LONGER CONVINCE MOST AMERICANS
The nerves of the American people are getting on edge over the escalation of the war in Vietnam, in the opinion of Pete Hamill, columnist of the liberal New York Post. "There has probably never been an American war that has caused such -profound uneasiness," he writes in his March 8 column. "If you move around ‘a little, you hear the same things said in Miami or Las Vegas as you do in New York. What are we doing.there? Why aren't we winning? -How can we get out? Very few people ~™ think that it will end in nuclear disaster, but many think it could last. for years. An even » larger number believes that its own government is lying. "
"Even some of the pollsters agree," Hamill continues. "Late last year the Opinion Research Corp. did a poll for the Columbia Broadcasting System, and one question concerned the truthfulness of official U.S. information about Viet Nam. Only 15 per cent believed the government was ‘always! | truthful; 13 per cent thought it was ‘almost never' truthful; and 67 per cent believed it was. 'sometimes' truthful. It is not. one | of the- polls Lyndon Johnson yanks eagerly from his pocket." ay
_ Why don't most ‘American people believe the government? Eisenhowever's lies about the U-2 spy plane” were not decisive; nor were . Kennedy's lies about the Bay of Pigs invasion. But with these precedents, the long succession of lies issued by ‘the Johnson administration in various fields finally led to a.qualitative change.
Hamill. lists a number of official lies but overlooks a truly colossal one ~- Johnson's campaign for office in 1964. (The Post was for Johnson.) Millions voted for the "peace" candidate. Then, shortly after being sworn in, the peace- ~loving. Johnson put the warnongering. Goldwater's platform into effect. A lot of voters camé to the conclusion that a man who talks like Johnson but acts like Goldwater is quite likely to be lying when they seé his mouth start flapping. °
UNIFICATION OF THE BOLIVIAN POR
[For some years the Bolivian Trotskyist movement has been split into two wings, each designating itself as the Partido Obrero Revolucionario (Revolutionary Workers party). In 1963, following the Reunification Congress of the Fourth International, efforts were initiated to unite the Bolivian Trotskyists. This led to an announcement last June that the two sides had begun formal discussions. Already, however, the two groups were acting in common in many areas of the country. The difficult conditions under the military dictatorship have hampered the normal process of discussion; but on the other hand the severe repression exercised against the entire labor movement has tended to bring the revolutionary vanguard together. On February 17 representatives of the two sides signed a unification agreement, the text of which was released to the press. The following is a translation made by World Outlook. ]
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The conversations and negotiations on unifying the POR, which were announced June 15, 1965, have ended successfully with the following agreement:
(1) Ratification of the June 15, 1965, communiqué.
(2) Constitution of a united leadership with representatives from the Trotskyist groups. The united POR will function under this single, centralized leadership, composed of a Central Committee and Political Bureau. Comrades Guillermo Lora and Hugo Gonzdlez Moscoso will be in charge of the National Secretariat.
(3) The organs representing the POR on a national scale will be Masas [Masses] as the political newspaper, and Lucha Obrera [Workers Struggle] as the magazine of educational and theoretical orientation.
(4) The