Vol. 4, No. 41 December 23, 1966
THE BOMBING OF HANOI
Last October, just before the elections in the United States, President Johnson went on a "barnstorming" tour of the Far East that culminated in a "summit conference" with Washington's satellite and puppet powers at Manila where a "peace package" was offered to Hanoi. As was widely concluded at the time, Johnson's "peace offensive" constituted nothing but campaign propaganda to help grease the way for candidates of the Democratic party. It was also predicted that the "peace package" would prove to be nothing but part of the diplomatic preparation for opening a new stage in the escalation of the war in Vietnam.
The accuracy of the forecast has now been confirmed. On December 13 and 14, the Pentagon began bombing Hanoi. This took the war another big stride toward a confrontation with China and still further increased the possibility of the present conflict ending in a nuclear catastrophe.
In accordance with the standard practice of the U.S. government, this ominous advance toward the brink of a world disaster was taken under cover of a smokescreen of evasions, half truths and calculated lies.
In Saigon, U.S. military headquarters coolly denied that any bombs had fallen in
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Hanoi in the raids on that “area." According to a special announcement December 16 from the headquarters of Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, "A complete review of pilot reports and photographs of the 13-14 December air strikes on the Vandien truck depot and the Yenvien railroad classification yard showed that all ordnance expended by U.S. strike aircraft was in the military target areas. None fell in the city of Hanoi." ;
The State Department sought to give its lies more of a diplomatic veneer ata press conference held in Washington December 14. Robert J. McCloskey, the official spokesman, presented it as a matter of semantics. Only “military targets" had been hit, he claimed. Were these targets "located within the city limits of Hanoi?" he was asked. "I don't know what the city limits are," he responded.
At first he put up a show of ignorance as to the "city limits" of Hanoi. Asked directly, "Have we bombed Hanoi?" he tried a new tack: "We have not. What do you mean by 'Hanoi' ou
Other spokesmen told newsmen that the “problem" lay in the terminology used by the military planners. When they designate "Hanoi," they mean "a specific point near the geographical heart of the city." Anything outside that "specific point" would not be “Hanoi.
On December 15 spokesmen for the Johnson administration began defending the bombings, producing maps drawn up, apparently by the "military planners," showing that the air strikes were not in "Hanoi."
The New York Times reported another version; i.e., that perhaps a "mistake" had been made by American pilots in flying over the city en route to the designated "military" tareecs, and that this resulted in "damage" to civilian areas.
Perhaps the most cynical bit of propaganda was the "speculation" by "military men" in Saigon that the "damage to civilian areas of metropolitan Hanoi had been caused by antiaircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles fired by the North Vietnamese as shells fell back to earth."
In line with the Christmas season, this explanation ought to have been supplemented with the news that the planes were clearly marked "Peace on earth, good will to men" and were loaded with gifts and goodies for the children of north Vietnan.
For reliable reports on what happened it was necessary to turn to other sources. The headline in the December 15 issue of the Paris daily Le Monde stated: "For the first time -- American planes bombed the city of Hanoi -- More than a hundred victims reported." Le Monde stated that "the longest and most murderous raid" occurred December 14 and that it lasted for "an hour over the capital and its suburbs."
Le Monde ridiculed the "explanations" offered by Washington. Perhaps the U.S. pilots had made a mistake? "A scarcely satisfying explanation. The Red River is large enough and visible enough so that it is impossible to confuse the right and left banks."
Antonello Trombadori, the Hanoi correspondent of the Italian Communist daily Unita, gave the following eyewitness account of the December 14 “less murderous" raid:
"At. 11 A.M. local time the criminal American aggressors carried out an atrocious terrorist bombardment on the center of Hanoi, hitting deliberately two quarters inhabited by 500 workers' families. It was massacre of which it is not yet possible to give the exact dimensions.
"The quarters attacked are no farther than 400 meters from the historic.center of the city and from our hotel. We are, thus, eyewitnesses of the criminal raid. There participated in it six large planes, which for half an hour loosed heavy caliber bombs, incendiaries and napalm. Exact figures are still lacking, but one can say without doubt that this new crime, coldly planned and carried out, constitutes a new qualitative rise in escalation."
Confirmation of the accuracy of this Communist account is provided in a cautiously written article in the December 17 New York Times by Hanson W. Baldwin, the wellknown military expert. He indicates that "recently" such raids were approved by “higher authority."
"The trend is expected to continue," he declares, "and targets hicherto immune to bombing or naval gunfire will probably be struck in the future though without prior announcement and with no public emphasis."