The Price of a War

The trouble with your lead editorials of June 29 end July 2 and the McGovern-Hatfield letter in reply is that none of them gets down to the gut issues of the US. government war upon the Indochinese people. Informed people everywhere know that the U.S. government is the aggressor in Indo China, and has been ever since the French were defeated at Dienblenphu In 1954.

Ngo Dinh Diem, the Catholic mandarin living In New Jersey, was imposed upon the South Vietnamese by the Eisenhower administration without any reference to them. He remained, first as the Eisenhower agent and then the Kennedy agent, until assassinated in INS. Each of Diem's numerous successors has been an agent of some Washington administration ever since.

In addition, this war has been waged all along in violation of the U.S. Constitution, which clearly provides that for a war to be legally waged by the U.S. government it must first be declared by the Congress. It Is also an immoral war because It is being waged against a people who do not and could not threaten the Security of the United States. even If thev wished.

And it has now become a genocidal war, because the massive military power of the United States has killed, maimed and wounded millions of the Indochinese people, deeply in. jured their ecology and largely destroyed their culture. At the Present rate of destruc- tion and in a few more years, all that will be left of the Indochinese people will be the maimed and wounded, the prostitutes and quisling traitors such as Thleu and Ky.

But this is not all. This illegal, immoral and genocidal war has already killed more than $0,000 American boys, maimed and wounded at lent 250,000 more, at a present cost to U.S. taxpayers. in excess of $100 bll- lion And before it ends, the additional cost in pension and reparations due the unfortunate Indochinese May exceed $250 billion

This utterly evil and wholly unnecessary war has all but destroyed us morally, brutal. ized our boys, deeply tarnished our reputation worldwide, and finally made of us a nation of necrophiles as we drool over daily body counts.

What a price to pay for face.,
HUGH B. HESTER, Wt.. Gen. US. M., (R.I.).

Asheville, N.C.

Napalm sticks to kids' - helicopter pilot song

Tenure is a way of file in Saigon, as testimony made public this week by congressional aide Thomas Harkins demonstrated, Harkins, who resigned in protest against a Congressional whitewash of Saigon torture, revealed that the Saigon puppets of the U.S. keep their opponents in cages and pits far years. Brutality has become a way of life for towns GIs, we Indicated by the foliowing dispatch I. Saigon by John E. Woodruff in the Baltimore Sun, June 15, 1970.

PHUOC VINH, Viet Nam - Access the border in Cambodia, it was just another Sunday of mud and cold C-rations. But for the palace guard at division beadquarters, it was a grand old Flag Day. In the Downtown Club, the main entertainment center, the concert band of the Ist Cavalry Division (Airmobile) was blaring out "Stars and Stripes Forever."

In a beach on the other side of the be", a tape recorder reproduced the voices of a chains of skytroopers singing a song entitled "Napalm Sticks to Kids":

Napalm sticks to kids, napalm sticks to kids,
When'll those damn gooks ever leam?
We shoot the sick, the young, the lame,
We do our best to kill and maim,
Because the "kills" all count the same,
Napalm sticks to kids.

Agreement was by no means complete on whether the skytroopers who wrote the song were protesting the war or mocking a "bad image" that many helicopter pilots and gunners feel they have acquired unfairly in the course of the war. "I guess it's Just a sign of how sick and confused the whole business has gotten when we can't decide why we wrote something like this." one junior officer said.

Another skytrooper surveyed the giggling newsmen and soldiers gathered around a tape recorder and added:

"You got to admit it captures the essence of something or other." None of the nearly two dozen verses written for the song a sets forth precisely what that "something or other" is. One says:

There's a gook down an his knees
Launch asset fleshettes Into the breeze
Find his arms nalled to the trees,
Napalm sticks to kids.

Another says:

Blues (helicopter gunships) on a road recon,
See the children with their mom,
What the hell, lets drop the bomb.
Napalm sticks to kids.

A cavalryman with access to a typewriter has me& a mimeograph stencil of the song but It is yet to be printed. They "said it wasn't offiicial business."

