THE VIETNAM DEBACLE: IS IT TREASON?

"Hanoi today faced a warning from President Johnson that the U.S. might 'have to act promptly on additional military measures' to blunt a new communist offensive expected any day in South Vietnam" - The Age, Melbourne, July 2.

"In Vietnam the United States cannot even define victory", quotes Professor Medford Evans in our Thought for the Week. This is agreed, and it follows as clearly as night follows day that he who cannot define victory will be defeated. President Johnson, the commanding officer of his country's 500,000 troops in Vietnam clearly showed he knew that the enemy was mounting a mighty offensive against his sitting duck troops, but gave no intimation that he was prepared to do anything about it.
President Johnson said Communist infiltration from the North to the South was "now greater than any other time in this war". "Watercraft activity has reached record levels". "Truck sightings…. are 25 percent above the average for the year… total traffic is probably three times greater than was detected in… March".

Meanwhile the Communists at the Paris "peace" talks keep up an incessant propaganda barrage that unless bombing of the North ceases completely these "peace" talks will fail. The whole mass stinks to high heaven of treason, and it is time Australia's leaders reassessed our policy of commitment towards policies which are plainly treasonous.

When the Supreme Commander, in charge of all armed forces and political decisions knows the enemy is massing to devastate his forces and does not move to protect them and counter attack, that is treason in anyone's language.
A lesser officer having such information would be cashiered if he did not act on his knowledge.

The reason for President Johnson's weakness and appeasement is not hard to understand when the record of his main policy makers are examined as they are, brilliantly, by Gary Allen in the June edition of American Opinion: Allen examines the records of the American cabinet to "the right" of men like Senator McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey, and finds the support of men like Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara (who must be held responsible for much of the Vietnam debacle) Henry Fowler, the Secretary of the Treasury, Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor, and other top policy makers whose association with, and long records of support for Communist causes is beyond dispute.
That these men are being depicted as "hawks" by the world press is the irony of a devilish situation.

McNamara's policy could be summed up in the one word, "disarmament", both in weapons, aircraft, missiles, overseas bases, and small arms; as well as morale. He instituted the policy of shutting the mouths of Armed Service Generals so that the public could not be warned about the policies of defeat and retreat. He destroyed the effective control of each service responsible for the efficiency and welfare of its particular service and placed control in the hands of a mushrooming civilian bureaucracy. When he took over the control of the department of defence those employees responsible to him numbered 1,500. At his resignation there were "70, 000 employees directly under McNamara and 1,272,500 civilians employed by the Department of Defence.

Gary Allen reveals the Public Relations stunt, which was organised to get McNamara, nominated into his position - as Secretary of Defence, and the part played by Adam Yarmolinsky who while at Harvard University was head of the "Harvard Marxist Club". Yarmalinsky was also editor of Yardling, the campus voice of the Young Communist League. When he became Secretary of Defence McNamara appointed Yarmolinsky his top assistant. They proceeded to disarm America and appease the Soviet at every turn.

No less involved in the same appeasement was Dean Rusk. He had been a member of the Institute of Pacific Relations (I.P.R.), which was responsible for the sell-out of Chiang Kai-shek to the Chinese Communists. The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee noted: "The IPR has been considered by the American Communist Party and by Soviet officials as an instrument of Communist policy, propaganda and military intelligence". Dean Rusk succeeded the top Communist State Department official Alger Hiss, as Director of Special Political Affairs in the State Department and continued the Hiss policy of recommending Communists for employment in the United Nations until stopped by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.
Rusk praised the Chinese Communists as revolutionaries comparable to the "American patriots of 1776" (Allen quote). Rusk laid the foundations of the present disastrous "no-win" and "privileged sanctuary" policy whereby the Communists are allowed to maintain a base inviolate against attack.
President Truman in his memoirs pointed this out in revealing events, which lead to the sacking of General Macarthur. Dean Rusk then the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs recommended the dismissal of General Macarthur and wrote the order for Mr. Truman to sign.

Trade and aid to the Communists is another story in which the names of Fowler, Rusk, Wirtz, McNamara and others figure prominently. The story has one theme, help and aid to the Communist enemy and the ruthless obliteration of any criticism of such policies. These are the men who have manipulated the politician, Lyndon Johnson, and as Medford Evans has pointed out, destroyed him; probably to hand his mantle on to Robert Kennedy, a ploy that came unstuck at Los Angeles on June 6, but the field of candidates to undertake the necessary role is well supplied.

The overwhelming evidence advanced by such people as Gary Allen, John Stormer, Medford Evans and others of the close connection of American policy makers with Communist objectives, should be thoroughly examined by Australia's leaders to determine our relationship with such policies. The big question is, how far has the same rot gone in our own policy-making departments, and is there enough strength left in our Liberal-Country Party coalition government to bring about such an examination?
Australian patriots need to bend every effort to determine if there is. A Royal Commission or White Paper is badly needed.

