NEWS ITEM:
JOHNSON SAYS HE IS
ABIDING BY THE
HUMANITARIAN
PRINCIPLES OF
THE 1949 GENEVA
CONVENTIONS,

J U.S. policy ‘nakedly inhuman’

Charge leading British artists

A June 27 protest against U.S.
i . Policies in Vietnam andSan-
‘ Domingo, signed by 590 Amer-
} .“" artists, writers, musicians
iy con cattical personalities and
| y -Pying a full page in the New
Times of that date, has
€d a similar advertisement
d by prominent British ar-
Sin the same paper.
August 1 a full page adver-
_ ent appeared, headed‘‘Bri-
~\ Artists’ Protest,’ and read-
8 in bart:

~ Shark
} Signe
A tist:

isem

its
We, the undersigned, are Bri-

SIR ALEC GUINNESS
Sp

tish artists ... welcometheU.S,
Artists’ Protest and their state-
ment of June 28th, calling upon
all U.S, citizens to join withthem
and end their silence ‘about a
foreign policy grown more na-
kedly inhuman with each pass-
ing day,’

*¢Our responsibility is scarce-
ly less,’’ say the British artists,
*‘We too must end our silence
and declare our dismay at our
government’s reiterated support
for this policy. We must insist
that, as co-chairman and signa-
tory of the 1954 Geneva Agree=
ment, Britain should now honor
her obligations...

‘Her Majesty’s Government
must do everything in its power
to. bring about the implementa-
tion of the articles of the Geneva
Agreement, which includes the
provision of free elections in
South Vietnam and full independ-
ence for the elected government
to negotiate the withdrawal of
foreign forces and reunification
with the North.

‘¢We salute those of you in
the United States who have spo-
ken out in protest and we would

TROUSER

fLe's| 341
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wish to associate ourselves with
you by calling upon the citizens
of our own nation to end their
silence!’’

The British-sponsored protest
was signed by such prominent
international personalities as:
Constance Cummings (actress);
Sir Alec Guiness (actor); Alan
Silltoe (novelist and dramatist);
Paul Schofield (actor); Benjamin
Britten (composer); Peter
O’Toole (actor); Harold Pinter
(playwright); C. Day Lewis (poet);
J. B. Priestly and Dame Sybil
Thorndike,

Kondo in the Daily Yomiuri, Tokyo

ofa

Village

A transcript of a te/evision
eyewitness account of the burn-
ing down of a South Vietnam
village by American Marines is
reproduced below. The report by
correspondent Morely Safer, -
appeared on U.S., British and
Canadian TV.

SAFER: We're onthe out-
skirts of the village of Camne
with elements of the 1st Bat-
talion, 9th Marines, and we
were walking into this village
when you can hear what hap-
pened (sound of firing),

This is what the war in Viet-
nam is all about, The old and
the very young.

The Marines are burning
this old couple’s. cottage be-
cause fire was coming from

here.
&

Now as you walk into the
village you see no young peo-
ple at all.

Fire was coming from auto-
matics . . . light automatic
weapons fire was coming from
all of these villages,

It?s not really one village
. . . it’s a string of huts, and
the people that are left are
like this woman here... the
very old, :

Seen any action like this
before, Marine?

MARINE: No, not like this.

SAFER: Did you set fire to
these houses?

MARINE: No, we’re just off
to the left—when it was burn-
ing.

SAFER: Were you getting
fire from them?

MARINE: Somewhat—not
too much, Just some sniper
fire,

SAFER: It appeared that
the Marines had been sniped

at and that a few houses were
made to pay,

Shortly after, an officer told
me he had orders to go in and
level the string of hamlets that
surround Camne village,

And all around the common
paddy field that feeds these
hamlets ,...aring offire..,

~150 homes were levelled in

retaliation for a burst of gun-
fire.

In Vietnam, like everywhere
else in Asia, property, a
home, is everything.

A man lives with his family
on ancestral land, His parents
are buried nearby. Their spi-
rit is part of his holding.

If there were Viet Cong in
the hamlet, they were long
gone .. . alerted by the roar
of the amphibious tractors

‘ and a heavy barrage of rocket

fire laid down before the
troops moved in,

The women and the old men
who remained will never for-
get that August afternoon.

The day’s operation burned
down 150 houses . . . wounded
three women, killed one baby,
wounded one Marine and net-
ted these four prisoners,

Four old men who could not
answer questions put to them
in English, Four old men who
had no idea what an I,D, card
was,

Today’s operation is the
frustration of Vietnam in
miniature.

There is little doubt that
American fire power can win
a military victory here.

But to a Vietnamese pea-
sant whose home , .. means
a lifetime of backbreaking
labor .. . it will take more
than presidential promises to
convince him that we are on
his side,

*
MR. PRESIDENT:

Do you remember that girl of two

With eyes like pools of inquiring light?

Don’t try to recall
Any American girl you’ve seen

I mean that girl in Vietnam who burned by her mother’s side.
Her charred face still staring into the evening sky

Your napalm bombs are so effective

They burn into the human flesh long after death, has come.
Only yesterday she saw her first beetle, munching on a leaf

Or a colorful moth, fluttering its wings in the Asian breeze
All the wonders of this strange world were unfolding

In front of her eyes.

They buried her by her mother’s side
In soil that holds thousands of her countrymen, heroes
Of struggle against oppressive foreign powers

The Japanese
The French
And now, ourselves.

I forbid you to carry on this madness in my name!

Mr. President;

Reach your hand across the ocean
Pull back all American troops from Vietnam
Ask those people and they wil/ help you

Destroy all tools of war

Then you will be a hero in the minds of men for a thousand years.
You cannot build a Great Society on corpses

Adolph Hitler found that out.
Mr. President:
How can you sleep?

Don’t children’s cries come to haunt you ©

During the still of the night.

—Poem in U.S. Worker, by Jacob William Anderson.

September 3, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9