Dear President Johnson:

his is meant for ,
T you PER-
SONALLY,

ee a 15 year old Canadian
a - I am very interested
a e world and its affairs,
Bees mes I slack up on the
: Spapers and don't really know
oa is going on, I didn’t really
o a with the Vietnam situa-
ee ut I am quite well versed

te Dominican Republic, I

ac: This is what I know about

ae years ago the Dominican
* ic had a military dictator-
a ae a mannamed Trujillo,
 Grained the country, which is
Re poor, I think, of most of
money, While the common
pele. worked so hard for so
. little, he was building ex-
agant mansions and yachts,
cee and for the first time the
oe a Republic had a demo-
© government under a man
Named Juan Bosch,

<— by no means a com-
A +4 » he just believed that the
Bua, should be treated more
the y Most of the people of
Be Ominican Republic thought
an as good, Then the military
ee in and overthrew the Bosch
af tment and set up a dictator-
Pots again, The people didn’t
ae “ anything, These military
a threw out the constitution
did what they felt like.

Naturally the people objected
ee and they wanted the Bosch
fe, rnment back, And then, I
A ‘ understand. all those
niic. Can marines poured in

Yr your orders, ’

a understand why you
enjovi prevent those people from
ee a democratic govern-
& and subject them to a mili-
Y dictatorship,
kok ok
I Caught a fragment ofa speech
Bees on the television
thin ight. I think you said some-
~ peeett it would be better
Milita em to have a temporary
muni ry dictatorship thanacom-
ae revolution, | Who said
lutio, ag about a communist revo-
Mees. 3 I listened to CBC News
ae zine one evening. There was
Sc, On the program who had
ae aire during the fighting, He
oa € had not run across a single
ist during his stay, He
for ed to me an honest, straight-
_~* Ward fellow,

ee I heard from one of your
counted that 58 communists were
Public a Dominican Re-
rare] *° