Vietnam: Urgent Action Is Needed

This coming Sunday sees the start of Vietnam week. The various activities have been widely publicised and we earnestly hope that all the readers of he Week will participate to the full. We are giving a preat deal of space to the discussions which socialists are having up and down the country about orientation; in doing so we must echo the sentiments expressed at Manchester that, above all, action is needed, All the people who have taken part in these discussions are united in their detestation of the way the Labour Government has supported American policy in Vietnam. Hence there exists an excellent basis for united action. Action needs to be urgent too, It appears that the U.S. leaders have embarked on a policy of unlimited intervention in Vietnam. They have thrown aside all caution sbout the number of men they will put into the field, etc. It needs reiterating time and time again that the British Government remains the nost firm and important ally the American Government has in this policy, We must again draw attention to the fact that all we do here gives the greatest encouragement to the sections of American society who are opposing their Government over Vietnam. Our opposition to the war in Vietnam must be based on the understanding that whet is needed is not phoney talk about "peace" missions but a repudiation of American aggression. The British socialist movement should be firmly behind the demand that U.S. troops quit Vietnam and that the Vietnamese people are allowed to determine their own destiny. We hope that this is the theme of "Vietnam Veek,"