PRIME MINISTER GORTON ATTACKED

"The Australian Prime Minister (Mr. Gorton) had not solved the tangle on defence planning . . . He was finding it difficult to keep Australians interested in the Vietnam War . . . In Parliament he has made only three speeches since becoming Prime Minister and all were clumsy and unconvincing ... Behind him Mr. McMahon and Mr. McEwen continued their bitter feuding . . . He has done nothing to impose his will on his own Cabinet and knows that only three of his 22 Ministers voted for him to be their leader" - The Economist, London.

It is by no means necessary to agree with the above criticism of a journal noted for its intellectual leftist slant, and therefore only too willing to be critical of so-called conservative, non-socialist governments. Nor is it necessary for the exponents of good government to be delivering glamorous image making speeches announcing new departures in policy. In the issues of this day and age it is relatively simple to judge the way any politician or government will go. On Mr. Gorton's performance to date it is evident he will do nothing to really upset the equilibrium of the doctrinaire socialist in either domestic or foreign policy.
The Economist is only paving the way for the Extreme Left.

On the important question of establishing a sound economy, challenging the old policies of inflation, Mr. Gorton has indicated in his attitude towards the States that he will accentuate, rather than moderate policies, which result in continuous inflation. Those on fixed incomes will become increasingly desperate, while the businessman and the primary producer will grapple increasingly with an increasing cost structure. A wonderfully fruitful field for political agitation.

In International Affairs it is "as you were" with socialists Harold Wilson and the Democratic administration in the U.S.A., as well as increased aid, without strings or any responsibility in how our money is spent, in helping the Indonesians, already showing their teeth on West Irian and with every promise of resurgent Communist activity and acceptance of greater aid from the Soviet. The anti-Communist countries of South Korea, Taiwan and even Singapore and Malaysia have been offered kind words, but no concrete suggestions or alliances, while the Southern African States vital to our lines of communication are ignored with that cold hostility necessary for any country to retain favour with the Moscow-Washington-World Opinion coalition.

When the cards are stacked against you there comes a time when it is necessary to renege and choose new partners. That time is overdue for Mr. Gorton and Australia if both are to survive in freedom.

TOPICAL ITEMS FROM HOME AND ABROAD

Jul 18. President Thieu before going to Honolulu "not only are we defeating the Communists, but we are daily becoming stronger, both militarily and politically, for an early victory and early restoration of peace". (This could be a good reason for staying in Vietnam, but if so should be clearly stated by our Leaders).

July 20. President Johnson at Honolulu. "The U.S. will not support the imposition of a 'coalition government, or any other form of government, on the people of South Vietnam.

July 23. Mrs. Lloyd Bucher wife of the Pueblo captain goes to Washington to plead with President Johnson for not only the welfare of her husband, "but also and primarily as a representative of all the members of the families of the officers and crew of the Pueblo. Naturally I am anxious for their speedy return under honorable conditions". Her legal representative reports. Mrs. Bucher "has attempted to call President Johnson several times in the past. Her calls have been refused. They have not been accepted."

Communists look at Foreign Aid Programmes: Nikita Khruschchev. "Some of the more canny bourgeois leaders say now that the capitalist countries should increase economic aid to the underdeveloped countries. This is not a bad idea. Let the capitalist countries render them such assistance."
Victor Perlo, American Communist journalist in The Worker, November 29, 1964 stated that the Communists look with favor upon "substantial foreign aid to basic industrial development in Asia, Africa and Latin America."

August 2. "This is taxpayers money we are handing out. The wheat growers just have to accept that we are not going to keep digging deeper into the public purse for their benefit" Liberal Minister to Allan Barnes in The Age, July 31.

Three "conspiratorial" groups were trying to attach themselves to the Liberal Party, R.J. Southey Victorian President said today. "I need to voice special warning to the growth of apparently planned and concerted attempts to attach to the Liberal Party what might be called an extreme Right-Wing label" - The Herald, Melbourne. Mr. Southey named the Liberal Reform Movement, the Basic Industries Group, and Businessmen for Democratic Government as the groups concerned.

NOT EVERYONE CAN ATTEND THESE STIMULATING ANNUAL EVENTS!

Yes, we know that it is a physical impossibility for all supporters, including many overseas to attend three of the year's most stimulating events for League of Rights supporters and sympathisers.
A key function for League supporters, the Annual New Times Dinner on Friday, September 6;
the Annual League of Rights Seminar on Saturday, September 7; and
the Annual Conference of League V.P.A. members on Sunday, September 8.
But arrangements can be made for those who wish to attend, and can do so.

Guest of Honour at the Annual Dinner is Canadian, Pat Walsh. The Donation $4.50. Place: The Victoria, Lt. Collins Street, Melbourne, Time: 6,15 p.m.
The Seminar, dealing with the conspiratorial features of International Communism, has three outstanding speakers, Mr. Pat Walsh, Mr. Eric Butler and Mr. Tony McGillick, and starts at 2.15 p.m. at the Federal Hotel on Saturday 7th September.