Johnson" s current. "peace" propaganda. Co
INVASION "NOW INEVITABLE" |
LThe following is the full text of Pete Hamill's column in. the September: 26 New York Post reporting the talk in circles close to the White House about a decision having been made to invade: north Vietnam after the November elections. ‘The column appeared under the
. title, "The Warrior."]"
We heard all the treacherous ‘rhetoric only two. years ago, “put thée- cancer of Viet Nam -has been-eating at us with. such steady ferocity that it feels'as if a decade has passed. That summer of 1964, Lyndon::Johnson‘criss-crossed America, his :face concerned, the: lan-., guage compassionate, the Texas drawl repeating the same message over and over ‘again. The message was very” “simple. It said: we ‘should Pley it cool in Viet Nam. 3
"Sometimes our folks get a little impatient," he told an audience in Akron, Ohio. "Sometimes they rattle their rockets some, and they bluff about their bombs. But we are not about to send American boys 9,000 or 10,000 miles: away from home to do what Asian boys ‘ought to: be doing for themselvess ” bpaey
wad In the. ‘fall, ‘he told a visitor: “We: know there are 200, 000, 000 in thé: Chinese: Army. If one little general in shirt sleeves :can. take Saigon, think about 200,000,000 Chinese coming down those trails. No,: sir! I° don't want to ‘fight them." :
on! Sept. 25,. he told another audience: "Phere are. those. that say I ought to go North and drop bombs, to try to wipe out the: supply lines, and they think that. would escalate the war. But. we don't want to get involved in a nation with 700,000,000 people and get tied down in a land war in Asia.
Because he:- said these things,.and because Barry Goldwater was saying the opposite, we elected Lyndon Johnson President. Today we are involved in a major land war in Asia. We are dropping bombs on the North and the South at a. rate that.is far heavier than that of World War II. While our cities rot and the roots of. poverty grow. . deeper here at home ». We: are. spending as a nation We, 500 ,000, 000 a. month on that war.
And everywhere in “Washington last week, people. were saying that before the year is out we shall invade North Viet Nam. The idea would have been preposterous five years ago, extremist two years ago, and..very, very dangerous six months ago. But now, people close to power. have accepted it.. _
According to. ‘these people in Washington, the