THE U. S. as the Imperialist Aggressor

To understand the war in Vietnam you have to understand how the United States is '"imperialist", Now imperialism is a fashionable word which many people use without being sure of its meaning and so confuse their listeners. It is also one of those words with which those nasty radicals abuse America.

American politicians and their propagandists prefer to say "the way in which we defend our interests and democracy and freedom throughout the world". Imperialism is shorter, easier to say and more precise,

The purpose of this article is to give a clear sense to imperialism as a stage of capitalism and to show how the United States is imperialist in this sense.

Often, imperialism is confused with colonialism -- a political institution under which the mother country directly controls the politics (courts, police, and elections) and the economy of the colony. The purpose of colonialism is to make it impossible for the colony to do anything which does not benefit its owner, the mother country. But colonialism is only a strategy which imperialist countries may discard and still remain imperialist.

Generally speaking, imperialism as a stage of capitalism has two aspects, one political and the other economic. it is characterized politically by the severe competition of several advanced capitalist countries for domination of the world market, which is divided among them, There are wars designed to redivide markets and to retain colonies seeking national independence. Econmically, monopolies are the main form of industrial organization and the exports of capital are more important than the export of goods in international economic relations .

This characterization of imperialism was basically developed by Hobson, an English economist, at the turn of the century, and flows from a lengthy historical analysis of the way capitalism developed.

Now let's see how the United States is imperialist, in the sense we have outlined.

A. Economic basis. It is not hard to see that the dominant form of economic organization in the United States today is the monopoly. The top 100 manufacturers own 49.5% of all industrial assets- that is, machines, factories inventories etc, Combined with the next 100, they own 61.27. of all industrial assets. Put another way, 200 corporations own 2/3 of the factories in the United States. (Figures for 1968 from Statistical Abstracts, P. 479.)

The largest 200 companies created 37% of the value cre. ated by manufacture in 1954 (FTC Senate Committee rePort.) The five hundred largest industrial corporations had a net income of $20,011,000,000 in 1965, while all the industrial corporations had a net income totalling $27,521,000,000. In other words, the top five hundred corporations received 3/4 of the net income of all corporations. (Statistical Abstracts, p. 480, figures for 1965.)

Similarly, the fifty largest life insurance companies controlled 5/6 of all the assets of life insurance companies in 1960 and the largest 10 companies controlled about 3/5 of all the assets. (Statistical Abstracts, p.473). In 1968, the share of the largest 10 companies was down to about 55%. The two biggest, Prudential and Metropolitan Life, own 36%.

Similarly, the 50 largest banks have about 1/3 of all the assets and the deposits of all banking corporations and the largest 10 banks have about a sixth of all assets and deposits. (Statistical Abstracts, p.446).

These figures are's little dry but hard to argue about. (for more details and a closely reasoned argument which claim that these figures do not indicate "Undue concentration," see The Fortune Directory, 1969.)

They present a picture of extreme concentration by a few huge companies and the people who control them, but they don't reflect the growing trend towards increased concentration through mergers, purchases and take-overs. Since 1965, Douglas Aircraft, with over a billion dollars in sales, was merged with MacDonald Aircraft; Consolidation Coal was taken over by Continental Oil; there have been over 4,000 mergers of companies with assets over $100 million since 1960. In the first three months of 1969 alone, 43 large manufacturing firms worth $45.5 billion were taken over.

Furthermore, these figures do not reflect the interconnections among banks, insurance companies and large industrial corporations, For instance, Du Pont owned 23% of General Motors, which is enough control, until the late 50's when it was forced to spin off G.M. stock to Du Pont shareholders. (Clark Clifford, later secretary of defense, saved the Du Pont family about one billion on the deal.) These interconnections occur through:

a. interlocking directorates (directors have the final authority on how the company is run);

b. influence of banks who loan money, float bond and stock issues and handle other financial matters; (If you we me money, I don't want you risking it)

c. common shareholders and bond holders.

