Ba

seperate For oe ome

a

The ghouls in the Pentagon

are waging

A wor against
_ a whole people

By RAE MURPHY

(Second of a Series)

“T have offered the enemy my hand again and again. It was
the very essence of my program to come to an understanding with
them. We have never demanded anything from them and we have
never insisted on anything. I repeatedly offered my hand, but al-
ways in vain. Even after this war had begun there were possibili-
ties for an agreement. After each battle I offered my hand, after
the first one, and again after the second I offered my hand. I de-
manded nothing. They literally spat on me. We have been drawn
into war against our will. No man can-offer his hand more often

than I have.”

—Adolf Hitler, just before the battle of Stalingrad.

*

* *

“We are exceedingly sorry that our enemies do not yet under-
stand our sincerity. It is our mission to struggle against all acts
incompatible -with freedom and self-determination. We have no
other intention than to realize with all its power the fundamental

ideal, the preservation of peace.’

—Japanese Gen. Sadao Arkai, just before the invasion of Manchuria.

*

* *

“I have said on a number of ocassions that we are ready to
talk anytime, anywhere. That the Viet Cong will have no difficulty
in making their views known to us.

“But all the questions come: When are we willing to do it, and
are we willing to do it. And the answer to these questions is a
strong yes. But up until this moment we have heard nothing from
the other side. And you just can’t have a one-sided peace confer-
ence, ora one sided cessation of hostilities.” ‘

—Lyndon Johnson’s New Year’s press conference (Dec. 31, 1966)

*

HERE is a remarkable simil-
arity in these three state-
ments. There are likewise

many other parallels which can
be drawn between-.the savage
attack of the nazis in Europe,
the genocide conducted by the
Japanese in Manchuria and the
U.S. war against the Vietnamese
people... :

Perhaps the most ghastly par-
allel is the development and ap-
plication of a type of warfare
which is directed against the
civilian population.

Because the war is against a
whole people, the enemy is

everywhere and must be de-

stroyed.

It is not, as Lyndon Johnson
often states, “concrete and
steel” which American power
seeks to destroy in Vietnam, but
people. The concentration is on
the development of weaponry
and military strategy aimed at
conquering a people, and if that.
proves impossible, destroying
them. :

In Vietnam, the Americans
have added a whole new dimen-
sion to this policy of genocide.
Yankee efficiency has improved
on the technique of Hitler.
Napalm bombs can turn any vil-
lage into a crematorium.

How many instant Auschwit-
zes and Buchenwalds have been
created in Vietnam?

History remembers the nazi
reprisals carried out against the

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* *

town of Lidice in Czechoslo-
vakia and Oradour-on-Glanes in
France. How many such towns
will history remember in Viet-
nam? : :

Chal Son and Cam Le were
two villages:a few miles from
the American base in Da Nang.
In early August, 1965, a ‘‘sweep”’
was launched to widen the “‘de-
fense perimeter around the base”’
and these two villages were or-
dered destroyed. One Associated
Press correspondent accompa-
nied the Marines on this attack
and reported:

“A (U.S.) marine threw a gre-
nade into a bunker used by all
Vietnamese villagers for air raid
and artillery shelters. Moments
later, the shattered bodies of
two children, one with half his
head blown away, were pulled
from the bunker and roughly
thrown on the ground like so
many sacks of grain.

“A CBS correspondent who
followed the raiders into Cam
Le village said that U.S. ma-
rines systematically burned
down almost all the houses and
prevented the people from sal-
vaging their property.

“After the raids, all that was~-

left of these two villages were
only heaps of smouldering ashes,
charred frames, bodies of civil-
ians—mostly women and _ chil-
dren.”

According to the Pentagon, it
costs the American government

aes ‘
wot VTSWIOt =

$322,000 for each Viet Cong-

soldier killed. Even for a coun-
try as affluent as the U.S. this
figure is too high and, since al-
most everybody in South Viet-
nam is considered to be a Viet
Cong, cheaper and more effi-
cient ways of killing must be de-
veloped.

It is not only for Vietnam;
the thinkers in the “land of the
free and the home of the brave”
are planning ahead for other,
what they term “counter insur-
gency” wars and “police ac-
tions,” that will break out in
their domain.

A new type of mercenary sol-
dier must be developed, new
anti-population weapons envolv-
ed and pacification strategies
experimented with.

“Vietnam,” according to the
French paper Figaro, “‘has_ be-
come the testing ground of all
inventions made by military en-
gineers. The aim is to test on a
living target those. inventions
which may be utilized later in
other operation theatres.”

To fully utilize the possibili-
ties that the living laboratory of
Vietnam provides, means that
all international protocols and

conventions must be swept
aside, high-sounding terms—
like ‘“defolients,”- “non-toxic

99 66

gases,” “strategic hamlets” “new
life hamlets,” “country fair ope-
rations’—must be invented to
obscure from civilized people
both within the United States
and abroad what is actually go-
ing on.

