McNAMARA AND VIETNAM, DOUBTS ON BUILD UP OF FORCES

"The informant said Mr. McNamara doubted U.S. Intelligence reports on recent North Vietnamese troop build-ups in the south." The Age, July 11.

Reports over the last few weeks indicate a serious rift between the U.S. military commanders and the political controllers in Washington. The military men are restive and are agitating for the means to bring the war to a successful closure. It is obvious that the "no-win" political strategists headed by Mr. McNamara are determined to resist such pressure. They are determined to do so even in the face of increasing evidence that increasing supplies of advanced Soviet equipment used by the North Vietnamese is having a devastating effect on American troops.
The only explanation for such perversity, indeed treachery, is the close affinity between the American and Soviet politicians.

The recent visit to America by Kosygin was a travesty and a deception practiced upon the troops fighting against Communist aggression. What must have been the reaction of the troops in the field to the reports that the head of the state supplying the necessary equipment to kill them was being received with enthusiasm and feted by the President of their country?
No wonder the North Vietnamese dispute the claim of General Westmoreland that the Allies are slowly winning the war.

With the charade put on in Glassboro they must have every confidence that the greatest weapon of Communism propaganda, (often termed psycho strategy these days) will still win the war for them.
Present at the Glassboro meeting were those men directing U.S. policy in Vietnam. Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, Walt W. Rostow, McGeorge Bundy and Averill Harriman. No doubt they joined with Mr. Kosygin's daughter who said, "We've all had such a pleasant time."
It is reported that her smiling photograph appeared on the same pages in American papers reporting the latest lists of American casualties in Vietnam.

The sobering thought for Australians is that our politicians are committed to the same policies of compromise. In communist language, compromise leads to withdrawal and defeat. How long do we need to learn the lesson?

NEW SOVIET GUN SLAMS MARINES

A marine intelligence officer said, "Those weapons can do the job on any tank we have, they can penetrate 11 inches of steel." The Herald July 6.

One of the reasons continually advanced by American and Australian politicians against escalation of the war in Vietnam is that this may offend the Russians. Recently when a U.S. plane strafed a Soviet ship in Haiphong harbour by mistake profuse apologies were offered to the Kremlin by the U.S. Such incidents, we are assured by the propagandists could lead to a third world war.

The lie was given to this cheap deception for all time in the recent Middle Eastern conflagration. During that war the refined Soviet equipment was dealt with in no uncertain terms by the Israeli's who also published photographs of the Soviet technicians they captured.

Another interesting disparity between the Middle East conflict and Vietnam, which has been widely commented upon was the quickness of the desert campaign as against the long drawn out jungle campaign in Vietnam. Accepting the different conditions under which each war has to be fought in the two areas, the striking difference between the two operations was the desire of the Israeli's to win, as against the war of 'containment' we are fighting in Vietnam.

WILSON - KOSYGIN PLUNDER EAST EUROPE CAPTIVE PEOPLES

Because of its importance in measuring the moral decline in British politics we reproduce sections of an important letter written to The Editor of the Melbourne Herald July 11 by Mrs. Austra Tamuza, Chairman Melbourne Latvian Association, Dickens St, Elwood.

"At the beginning of this year the head of government of the Soviet Union visited Britain. At the end of this visit, in February a communiqué was issued which, among other things, dealt with the result of protracted negotiations between the two countries about a long list of claims each had against the other. As part of this settlement Mr. Harold Wilson agreed that the British Government should expropriate the funds (about £sterling 5.3/4 million) that the central monetary institutions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had deposited in London as part of the reserves to secure their currencies. The legal owners of these funds ...are the central banks of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were robbed by Russian Communists in 1940 when they invaded the Baltic States. Nobody has the legal power to dispose of these funds... The funds were in Britain on trust... Latvians throughout the Free World have received the news with dismay. British justice and British banking integrity were famous worldwide. As the British Government is perfectly aware of the weakness of its case and fears that if attacked in court it would be compelled to cancel its promise to Alexei Kosygin, it has decided to pass an Act of Parliament to complete the proceedings.
The Latvian communities all over the world are still pleading with Britain and there is still a faint chance that, before the final Act is passed, Baltic assets and British moral prestige might be saved."

Book of the Week

MAY GOD FORGIVE US
By Robert H.W. Welch, Jr.