Some companies even go as far as formal agreements to parcel out markets and profits, even though this is in violation of antitrust laws. How General Electric and Westinghouse handled the production of electric generators is a good example.

Germany, Japan, Britain and France all have a high degree of concentration in industry, banking and insurance, especially in areas where they attempt to compete with American monopolies.

In 1966, about 1/3 of the gross private investment in the United States was made abroad, which is about the as" level abroad as the years 1960-1965 but slightly higher. The net balance of trade in 1966 was about $4 billion. (Balance of payments problem comes from a heavy spending for our armed forces in foreign countries,) This is a tremendous volume of investment, especially when you realize that investing is a cumulative process.

If you invest 100 million dollars a year for 10 years, then at the end of a decade you have an investment of I billion, even though the year figures only show 100 million dollars going out. A few figures will indicate the extent of the United States' control of foreign economics. In 1967, is, American companies controlled 587. of all Middle Eastern Oil, produced 21% of the total manufactured if.. goods exported throughout the world and made over

607. of all foreign investments. A single company, United Fruit, controlled 69% of Panama's exports 35%. of Honduras' and 41% of Costa Rica's.

Foreign markets and earnings are vital to the profits of American business. In 1966, the profit rate on European investments was 7.4%, while in Asia it was 28.9%. Tables 1 and 2 indicate exactly how important foreign earnings are

The last figure indicates that the United States receives much more from foreign investments in underdeveloped countries than in developed ones, and shows an actual capital loss on the part of underdeveloped countries due to American investments. A recent report by

the International Development Bank (Washington Star, September 26, 1969) claims that the heavy capital loss of non-industrialized trial i zed countries is the reason why the relative-economic difference between them and indus- trialized 'countries is increasing.

Table.3 indicates the importance of the export of capital: relative to the export of goods. (Source: Statistical Abstracts, p. 785, and Economic Almanac, p.499, 1967-68.),

The economic effect of American imperialism is reflected in a very, low per capita income , high death rate and especially high infant death rate, high illiteracy, and poor diet in the underdeveloped countries involved. Ethiopia __site of a large American communication center- per capita income of $49; Guatemala $310; India $82. In the United States the comparable figure was $3312. (Figures are for 1965, in U.S. dollars. Source is A.I.D.) In Guatamala 88 babies die out of every 1000; in the U.S. there are 22 deaths per 1000 for white babies, 41 deaths per 1000 for black babies. Thus a child born in Guatamala is four times as likely to die as one born in the U.S. The average diet in Guatamala is 2000 calories a day, with 46 grams of meat meat. The average American eats 3120 calories and 92 grams of meat daily.

B. Wars of Redivision and Retention.
The United States was not strong enough to participate in the scramble for colonies that broke out around 1870, partly due to the effects of its Civil War. The open door policy it pushed in China and Japan, and the Monroe Doc. trine which claimed exclusive rights for the markets and trade of Latin America and the war with Mexico indicates that the U.S. would have grabbed colonies if it had been powerful enough.

The Spanish American war is a clear example of a war of redivision. The USA. a rising, youthful power which had been shut out of colony grabbing- took on the decaying empire of Spain and won the right to exploit some choice bits of the world, at the cost of a few hundred man and a few million dollars. Through this war the U.S. gained the following: Puerto Rico and Guam, colonies it still holds (Guam is now a depot for poison gases and bacteriological warfare materials), Cuba, which the U.S. kept as a semi-colony until Castro's revolution, and the Phillippines. One of the reasons that the U.S. had such an easy time was that strong national liberation movements in Cuba and the Phillippines had worn the Spanish down.

While Cuba was granted formal independence under a constitution guaranteeing the United States the right to intervene if its "interests were threatened." the Phillipines were seized outright. America dissolved the independent republic that had been proclaimed by Aguinaldo in 1898, and fought a guerilla war until 1902-3, when most of the resistance was crushed. Even though the Phillippines were granted independence in 1948, the constitution makes U.S. economic domination inevitable. A national liberation movement, the HUKs fought actively until 1952 and has recently showed signs of resurgence.