Let us take, for example, one
of the lesser known products of
the great society—the fragmen-
tation bomb.

In 1965 this device came in
small containers und. weighed
about 800 grams. Inside these
containers are hundreds of small
steel balls which on impact ex-
plode from the containers with
a great force within a radius of
25 metres. These little steel frag-
ments are relatively harmless
against buildings, and certainly
have no effect against military
installations; however, dropped
in a market square, in a school
yard or on a village compound
the effect is deadly.

Fragmentation bombs have
been widely used in Vietnam for
the last two years at least and
American scientists and engi-
neers studied and evaluated the
results. In 1966 Yankee know-
how came up with a new model.
This model is about half the size
of the older version and comes
in a dispenser which holds about

300 of these bombs. When the
dispenser hits the ground tens of
thousands of steel projectiles are
blasted over an. area of about
6,000 square metres —dealing
death in a new, efficient, Yankee
way.

In a bulletin issued by the Na-

tional Liberation Front of South.

Vietnam, the following charges
are made:

“When the U.S. troops cannot
control a region, all the crops
must be destroyed in order to

-. starve the people into surrender.
“Whole regions have been spray-

ed with various noxious chemic-

-als which not only have de-

stroyed the crops but also caus-
ed many cases of poisoning to
the population. Everywhere
after the passage of the U.S.
planes, the same scene of deso-
lation is seen: rice turning yel-

‘low; banana trees, coco trees

and other fruit trees withered;
poultry, fish dying; women, chil-
dren, old and sick people affec-
ted by colic, diarrhoea, vomit-
ing and often frightful burns.
The weakest victims often die
because of this poisoning.”

In 1964, the American Mobile
406 laboratory for bac‘eriologi-
cal and chemical warfare was
transferred from Japan to South
Vietnam and plans have been
made to produce gasses and
poisons in South Vietnam. The
establishment of an industry to
produce these gasses will no
doubt be considered by the
Americans as part of their eco-
nomic aid to South Vietnam.

The first mass use of these
toxic gasses took place on Jan.
25, 1965 when a village in South
Vienam was showered with na-
palm and explosive bombs. There
then followed an attack of gas
bombs to force the villagers out
of their underground shelters.

Since that time gas grenades
and bombs have become “a
basic standard weapon’’ of all
American troops in South Viet-
nam.

In the perverted logic of the
ghouls in the Pentagon and in
the American universities where
these various gas formulas are
developed, these weapons are
termed as “humane.”

In an article discussing the
student protest against the “bio-

‘logical warfare research” pro-

gram at the University of Penn-
sylvania in the Nov. 12 issue of
the National Guardian, a chem-
ist by the name of Kunt Krieger,
who is in charge of “project
Spicerack and Summit,” is quot-
ed saying: ‘It seems more moral

to let people get sick and
again than to kill them.”

In relation to the “humal)
ture” and “non-toxic qualll
of the gasses used in South
nam, the NLF charges:

“Poison gas used by thé
in South Vietnam is of val!
kinds, much of it has bee!
ed as war gas capable of
even when used in very
doses. According to a UP.
patch of March 23, 1966, |
troops in South Vietnam hé®
ceived and stored CN, DM!
CS. In a book titled ‘Gas 1
fare’ reprinted in New YO!)
1963, Dr. Marie Sartori liste4
chloroacetrophenol C6 H®9
CH2 CL and DM diphenyla!”
chloroarsine (C6 H4)2 NH?
(also called adamsite) 45
main poison gas manufacl”
or being studied at the el!
or just after World War IL
troops have also even ee
and other kinds of gas su
VX and LSD 25.

“The effect of CN, DM
(also called thiophosgon |
well known to scientists),
cause coughing and vol
inflame the mucous mem)”
block up respiratory organ’
kill even when used in —
small doses .. . ‘

“According to many W
reports, in a raid on Jan. 12;
on an area southwest of 5
an Australian mercenary ;
doused air-raid shelters _
poison gas. Two hours i
non-commissioned officer R?
Bowtell entered one of
shelters and died immedi?
although he had put on 4
mask. Six other soldiers
also seriously affected.”

So much for the “humé
non-toxic, nature of the g2”

As one scans the volum®
material written about thé
in Vietnam one is stagger®
the immensity of the horrol)
is being inflicted. Felix Gt
has called this war a ‘!
catastrophe for the UW
States.” And it is that, }
it any less of a “moral
strophe” for us who sit 0
sidelines and witness the ?
cide? :

The experimental war is”
than the development of,
weapons of extermination; 7
volves a military strate)
conquer a people. It is, in)
a program to turn the wh?
South Vietnam into one -
concentration camp.

In a future article 1 wil
scribe this aspect of the wa
men who run it, and its re"

January 13, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pog®