EDITORIAL PAGE *
A fateful week

“What we object to, bud, is the idea of
foreign bases in Cuba!”

Win peace-With ‘PT’

he current drive for 1900 subs
to this paper, securing re-
newals from old subscribers and
getting new readers, is bogging
down. The returns to date are a
little less than one-half of the ob-
jective in, with two-thirds of the
drive time gone.
That, our readers and support-
ers will agree, is not too good a

showing in these tense times

when peace hangs in the balance
and the danger of thermonuclear
war threatens all humanity.

And, it may be added, if the
world breathes a little easier this
week than it did last, this welcome
change is not because U.S. imper-
ialism or its trained hacks of_the

coldwar monopoly press desired or -

sought this relaxation. On the con-
trary, as with other vital issues
affecting the peace and welfare
of the people, these hacks contin-

ue to grind out their lying propa-—

ganda, their forged “news” and
pictures, designed to take the eyes
of the people off the real issues,
and make them easy and pliable
prey to every war, economic, or po-
litical conspiracy the ruling cir-
cles of the U.S. and their “yes-
men” in Ottawa and elsewhere
may cook up.

It is because of this, if for no

other reason, that working people

Pacific Tribune

i. Editor — TOM McEWEN
. Associate Editor—MAURICE RUSH
‘Business Mgr..-OXANA BIGELOW
; Published weekly at:
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Phone MUtual 5-5288
Subscription Rates:
One Year: $4:00—Six-Months: $2.25
Canadian and Commonwealth coun-

year. Australia, United States and
all other countries: $5.00 one year.

‘
,
:
)

ne te

devoted to the cause of peace and
progress require papers like the
‘PT’: to bring them the real facts
behind the monopoly headlines
and the TV “free expressions of

opinion” propaganda. To arm the

people with that most powerful
weapon of all in the service and
cause of peace — the truth.

Let’s use the balance of the sub
drive time to “take-up-the-slack ;”
to win new fighters for peace —
by winning new readers for the
er.

a week of October 22, 1962
will undoubtedly be recorded,
in history as the most “fateful
week” since the end of World War:

“IL On that day U.S. President

Kennedy as the spokesman for
U.S. imperialism reiterated an old
unilateral American dictum:
“shoot first, and investigate af-
terwards.”

With Mr. Kennedy’s unilateral

“shoot first”, all the accepted

norms of diplomatic negotiation
and consultation were swept un-
der the Pentagon rug. U.S. imper-
ialism reserved for itself a unila-
teral “right of action” to unloose
a thermo-nuclear war upon hu-
manity in its hysterical determ-
ination to crush Cuba and the gov-
ernment of Fidel Castro. The
“Soviet missile bases” in Cuba,
[still unconfirmed in their “offen-
sive” character], served as a pre-
text for the premeditated perpe-
tration of a crime—that of. un-
leashing thermonuclear war.

By this unilateral action U.S.
imperialism established its “block-
ade” of Cuba, violated all interna-
tional law respecting the freedom
of all nations on the high seas;
trained its guns on the Island of
Cuba in readiness for a planned
invasion “in strength”; then de-
manded the “fait accompli’ of its
reckless adventure be given the

unconditional approval of its NA-

TO allies and of the United Na-
tions?

Thus Canada, as others, were
“committed” in advance to ther-
monuclear war, without Canada

Comment

being advised or consulted a8_
when, how or who would press th
Canadian finger on the Colora'
Springs NORAD nuclear butto!

This brazen and danger
game, to impose its will upon s#
es and peoples with the mena’”
of nuclear war, obligating

- “allies” to follow suit  with0l

prior consultation, and releg@
the UN and its great Charté
purpose, to the role of a P
facto “mediator” in the service |
U.S. imperialism, rather that
United Nations bulwark to-
serve world peace. That 1s
highly dangerous essence of
Pentagon’s “unilateral right —
action.” The “right” to domin@
mankind with an H-Bomb.

