Mexico, demanding the immediate release of Hugo Blanco, Adolfo Gilly, Victor ‘Rica Galan and. all other political. prisoners in those ‘countries.
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IS INVASION OF NORTH VIETNAM NEXT ON JOHNSON'S AGENDA?. - .
By Joseph Hansen
Two recent moves made »by ‘the’ Johnson administration appear to signal a further sharp escalation of. American aggression in Vietnan. °
The first was the speech delivered September 22 in the United Nations by Johnson's emissary Arthur J. Goldberg. The speech was publicized as anew "peace":.bid, offered with the "full approval" of the White House. In the United States it was universally discounted as at best a piece of campaign propaganda designed to give a.1lift to Democratic party candidates in the current elections. But it had a more sinister aspect. In the context of Johnson's belligerent foreign policy:;. it looked like previous "peace" bids that have pre-.. ceded major steps taking the U. Be deeper into the Vietnamese conflict. Dota o
The falsity of Goldberg's rhetoric was underlined by the fact that the day before he spoke, B-52 bombers, for the first time in five months, swept in from Guam to pour down high explosives on the populace of north Vietnam. The day after Goldberg spoke, B-52 bombers again raided north Vietnam. And on the same day that the White House representative insisted again and again on the peaceful aims of the Johnson administration, his fellow cabinet member , Robert 8. McNamara, announced that the production of war planes in the ‘U.S. would go up by thirty” percent next year.
-As if to emphasize the. real course of. the Johnson adminis-~ tration, McNamara on the following day coolly revealed that the. American stockpile of nuclear warheads in Europe had been doubled’ since 1961, reaching the fantastic total of 7,000. Each one of these warheads is the equivalent of at least the explosive power of the bombs that Truman dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and most of them are far more destructive. McNamara did not mention what the 7,000 nuclear warheads might represent statistically in possible / “overkill” of the human race.
The second ominous move made by the Johnson administration : was the announcement September 27 that in the interests of "peace," Johnson will attend a "summit meeting" in Manila "on or after October 18." The other summiteers will be the heads of six satellite states, the Philippines, South Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand; that is, Hitler's admirer Ky of South © Vietnam and the five governments that have bowed to State Department pressure and become involved enough in Vietnam to enable Johnson to picture his war as an "Allied" operation.
The origin of this meeting of six seals and their trainer was indicated by James Reston in the September 28 New York Times: "An effort has been made here i(Washington] to give the impression that Mr. Johnson was merely responding, despite the urgent pres-
es
Sures of the eléction campaign, to a surprise invitation to attend the Manila meeting, though of course the plan was hatched here . recently during President Marcos's visit."
Occurring: on the eve of the November elections in the United ‘States: the "summit “meeting” will provide Johnson with another stage setting: ‘for oratory before the TV cameras. In his inimitable style, he will deliver ‘an elocution on "peace," and then reach for ‘the latest polls to see how well his demagogy paid off in allaying ‘the deepening opposition among - -the’ American people to repeating : the Korean experience. ©
At the same time, the conference itself may well put the finishing touches on the next ‘big step which Johnson proposes to - take in escalating the war in Vietnam.
What is: thi ‘next step? Some: leaks as to its nature ‘have already appeared in the press.
In Paris the New York Herald Tribune* published a dispatch from its correspondent in Saigon stating that Western diplomatic circles thought it quite likély that after the November elections in the United States, American troops would invade ‘north Vietnan. The pressure fora tiove ‘to block communication linés between the : National Liberation Front-and ‘north Vietnam was emanating from: - American military circles; according to the correspondent. The first landings would not be massive, he said, but would irivolve "two or three divisions" in the immediate- vicinity: of the seventeenth parallel. . That there is substance to the Saigon report is indicated not only by the way it dovetails. with Johnson's moves in escalating the war, but by reports circulating in Washington. Pete Hamill, writing in the September 26 New York Post, declared that "everywhere in Washington last week;' people were saying that before the year is out we shall invade North Viet Nam. -According to these people :in Washington, the invasion of North Vietnam is now inevitable." [See full text of Hamill's ‘column | on page 6.]
An invasion of north Vietnam by American ground. troops i.may appear to be an act of madness. Indeed it could turn out to be an act of madness. But as the Pentagon and State Department. read the answers emerging from their electronic calculators, the move makes sense.
The electronic calculators may well indicate another wave of revulsion against the United States as the smell of flesh bubbling with napalm reaches a new intensity, but this is of small concern *This was. formerly. the. “European. Edition of the New York Herald --Tribune.- With the demise of the parent publication in New York, . ~ the Washington Post. bought. the Paris edition and has, continued. to publish it under the same masthead.
to the masterminds in Washington. So long as international public opinion does not become converted into mass actions or does not greatly affect stock portfolios in the U.S., it can be discounted.
The electronic calculators may-also indicate further stiffening in verbal protests from:Moscow and new levels in verbal denunciations from Peking, but again this is of small concern to the brains that do the thinking for Johnson. As long as the two major workers states fail to close ranks against the imperialist escalation and as long as Moscow in particular undertakes no countermoves beyond paper protests, the Washington strategists feel that they still have a green light in Vietnan.
From the viewpoint of the Pentagon and the State Department, the continued disarray in the camp of the workers states, including the current purge in China, makes it possible to continue advancing in Southeast Asia without touching off a reaction forceful enough to compel reconsideration. In brief, for the war hawks, pickings .. are still to be had in Vietnan.
~~ Thus: Johnson is continuing the policy he opened following his victory over Goldwater in 1964. The policy is not to fear get-_ ting into a ground war on the Asian mainland but.at the same time to make preliminary tests before advancing, to proceed step by step in a graduated way, to leave open the possibility that | it might ‘be necessary to halt, even to draw back somewhat, if the "main enemy"; i.e., the People's Republic of China and ultimately the Soviet Union evince signs of a vigorous response. Johnson has seen no such Signs as yet.
‘The great danger in’this policy is that Johnson may become so deeply committed, may escalate the war. to such a degree, that when Moscow or Peking eventually do take alarm and react, singly or in unison, he may not be able. to draw back except at such loss of face as to. have ruinous implications for himself and the fortunes of the Democratic party -- if not the world standing of the United States: Thus he may feel that no choice remains open to hin. as the top statesman of the. capitalist system but to plunge still deeper -- straight into a genuine showdown. That could mean the beginning of a nuclear conflict. : co,
This is: the harsh reality underlying