SOLDIER CONVICTED
Pvt. Andrew D. Stapp was convicted by a U.S. army court-martial June 1 for refusing to obey an order to turn over his antiwar and socialist literature.
According to the Associated Press, the literature included copies of The Militant, works by Karl Marx and Malcolm X, and other radical publications.
"I refused to let them take my
The nationalization of the Suez Canal was an.especially traumatic experience for Western imperialism. No doubt in the discussions now going on in London and Washington over the situation, this painful memory is very much present. If Johnson and Wilson move in the Middle East along the lines of the action in the Dominican Republic, the retaliation at the expense of the U.S. and British oil interests could prove to be quite unpleasant.
Still another consideration is giving pause to Johnson. By backing Nasser, the Soviet government has committed its prestige in a way it has not yet done in Vietnam. The circumstances of this Soviet move suggest that it was done only after long consideration. A reply by Johnson involving any bluff has probably been discounted in advance.
The Pentagon must therefore weigh whether or not the crisis in the Middle East is not connected at least in part to Johnson's reckless escalation of the war in Vietnam. Did the pressure on the Soviet government finally reach such degree as to compel a counterthrust? Is this it?
The Pentagon, the State Department and the White House must surely be pondering if it would not be wise to now engage in a retreat rather than a wild plunge ahead.
When Johnson escorted Wilson into the White House, it was noted that in the accompanying ceremonies the British flag was being flown upside down. Amid laughter, this was ascribed to an error.
But the heads of the two biggest "maritime powers," two old salts who came up through the hawsehole, knew perfectly well, of course, that this is the traditional signal of distress on the high seas. No doubt they put the British ensign upside down in order to catch the attention of the other maritime powers.
In any case it symbolized their situation in the Middle East crisis.
FOR ANTIWAR OPINIONS
literature," Stapp declared, "because the First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right of all Americans to free speech...Lincluding] the right of revolutionary socialists to organize within the Army..."
Stapp was sentenced to a reduction to the lowest pay grade, unconfined hard labor, and forfeiture of two-thirds of one month's pay.