THE LABOUR PARTY AND THE WYNDHAM-WHITLAM NEXUS

"The West Australian Labor Party has supported a call by the Federal Opposition Leader, Mr. Whitlam, for further investigation proposals to reorganise the party at the national level." The Australian July 10.

We have previously observed that the emergence of the intellectual leftist in the Labour party is by far the strongest factor in that party. In the old Trade Union structure there was a strong element of not only national fervour, but also localised control. The state groupings controlled the federal structure.
The intellectuals like Whitlam and Wyndham are a different breed. They are caste in the mould of the genuine international socialist.
Fabian Socialism, the policy of gradual erosion of individual and national rights prior to ushering in the international social order, is their creed.

The reorganising of the Labour Party on a National basis as conceived under the Wyndham plan is just another part of the process of centralising power and placing it into the hands of fewer individuals. The result is an easier manipulation of policy to obtain the objective of world socialism. It is significant that on the Vietnam issue, the intellectuals, Whitlam, Cairns, Cohen and Co: were able to maintain the international socialist-communist line against involvement, as against the recognition by Mr. Barnard, a trade unionist and returned soldier, who pressed for the recognition of Australia's national responsibility in Vietnam.

INGREDIENTS FOR INCREASED TROUBLE IN MIDDLE EAST

"Israel must keep the old city of Jerusalem," he said.
"There is no old city or new city, but only one Jerusalem and that has been ours for 3000 years." Mr. Ben Gurion former Israeli Prime Minister, reported in The Australian July 10.

Mr. Ben Gurion also advocated that the west bank area of Jordan become a protectorate of Israel. "It should be closely linked economically with Israel and have its foreign policy and defence handled by Israel."

Already the Soviet is feverishly working to re-establish the dented prestige she suffered in the recent campaign. Strong naval forces are making a show of strength and huge supplies of military equipment have been rushed to Egypt. The annexation of the old city of Jerusalem and the West Jordan area is the necessary ingredient for maintaining Arab passions.

Arnold Toynbee in The Age July 10, stated that Israel would have to refrain from re-building Herod's Temple when she had gained possession of its site, or she would have to demolish the two Moslem holy places - the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque of Al Aksa - which now occupy the site. These holy places were built in the 7th century by the Moslems, Herod's Temple having been demolished by the Romans in A.D. 70 and never rebuilt as the Jews, no longer inhabited Palestine.

Ben Gurion's claim is of course false. Palestine has been an Arab country for a thousand years and more. The Dome and the Mosque are Islam's holiest places, next to Mecca and Medina. As Toynbee observes, "their destruction would produce an explosion throughout the length and the breadth of the Moslem world." The Communists are working in very fertile soil to promote further revolutionary activity in the Middle East.

MR. WILSON'S HYPOCRISY OVER THE NIGERIA-BIAFRA SECESSION

"The Prime Minister Mr. Wilson, tonight ordered one of his Ministers to Lagos to discuss Nigeria's blockade of oil tankers going to the breakaway eastern region of Biafra," The Herald July 7.

The report indicated that Mr. Wilson was concerned to break through the Nigerian blockade of Biafra to obtain urgently needed oil. Biafra is the Eastern section of the old Nigeria, and is the refuge chosen by the Ibo's who have been slaughtered unmercifully by their rival tribesmen. Mr. Wilson in this case is not concerned about the niceties of "illegal independence" as in Rhodesia's case. The racial minority in this case is black, not white, so Mr. Wilson has no compunction about breaking the blockade imposed by the seemingly "lawful" government at Lagos. Perhaps he may consider moving the British warships still blockading the Portuguese port of Beira against the possibility of oil being supplied to "rebellious" Rhodesia.

FRENCH OPPOSITION TO BRITISH ENTRY INTO E.C.M.

"France delivered in Brussels yesterday what was regarded as a death blow to Mr. Wilson's hopes of taking Britain into the Common Market." The Australian, July 12.

The journalese employed imputed that the issue was now resolved and the British application is now completely rejected. We doubt that such is the case. The French are in fact only re-emphasizing their price for Britain's admission, as the report goes on to outline the two objections raised by France.
1. The effects of sterling on the Common Market:
2. Britain's links with America, and how these could complicate a German settlement and relations with Russia: We would refer to On Target May 26 and our item on page three where General de Gaulle's terms for British entry are outlined. Destruction of sterling is basic to these terms.

The second item indicates how closely French foreign policy is linked to the Soviet, and the British must travel the final mile to Moscow before they will be accepted into the Market.