Notebook Napalm Bombs in Redwood City
Hochschild, Adam
Once the rockets are up Who cares where they come down? "That's not my department," Says Werner von Braun. (—from a song by Tom Lehrer) Burning napalm consumes oxygen so fast that,...
...Asked later how he felt about the use of napalm and the war in Vietnam, Gardella said, "The Port Commission has made no expression of opinion...
...The petition was invalidated on a legal technicality hotly disputed in several court fights...
...Or Communist propaganda...
...He did not express how they felt about napalm as a consumption item...
...Would the same statements be heard...
...The Chamber of Commerce took a stand favoring the Port Commission's approval of the sublease, while several local ministers joined the Committee which opposed it...
...A bitter controversy erupted, shaking the comfortable suburb of 56,000 into political turmoil and national publicity...
...UTC's contract for 100 million pounds of napalm will be fulfilled by December...
...When napalm—essentially jet fuel with an additive to make it as sticky as honey—lands on your skin, you can't scrape it off...
...One wonders how far the Port Commission would go in its "hands off" attitude...
...Furthermore, Houff pointed out, napalm bombing is fundamentally imprecise, and, however well-aimed, often kills or painfully wounds civilians...
...Let me offer an analogy," wrote Unitarian minister William H. Houff to his parishioners...
...The Commission minutes paraphrased him: "The [Commission] cannot discriminate against lessees unless the operation of their businesses is proved to be against public safety and welfare...
...What if someone wanted to build a plant on port land for the sole purpose of printing pornography...
...Arguing for the plant, other local citizens took the position that, as long as one supports the war, one has the duty to make almost any weapon needed to win it...
...But that pivotal question, "What are my responsibilties...
...Our Air Force reportedly is happy with the new type, Napalm—B, and is dropping it in Vietnam, mostly in 750- and 1,000-pound bombs...
...If we must have capital punishment, then there is a moral distinction between the electric chair and burning at the stake...
...Company officials soon were surprised...
...But the referendum was never held...
...In the spotlight was Redwood City's Port Commission, which had to approve the sublease of land for the plant before UTC could begin making napalm...
...A tall wire fence and a friendly but firm, uniformed guard prevent you from getting too close...
...Once the rockets are up Who cares where they come down...
...Or anti-religious literature...
...When a Stanford student was telling the Port Commission that it had a ,'moral responsibility" not to permit napalm to be made in Redwood City, Menifee interrupted him, turned to the city attorney and asked, "What are my responsibilities...
...It was one of those rare occasions when the chance to do something directly about a war 6,000 miles away seemed within the grasp of one small community...
...Port Commission Chairman Menifee was quoted saying at the March 21 meeting: "It is not the function of this Board to be concerned with morality...
...During the meeting, the Commission's Chairman, Norman Menifee, unwittingly raised the critical question...
...from a song by Tom Lehrer) Burning napalm consumes oxygen so fast that, if it lands on you squarely, you may die by suffocation rather than by roasting...
...After the Port Commission's action, the Redwood City Committee Against Napalm got more than 3,000 signatures on a petition to force a city referendum on the issue...
...One wonders if much of a community battle on the issue would have taken place, if UTC had decided to build its napalm plant, say, in an unemploymentridden section of Appalachia...
...The controversy reached its climax at the Port Commission's packed and stormy meeting, on March 21, which was called to consider Resolution P496, the sublease of land for the napalm plant...
...But a startlingly large number of people took a third and entirely different position on the issue: that, regarding the morality of producing napalm, Redwood City had no responsibility at all...
...The napalm continues to be mixed, and the newlyfilled bombs leave the plant daily...
...In fact, the plant employed only a small number of people, mostly UTC regulars from out-oftown...
...City attorney Richard Gardella answered by reading a list of Port Commissioner's duties from the city charter...
...still lingers, and the varying answers it prompted gave rise to a moral drama of far greater significance than the passage of Resolution P-496...
...If you could get beyond the wire fence, through the hard hats, and into the minds of those who make the napalm, you would not find them sadistic ogres, but just like men who mix concrete, build bridges, or run printing presses...
...Recently a new form of napalm has been "developed," a kind that sticks better...
...ing thing of all...
...And maybe that is the most frighten...
...City Attorney Gardella backed up this bizarre statement...
...If napalm can be produced with safety, and it is good business, then it is our duty to approve the sublease...
...Whether the Air Force will need more is not certain, though at the rate of escalation in Vietnam, things look good for the napalm business...
...Crates of empty bombs are brought into the plant, poured full of the deadly jelly, and shipped off to Asia...
...During the weeks the signatures were gathered, letters flooded the local newspaper offices...
...If you are relatively fortunate, and the flaming jelly covers only an arm or a leg, the limb will be partly cooked, much as if it had been held in a pot of boiling fat or over a fire...
...They felt that napalm, besides being used in a war which most of them strongly opposed, was so brutal a weapon that manufacturing it was wrong on this ground alone...
...Napalm—B is mixed in several large, reddish-brown machines which stand on concrete stilts a few yards from the calm, gently rippling waters of San Francisco Bay...
...The machines look vaguely like 20foothigh butter churns...
...People in Redwood City and at nearby Stanford University hurriedly formed the Redwood City Committee Against Napalm, with about 100 active members...
...Those who protested against the manufacture of napalm felt that it was the responsibility of the Port Commission to prevent it...
...Editorials in the local newspaper wobbled indecisively in between...
...That's not my department," Says Werner von Braun...
...And naturally, the "public safety and welfare" of Vietnamese peasants or guerrillas is not involved...
...When the United Technology Center (UTC) contracted to make $11 million worth of napalm this year, it subleased some waterfront land in Redwood City, California, and expected no more attention from the public than it had received during the previous seven years of its life, mostly spent making rocket engines for the Air Force...
...They are neither for nor against napalm as a production item...
...Gathering signatures for the petition revealed a somber fact: upper middleclass professionals in the city's plush "hill" districts signed it somewhat more readily than citizens of the small Negro area, who voiced fears about losing job opportunities if the plant moved elsewhere...
...The resolution was passed, because none of the duties had anything to do with the morality of making instruments of war, and the meeting broke up in an angry uproar...
...The mixing machines and the shouting workers in colored safety helmets make the plant seem remarkably like a normal factory...
...This "neutrality" means, of course, approval of the plant...
Vol. 13 • November 1966 • No. 6