One of the reasons for strong American support for the war against Spain was the extreme national chauvinism-the feeling of national superiority. The vicious racism which has existed in America since its founding accustomed white working people to seeing people of a different color and race oppressed and exploited. Because of this racism they ignored their own oppression and supported the ruling class in its imperialist wars.

From 1900 to 1916, the United States engaged in hundreds of armed interventions in Central and South America. The U.S. invaded Mexico to hunt for the Mexican "bandit" Pancho Villa and to support reactionaries against the Mexican revolution, encouraged Panama to break away from Columbia in order to get control of the Panama Canal on the cheap (today United Fruit controls 69% of Panama's exports.) In 1914 the Marinas occupied Haiti, staying there until 1932. Haiti is one of the world's poorest countries, with a per capita income of around $30 yearly.

World War I was the first total war and obviously a war of redivision. It grew out of Germany's economic and political challenge to Britian's empire. After the war, Germany's colonies were given to Britain (as League of Nations "mandates" and the Balkans were split from Austria-Hungary and made "independent" nations (subject to British control). The October revolution in Russia opened the socialist road for national liberation movements and posed the decisive challenge to imperialism, they is, to big capitalist countries like Britain, Frame, Germany and the United States. Wars of redivision-- trying to gobble up a bit more-- became very dangerous when wars to retain what imperialist countries had taken became necessary. The western powers, including the United States vigorously supported the counter-revolution in Russia. After that attempt lost, they tried to isolate Russia economically and culturally.

The 1920's saw the United States take up a very active policy of intervention in Latin America and the beginning of a strong national liberation movement in China against the foreign concessions and the domestic warlords Both the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party worked to implement Sun Yatsen's democratic program.

After World War III the demand for national liberation and the struggle against imperialism grew irresistable. Countries which were not given their independence fought for it. For example: Algeria, Indochina, Malayasia, Greece, Cuba, Korea, the Mau Maus in Kenya, The Congo, Indonesia (against the Dutch) are all wars of retention. How did the United States get mixed up in ware of retention if it didn't have many colonies? When tbe imperial powers (Britain) which controlled Greece failed to maintain its power in 1945-48, then the United States stepped in with the Truman Doctrine; when the French lost in Indochina (1955-58). the United States stepped in and set up the puppet regime of Diem.

Greece is now a fascist dictatorship run by some colonels who are agents of the CIA and the Vietnamese war has expanded into a general Indochinese war (which that fool Nixon is trying to Vietnamize). Vietnamization is getting somebody else to do a job you couldn't do yourself. By the way, Nixon's policy was announced at Guam which the U.S. seized in the Spanish-American War. In other words the U.S. policy is --- If you fail, keep on making trouble. The best way to defeat a people's wars to do away with the people.

So the United States has bombed and sprayed and defoliated about a third of Vietnam; forcing people into resettlement camps (i.e. concentration camps) and forcing an agrarian people into cities like Saigon, where they caw be controlled more easily and slaughtered more efficiently.

The United States has also maintained its intervention policy in Latin America "Lynching" Baines Johnson sent 30,000 troops into Santo Domingo to deal with 53 Communists who were supporting their constitutional government back in 1965.

One result of imperialism is oppression. both foreign and domestic. Foreign oppression is plain to see. Just watch television some night and imagine that those bombs are falling in your home town. Talk to G.I.'s or read about My Lai (Song My) to see what oppression involves --- death, disfigurement, destruction.

But to ignore the oppression of other people is to invite the same oppression on your head. The anti-war forces in the United States are now facing a mild form of the fascism which has been practiced against black and brown people for years. The kind of violence and destruction which the United States practices in Vietnam has not yet been applied in the United States.

The exploitation that American imperialism practices is the cause of the hunger, poverty and early deaths of underdeveloped countries.

When the people rise up against their oppressors, their oppressors try to crush them. But the power of the people is stronger than the forces of reaction. All power to the people.