The Vietnam Peace Trick

The scan: The Week v5 no1.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

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In his message to Mr. Kosygin, Soviet Prime Minister, earlier this week, Mr. Wilson said that Britain is continuing to give the United States all possible support in its efforts to explain the American position on Vietnam, Just what is meant by this? what is the meaning of the tooing and froing of American high-powered diplomats as they wander all over the globe? Columnists have described this activity as President Johnsonts instant peace campaign - we would take another view, Just before Christmas the Vietnam Day Committee of Berkeley, California, sent us a letter in which they stated: "On Tuesday, December 14th, news sources in the United Nations speculated that the Johnson Administration will probably declare war (upon whom, they do not say) in January after the proposed cessation of bombings which may occur during the Christmas holidays...e" The serious Sunday newspapers, this week, all had reports of possible - if not probable ~ action by the U.S. to extend the war in South Hast Asia after they could claim that the North had turned down their peace overtures, The invasion of Cambodia and Laos was mentioned, as was possible bombing of the population centres of North Vietnam and Southern China, If this is the case = and balance. of evidence is pointing unnistakably this way = then Mr. Wilson is saying /é fect that the British Government is the accomplice to the most cold-blooded and dangerous fraud since Hitler's statement "I have no more territorial demends,." Obviously we must put the maximum pressure on the Government to reverse this drift. But there is more to it than that: this situation is a terrible commentary on the moral degeneration of the leaders of our party; it is also a very powerful argument for the insistence of a very clear policy on the Vietnam war. Every bit of confusion on this question aids the American Government. Socialists can only make one call: that of the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from the South. That this would mean the victory of the NLF is an arsument for their withdrawal, We all want peace, but this can only be achieved in the present context by inflicting a decisive defeat on U.S. imperialism.