Vol. 4, No. 19 June 10, 1966
OPPOSITION TO WAR HARDENS AMONG U.S. INTELLECTUALS
Sentiment against Johnson's war in Vietnam appears to be hardening and moving toward the left. among intellectuals in the United States. Of the many signs of this shift, a significant one was the three-page advertisement which appeared in the June 5 issue of The New York Times. It included more than 6,400 signatures, of which 4,938 were from 180 college and university faculties in 49 states, including two presidents and 20 deans. The sponsors said
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that they believed it to be the "largest political advertisement ever run" in a daily newspaper in terms of pages and number of Signers. The advertisement cost $20,880.
Most of the three pages were utilized merely to list and identify the signers, who also paid for the advertisement. The text was as follows:
"On Vietnam:
"Events of the past few months have further undermined the administration's stated rationale for involvement in Vietnam -- that American armed force is there to defend the Vietnamese. The continuing demonstrations in Hue, Danang and Saigon, with their anti-Ky and anti-American slogans, have made it clearer than ever that. the Saigon regime has virtually-no popular support. Military activities have been steadily escalated, and American military power has been forced to assume the brunt of the fighting from the South Vietnamese army - An estimated 100,000 soldiers deserted this army in 1965 alone (N.Y.Times 2/24/66).
"The successive regimes in Saigon which our government has been supporting were never popularly elected, and since shortly after the inception of the civil war have not governed more than a portion of South Vietnam. Nonetheless, the administration has attempted justification for American military intervention by claining that these regimes have had: popular support and could therefore be considered legitimate governments for all of South Vietnam.
"The dramatic exposure of these false premises and of the fragile basis for our policies has led many prominent Americans, including some former supporters of the war, to declare that our forces must be prepared to leave Vietnam if a new government there asks us to do so.
"But our administration's previous response to reverses in | Vietnam has been escalation, bringing with it increasing death and destruction, and we are particularly alarmed at the extension of B-52 bombings to the North and new air raids in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. To escalate militarily while our position disintegrates politically is immoral, futile and perilous.
"Furthermore, while increasing numbers of political leaders and commentators question the entire policy of the United States in Vietnam, the American force, approximately a quarter of a million men, is conducting 'search-and-kill' operations and. continues massive daily: bombings in the course .of which thousands of Vietnamese and Americans are being killed and wounded.
' "The interests of. our country “and the strength of our belief in the right of self-determination demand that ways be immediately found to disengage ourselves from this intolerable situation. We are convinced that such a course is in accord with the mood of increasing numbers of Americans.
“We call upon our government:
oo Ro cease all. pombing, North and South, and all. other offensive: military operations immediately; Sucpneee pally
ing indicate. that it will negotiate with the National Tiper-. ation Front and,all.other interested parties for a peaceful settle ment; ; a
"To encourage in every way, and in no way to interfere with, the free exercise of popular sovereignty in Vietnan; .
"To evaluate seriously whether self-determination for the Vietnamese as well as our own national interests would not be best served by termination of our military presence in Vietnam,"
As the advertisement indicates, this new development in the community of intellectuals was touched off by the political resistance to the Ky regime that flared. up in Danang and Hue ‘in March. A group set up last summer -- the "Committee of the Professions,” — headed by Dr. Oscar Sachs, a New York psychiatrist, and Miss Ruth Lassoff, an industrial psychologist -- got together with an "Ad Hoc Universities Committee for the Statement on Vietnam" to collect. funds. The latter committee is headed by Prof. Harry Lustig .of- the City College physics department and Martin Davis, professor of. mathematics at the New York University. They ran a quarter-page ~ advertisement costing $2,581 in.the May 22 New York Times. carrying the basic statement and announcing the plan for a multipage list of. endorsers. Most of the response came in $1 to $10 contributions. - More money is being collected ‘to run the advertisement in other newspapers.
. Besides the widespread backing manifested by the number of | signatures, the content of the advertisement is to be noted. The ~~ slogan of "negotiations" which was dominant in the pacifist and . antiwar movement not so long ago has been subordinated. Moreover, » instead of being directed at Hanoi, it is directed at Washington, and the National Liberation Front has been singled out as the principal "interested" party. oo
To this has been added an immediate slogan that goes squarely against the line: of the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA and the White House -- to cease all bombing, and all other offensive military operations. This coincides with the line advocated by General Gavin about the advisability of withdrawing to “enclaves.
But the advertisement goes. much beyond this by demanding serious evaluation of the advisability of "termination of our military presence in Vietnam.
This is a clear reflection of the slogan that is being raised on an increasing scale in demonstrations from coast to coast: "Get U.S. Troops Out of Vietnam Now!"
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With the growing crystallization of antiwar feeling among academic circles, the professions, artists, scientists, technologists and religious representatives , the pressure is mounting for a similar response among the trade unions. Up to now the conservative heads of the labor bureaucracy have stubbornly displayed an ultra pro-Johnson attitude. This will become increasingly difficult to. maintain, however, in face of the growing unpopularity of Johnson's war in Vietnam.
Once the labor movement starts action, the Johnson administration will be faced with a domestic crisis of major proportions.