The Way to Peace in Vietnam

This is Vietnam Week, all over the country groups of people have been hard at work involved in a variety of activities designed to draw attention to the terrible war in Vietnam, These activities are, in thenvelves, very commendable and deserve support, However, we have to intoduce a rather sombre note: the movement in this country has been carrying out similar activities over a period of years and the effect of all this on Government policy has been negligible, The Week believes that the supporters of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (and other groupings with a similar political line) are correct when they point out that support for the negotiations! line has confused the movement in this country and made it easy for Wilson and Johnson to use the phoney peace initiatives to cover their tracks, Supporters of the softer line always claim that it is more effective because it is broader - the reverse would seem to be the case, Thus not only is the solidarity line morally correct, it is at least as effective as that of the negotiations line and probably more so, The Week believes that the question of negotiations in Vietnam is one for the Vietnamese people and their leaders to decide. If they stipulate, as they do at the present stage, that withdrawal of American troops must precede negotiations, it is pure hypocrisy for Britishers, far away from the fighting to call upon those who are fighting to compromise because they are frightened of a third world war. But there is another end even more complete argument for the solidarity line. iven if another compromise peace were negotiated, unless the Americans and their stooges were completely removed from the scene the fighting would break out a#ain, The only sure and permanent peace in Vietnam is one which gives the Vietnamese self-determination and social advance. We have used these arguments many times before and we apologise for repeating them but apparently it is still necessary.