Editorial
EDITORIAL After Hanoi? While it is true that half a loaf is considerably better than none, securing that half loaf is a task in itself. With all the talk at Geneva and elsewhere about conceding...
...There is plenty of time to preserve Laos and Cambodia, and Burma beyond them...
...Back in 1848, as you know, Karl Marx wrote the bible of the Communist party...
...But let no one pretend that the Laotians and Cambodians, either by themselves or with French help alone, can check the Soviet-armed Vietminh if it comes to a test...
...We do not know whether Washington has already sounded out these powers, but it will have to gain their support if any anti-Communist enterprise is to succeed in Southeast Asia...
...Our knowledgeable readers are free to tabulate for themselves the incredible errors, distortions and inventions in this testimony...
...The only type of force that can meet this requirement is the force of the United Nations...
...But such measures—like "massive retaliation"—do not seem probable now...
...If Laos and Cambodia are to be saved, they must be assured enough additional force either to deter Ho Chi Minh or, if need be, to destroy him...
...He took the position that while it was necessary to have a bloody revolution in all of the rest of the world, that we [sic!] could create a Communist dictatorship in the United States and England by infiltration...
...To be sure, Western diplomats dealing with the Communists are trying to dissociate Laos and Cambodia from Vietnam in any truce proposals...
...At the very best, Laos and Cambodia could offer the same sort of resistance to the Communist forces as South Korea—a great deal more than Vietnam, true, but not enough for the massed power of the Soviet Empire...
...It may very well be that some modification of existing Laotian and Cambodian relationships with France will be required to gain that support, but that price is not too high to secure a united Asian democratic front...
...and for that force to be organized on behalf of Laos and Cambodia, the support of the independent powers of Asia—India, Pakistan, Ceylon and especially Burma—is absolutely essential...
...Half a loaf will have been lost, but what will prevent the other half from going the same way...
...In contrast to Bao Dai, who persistently refused to call a National Assembly to determine his people's wishes, the King of Cambodia is eager for a popular referendum on Communism, independence and the other major issues in his country...
...Let us hope Washington has enough political understanding to use that time wisely...
...Illiteracy Unlimited On May 24, we published an analysis of G. David Schine's "famous" pamphlet on Communism, a work of peerless ignorance...
...More likely, the Vietminh will continue its drive on Hanoi and, unless there is some radical new disposition of forces, will eventually capture the northern fortress...
...Subsequent publication of the Schine Plan for psychological warfare, a priceless pastiche, has confirmed Private Schine's non-existent qualifications for any work involving Communism...
...Well, now, we've got 25,000 [Communists in the U.S.] and they've got the experience of a good number of years behind them...
...If moral responsibility for Laos and Cambodia is placed squarely with the UN, and if India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma pledge unconditional support, the two kingdoms may yet be saved...
...Thus, the democratic powers face a far better situation in Laos and Cambodia than they ever did in Vietnam...
...They were headed by Nicolai Lenin...
...President Pusey, we are sure, can be persuaded to waive the normal entrance requirements...
...In fairness to Private Schine, however, we must record that he is far better qualified than his patron...
...The fantastic statements which follow are from the testimony "under oath" of Senator McCarthy on June 9: "In 1917 or '18—I forgot which it was—the Kaiser sent seven devoted Communists into Russia...
...But these are attempts in a vacuum: The lack of democratic unity and the continued success of Ho Chi Minh's armies make any truce most unlikely in the foreseeable future...
...the Communists will not give terms acceptable even to a Paris Government of Mendes-France or Faure...
...Then what...
...energetic measures toward real popular government and international action might still save the day there...
...As for the Senator, he should stop talking about Communism until he has completed an elementary course in its fundamentals at some responsible institution—say, the excellent Russian Research Center at Harvard University...
...If not, we will have a repetition of the tragedy of Vietnam, which everyone agreed should be defended but which no Western government thought was worth its drafted young men...
...Laos and Cambodia, especially the latter, are semi-independent nations of considerable competence, willing to fight the Communists and generally devoted to their leaders as few Vietnamese have been to Bao Dai's group...
...Seven people...
...This is not to say that all of Vietnam is lost already...
...The war was declared by Karl Marx, redeclared often, altered by Lenin, redeclared in 1947 in Stalin's book, redeclared, if you please, by Malenkov in his book in 1952...
...With all the talk at Geneva and elsewhere about conceding northern Vietnam to the Communists, there has been little action thus far to insure the freedom of Laos and Cambodia, not to mention the southern area that used to be called Cochin China...
...Seven men and within 100 days those seven men had taken over and enslaved a nation of 180 million people...
Vol. 37 • June 1954 • No. 25
