Stop the Bombing
Stop the Bombing! THE HOPE for a peaceful settlement •*- of the miserable war in Vietnam soared and sank and soared again in the early weeks of the new year. The prospect that both sides might...
...Many Americans seem to share that view...
...Subsequently, Goldberg released a statement in which he emphasized the "unconditional willingness" of the United States to discuss a peaceful solution...
...Here, it seemed, was a free hand for U Thant to "take whatever steps you consider necessary" and to have "maximum freedom of maneuver...
...This was the message that rang out most clearly in all the statements that poured out of Hanoi...
...Official government intelligence surveys confirm these findings by newsmen...
...One thing is sure," Cameron wrote, "if the bombing of North Vietnam is designed either to terrorize the people into submission or to crush their economy into ruin, its effects on both counts is precisely the reverse...
...Far from terrorizing the people, the bombings have stimulated and consolidated them...
...The Johnson Administration, relying again on the advice of Pentagon hawks, refused to agree to the unconditional cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam—a step which U Thant has repeatedly insisted for many months is "the first and essential part" of his three-point approach to peace...
...This was the theme of the urgent counsel pressed on us by allies, by adversaries, by neutrals, and, most of all, by U Thant, who as Secretary-General of the United Nations represents the world-wide demand for a prompt, negotiated end of the war...
...U Thant doubtless had this background in mind when he appealed to the United States to proceed in the spirit of magnanimity that its power makes possible...
...The bombing of North Vietnam is not only morally wrong—a judgment amply confirmed during the past month by the admission that the bombing has killed countless civilians and destroyed homes—but it is also politically self-defeating and militarily ineffective...
...It is a situation," he wrote Goldberg, "in which a powerful nation like the United States should take the initiative in the quest for peace and show an enlightened and humanitarian spirit...
...The other two points of his program, which" The Progressive has repeatedly endorsed, are "the scaling down of all military activities by all sides in South Vietnam"-—a step which would become possible only after the bombing of North Vietnam ends—and "the willingness to enter into discussions with those who are actually fighting"—in other words, agreement by the United States to negotiate with the National Liberation Front, political arm of the Vietcong...
...I believe that in the circumstances, only action deliberately undertaken in such a spirit, which because of its power and posi tion the United States can afford to undertake, can halt the escalation and enlargement of this war and thus bring about a turning of the tide toward peace...
...The Christian Science Monitor reported that railroad lines that were cut 500 times "were never closed for long...
...U Thant is right in insisting that it is up to the United States to de-escalate the war to propor tions that permit negotiations, and this can be done, in his judgment and in the judgment of most of the informed opinion of mankind—by ceasing to bomb North Vietnam...
...The brief cease-fire for the lunar new year begins February 8. If the Johnson Administration really meant what it said when it invited U Thant to "take whatever steps you consider necessary" and to exercise "the maximum freedom of maneuver," it has no moral alternative to acceptance of the first step he considers not only necessary but indispensable: the unconditional cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam...
...On the military level, the bombing of North Vietnam has been strikingly ineffective...
...The time to act is now...
...Harrison Salisbury of The New York Times, writing from Hanoi, has emphasized that the damage done to the main north-south highway and the railroad that parallels it through the Red River delta has been ridiculously superficial from a military point of view...
...In his letter replying to Ambassador Goldberg, U Thant correctly reported that unconditional cessation of American bombing of North Vietnam is supported by "the public opinion of the world," as disclosed by statements in the United Nations and the General Assembly's endorsement of this three-point peace program...
...effort to promote negotiations, using U Thant as an intermediary, would stand or fall on the bombing issue...
...They will not come to the conference table on their knees," he said...
...But it soon turned out that the Secretary-General was to have no such freedom...
...Many Americans share this judgment, but President Johnson has chosen, at least up to now, to reject this hopeful approach and to accept, instead, the counsel of the professional warriors who constitute the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the same crowd that helped to mastermind the moral and military disaster at the Bay of Pigs...
...This appraisal, and many others like it, confirms the conclusion reached last year by James Cameron, the noted British correspondent whose report from Hanoi was published in The New York Times...
...Why, they ask, should the United States, alone, be required to make the first concession...
...In similar vein, The New York Times noted from the United Nations that "diplomats whose governments have missions in North Vietnam asserted that the U.S...
...It is against this background of moral, political, and military failure that the policy of continued bombardment of North Vietnam must be judged...
...There was a moment recently when it appeared that the Johnson Administration might be breaking away from its reliance on the military mentality at the Pentagon...
...In his Johnson-approved letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Goldberg asked U Thant to "take whatever steps you consider necessary" to begin talks on a lasting ceasefire in Vietnam, and he went on to assure U Thant that the United States "'will cooperate fully with you in getting such discussions started promptly &nd in bringing them to a successful conclusion...
...The Johnson Administration, he said, is prepared to take "all appropriate steps" to achieve peace...
...Secretary of State Dean Rusk confirmed the wide-ranging character of the invitation to U Thant to seek a peace settlement when he told a news conference that Thant should "exercise his office to the fullest...
...Infiltration of North Vietnamese forces below the Seventeenth Parallel has tripled since the bombing began two years ago...
...World opinion tends to regard American bombing of North Vietnam as a contest between David and Goliath—a struggle between the richest and mightiest nation on earth, with some 200 million people, against one of the smallest and most underdeveloped countries, with a population of 16 million...
...The Johnson Administration insists that it will not agree to cessation of the bombing until there is a "reciprocal response" from Hanoi...
...The prospect that both sides might be edging toward something resembling a dialogue was a flickering possibility as this was written in mid-January, but the situation was still too volatile to determine if indeed Washington and Hanoi were inching their way out of the diplomatic foxholes in which they have buried themselves for so long...
...The answer seems clear to us...
...The Secretary General himself ought to have maximum freedom of maneuver...
...Chalmers Roberts of The Washington Post reported last month that "the burden" of surveys made by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency "is that within twenty-four to thirty-six hours the North Vietnamese, with help from Chinese engineers and other specialists, repair shattered bridges, broken rail lines, and the crater-potted roads...
...Arthur Goldberg, U.S...
...Chester Ronning, Canada's peace envoy and one of the world's best informed authorities on Vietnam, recently asserted that the bombing is stiffening Hanoi's determination to go on fighting...
...In the first place, as we suggested earlier, we believe that U Thant is right in saying that because of America's "power and position," we can afford to be more generous than our tiny adversary.Second, and more important, the United States should take the first step to de-escalate the war because it took the first major step to escalate the war when it began the bombing just two years ago...
...On the political level, it is the virtually unanimous judgment of correspondents and diplomats in Hanoi that the bombing has significantly strengthened morale in North Vietnam...
...In the midst of the multiplicity of maneuvers by both camps one clear-cut conclusion seemed to emerge, and it is one we have long emphasized in these columns: The hope of replacing deadlock with dialogue will continue to elude us until the United States unconditionally ends the bombing of North Vietnam...
...Ambassador to the United Nations, persuaded the President to allow him to write a letter to U Thant which might pave the way for discussions designed to achieve a negotiated settlement...
...However obscure and elusive many things in North Vietnam may be, that fact is manifestly, tangibly obvious at every turn...
Vol. 31 • February 1967 • No. 2
