Editorial Note: We reprint here part of a recent press statement by Bertrand Russell. We have omitted a large section of the statement, in which he discusses the American war in Vietnam, as the points made are covered by Ralph Schoenemann's article, 'The Nature of the Vietnam War', in the previous issue of The Week.
Americans do not sufficiently understand the meaning of their Government's policy. Any of us concerned with peace today must confront the fact that the military industrial complex in the U.S. which possesses power has committed the country to a systematic programme of exploitation and foreign domination.
The U.S. has over 3,300 military bases in the world. These bases guard the spoils of U.S. capitalism, e.g., nearly 60% of the natural resources of the world. As the U.S. contains only 6% of the world's population, it is clear that this vast international system of military control is required to suppress a world revolution against conditions of poverty, disease and unrelieved misery for the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
No nation can keep by force of arms the control and benefit of nearly 60% of the world's resources without meeting resistance from those who suffer as a result of such domination. The peoples of the world must either endure indefinitely the cruel dictatorships financed by U.S. capitalism, or come into open revolt against the imperialism which subjects them,
Americans have allowed corporate capitalism to identify its selfish and rapacious aims with the national interest of the American nation. From this fact follows the essential corruption of political life in America. The C.I.A. has a budget fifteen times that of all formal diplomatic activity of the U.5. and it serves to overthrow and plot against all Governments insufficiently subservient to American financial interests. The C.I.A. is no more than a band of organised assassins but it is a powerful body and has killed heads of state. This, perhaps, is what Malcolm X meant when, in remarking upon the assassination of an American Head of State, he said "It is chickens coming home to rooste" There is virtually no country in Latin America, Africa or Asia in which the C.I.A. has not purchased a section of the Army or the Police and for which a list of potential victins- of assassination has not been prepared.
These essential facts underlie tha appalling brutal war of aggression which , the U.S. is now waging in Vietnam. The conditions which have caused this conflict in Vietnam obtain throughout Latin America and the greater part of Africa and Asiasec.cecevesetne U.S. is intervening militarily in countries throughout the world: in the Dominican Republic, in Korea, throughout Latin America, in Thailand in S. Korea = in fact wherever poor people with rich land are in rebellion. What then is our responsibility in the face of such behaviour? In my view we must acknowledge and state openly that the cold war and the danger of world war are the responsibility of the U.S., or more accuTately of U.S. imper~ ialism. As long as the U.S. government is controlled by corporate capitalism and its military arm, the U.S. will be represented by a policy of counter-revolution and brutality and the world must stagger from one crisis to another. A further consideration must be faced. The real object of U.S. military action is China. They realise that China as a major industrial power will serve as an example to all Asian, African and Latin American peoples. This they fear and so they wish to destroy China while they can. We must oppose and expose thiseecees For my part I salute the N.L.F. and its struggle for the emancipation of Viet+ nam from the brutal domination of the United States,