Truly a fateful week, a wee!
tensions, fears, and the mena
horror of thermonuclear
threatening a whole world beca!
U.S. imperialism reserves to
self the “right of action” to
from the earth a people at
government it does “not approv!
of — the heroic sovereign
public of Cuba.

The tension of this fat
week has. been partially
thanks to the Soviet Union,
United Nations, and the millio™
of people in every land [inclu@™
the U.S.] who demonstrated *
“No War’. —

But — while the tensions h#
lessened, and the sanity of ™
tiation prevailed, vigilance
the struggle for peace must mt
relax. The “unilateralists”
stymied—but unrepentent.

Tom
McEwen

a. Jewish Western Bulletin
issue of September 28 carried
a front page news item under a
Washington dateline and captioneg
“U.S. Missiles for Israel.”

The signifigance of this news
item rests in the fact that it is the
U.S. and not Israel which deter-
mines Israel’s ‘‘defense” require-
ments? We quote:—

“Israel this week became the
first non-NATO nation to acquire
‘Hawk’ type ground-to-air inter-
ceptor missiles for anti-aircraft
defense as U.S. officials made
known that American military as-
sessment of the Near East situation
indicated a need for strengthening:
Israeli defenses.

“U.S. officials said this specific
action was taken to overcome what
the U.S. military assessment of
the region determined to be a
growing need by Israel for air de-
fense.” (Emphasis ours.)

This article on the U.S. gendar-
merie’s instructions on what Israeli
“defenses” require, cryptically
ends with ‘an outright cash ‘sale
is involved.” ;

The October 12 edition of the
same journal under a London date-

line reports ‘‘good prospects of a
possible sale of England’s famous
‘bloodhound’ missiles to Israel.’’ In
Pentagon eyes ‘‘defenses’’ for Is:
rael, ‘‘Yes’’, but for their intended:
victim Cuba, ‘‘No’’?

Can it be that the ears of those
who rule Israel and those who
echo them abroad, are as deaf to
the deathless appeal of six million
Jewish dead, as are these modern:
“Merchants of Death’ who reap
vast profits keeping the “road,
back” to the death ovens—open?

* * *

Away back in 1913 on the eve
of World War 1, a Dakota dirt
farmer, Charles A. Lindberg, Sr.,
whose pacifist and _ progressive
views were repudiated by his fa-
mous son Charles E. when the
latter was taken to the bosom of
America’s “upper crust,’’ wrote a
very fitting poem on these earlier
“Merchants of Death,”

“This is the war stocks soaring

high
That brings all the joy of Wall
Street;

This is the gambler, wild of eye,

Who shares with his broker,

brisk and spry,

The profits in war stocks soar-

ing high :
That bring all the joy to Wall
Street.
* * *

So this is the list of what they

buy;

An orphaned infant's feeble cry,

A widowed mother’s sob and
cry,
A field of graves where the
dead may lie,
A shambles where thousands
daily die, :
A billion shells that in battle #7
* * *
The profits in war stocks soaring
high vall
Which brings all the joy to we
Street. ‘ it :
Had this unsung American na
farmer and fighter for peace |,
those early years lived today:
would have probably added—
This is the thermonuclear 28° i
With H-bombs enough to fill
Death’s page; al
Where Profits an Death in ed”
pile,
Bring joy to the ghouls of wall }
Street? the
We think those who serv
true interests of humanity,
Gentile, Moslem or other,
agree. We are also sure that
modern “Merchants of Death
seek to turn the world into @
death oven, won't, unless tf:
will of the people stay thelr 2
Never was peace so univet®
sought for as at this moment. th
to stop the nuclear maniacs ae
Pentagon and their NATO yer the
peace must be fought f0F- yon
battle cry on the lips of mill”
sweeping like an angry h
across all continents an

_ knowledge that peace is

“defense”, must be ‘No