt and going- to the point. Unlike Johnson, Humphrey and Rusk, who’ must keep public sensibilities in mind, the head of the general staff uttered few decorative phrases about freedom, democracy and the self-determination of small nations; he emphasized instead . the real objectives of the White House and the Pentagon. = ‘Some. 197, 000 troops have been sent to south Vietnam and | many more -are on. the way because Johnson and his circle believe large-scale actions are required to stop the’ spread of the colonial liberation struggle and its devélopment along socialist lines, to contain the influence of the Soviet Union ana the People's Republic of China, and to prevent any unfavorable changes in the balance of forces in the global contest between the ‘imperialist: and anti- ~imperialist camps.
The president and his. ‘Pentagon ‘Strategists are “resolved so stay ‘and have their conscript army fight for years in that sector
oes of Southeast Asia because they believe it offers the most advan—
tageous opportunity to debiver crushing blows to the class: opponents arrayed against them. Having drawn a line at the seventeenth parallel, they will not. permit that artificial boundary: to be over- “stepped. or- pushed back. It is.tobe.as inviolate as similar dividing lines in Korea and Berlin. -And .the military leaders of the U.S. Guling class are ready to: ‘enlarge the conflict and risk waz With China to-secure these objectives. .
'.There..are sharp disagreements in high military circles over the best. way to handle the Vietnam problem.. Retired General Gavin, an.army planning chief in-1954 when Eisenhower decided against | landing U.S..troops in Vietnam to save the French imperialist forces, .has urged ending the bombings of north Vietnam and withdrawing .U.s. -troops to coastal enclaves while mounting - a sustained diplomatic effort in-the United Nations to-end the war. ,
General Gavin has been séconded by retired Géneral ‘Matthew Ridgway, former ‘U.S. Army ‘chief.of staff, who negotiated the Korean truce and blocked intervention in Vietnam in 1954... These ‘former.. officers “undoudtedly expound -views waich theix “Confreres in active service. cannot makes PUBLIC... Pa a —— ; . :
_ Wheeler speaks for. the predominant faction in the ‘Pentagon arid Gonerecs whe want to.resume bombing north. Vietnan and continue escalating the conflict without further delay. He argued specifically against Gavin's more cautious tactical prescriptions.
-The administration: is moving ‘along Wheeler's ‘line. Defense Secretary McNamara told. the.senate committee. that. his department's present planning was‘hased:on the premise - -that combat. Operations in Vietnam would continue at least through June “1967. The ,committeé-dhairman later revealed that ‘Amerjoan forces sthis pyear. -would build up to 400,000 to 500,000 men. This will be a ‘bigger commit- “ment than the peak of ‘407, 600 ‘in the Korean War. -The 1967 budget which Johnson sent -tot Goneress contains record military expenditures, including | #10, 000, 000 , 000. for the war in Vietnam.
: Intending to ‘be overheard by Moscow and Peking , McNamara informed-“the-House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. is planning enough missile capacity to soon ensure the simultaneous destruction of both the USSR and China! :
Thesé- ‘are the | grim ‘realities benind - ‘the. Johnson ' ‘peace. - ~offensive"*whidh now. appears.ineitg-=true. light as a. maneuver =... designed to-prépare the way: for stepped-up. ground and, air, opera. tions in- ‘Southeast-Asia. It was .not- jmeant to: set the. stage, as. so many hoped, for opening | négotiations with. either Hanoi ot ‘the. National: Front for liberation (short of theix utter. cajitulation).
. Its main aim was to close’ up the “credibility gap" which had: been causing difficulties:for. the administration in its relations with the American peovle and the rest of the world. Many friendly foreign governments and citizens at home were rightly
Oo dubious about the president's g%lib assurances that he was willing to go from the battlefield to the conference table. The temporary curtailment of aix attacks over north Vietnam (while saturation bombings in the south continued), and the highly publicized visits of envoys to foreign capitals, were initiated to allay these sus- ‘picions, shift the onus of continuing the conflict to ‘the -other side, and clear the decks for the next steps in extending the war.
“Johnson. believes he has succeeded in extricating himself ‘from a tight corner and improving his diplomatic position.: A. - Washington dispatch in the January 25 New York Times registered the president's opinion "that the recent peace offensive and the “current pause in the bombing..of north Vietnam have given hima “higher degree of flexibility and a greater freedom from military and diplomatic pressures than he-has had since the bombing began _tast February .' “ Despite Johnson! 8 relief, he ‘continues. to confront heavy “opposition to-an expansion of the. war. vDifférences with his. Viet- ‘nam policy and alternatives to it are being projected, not only by military men, but by leading congressmen and members. of his .own party who are hearing from their constituents, from foreign powers, from newspapers such as the New York Times and the Herald Tribune and from the clergy, in addition to the more intransigent antiwar sentiments voiced by the students and intellectuals. -
Senator Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declares that he has never seen "any issue of significance which caused such‘uncertainty ana questioning of policy." He and Senator Mansfietd; =the Democratic majority leader, have urged a continuation of: the. ‘bombing: pause, Mansfield, who has just come back from: Vietnam, wants. ‘it. ‘suspended "indefinitely. "
- Pulbright has joined Ue N. secretary General U Thant in advo- “cating that the National Front for Liberation be invited to participate in any peace parley to remove that obstacle to negotiations. Secretary Rusk replied testily that "if the Vietcong come to the conference table as full partners, they will in a sense have been victorious in the very aims that south Vietnam and the United | States are pledged to prevent." :
An Associated Press gurvey of senatorial views on whether or not to renew the bombing showed that the fifty senators who took positions on the:-issue were divided evenly. A group of senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties who visited Fulbright January c6 expressed the view.that the president was. being unduly - ‘influenced by advisers "already deeply committed. to a course of action which has been unsuccessful in achieving its objectives in the past and threatens disaster in the future."
Fifteen Democratic senators asked Johnson on. . January 27 to extend: the bombing pause.
Such. a cascade of openly pronounced differences at the highest levels with.the policy of an administration engaged in waging a foreign war is without precedent in the American history .of this century. It is. symptomatic of the perplexity and disquiet ~both.in.the zuling circles and among the people over the correctness of Johnson's course. ‘There are widespread fears) of the costs and conseyuences of widening the war.
This situation opens new perspectives for broadening and deepening mass opposition to the war itself. Johnson's halting _,of the bombings also served to halt the momentum of the antiwar "-movement. It has slowed down temporarily owing to the-false “expectations aroused by~the "peace offensive." ‘Thése illusions “will be-dissipated as Washington goes ahead with its war plans in “Southeast - Asia.
The experience of. ‘this episode should strengthen the militants who have been insisting, against the moderate elements led by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear policy and the Communist party, that the central task of the movement is not to back up Johnson's fraudulent propaganda around negotiations but to mount a campaign for immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops.
These forces are’ now concentrating on building big mass demonstrations throughout the country during the international days of protest against ‘U.S. intervention in Vietnam scheduled for March 25-26. bee,
MOROCCAN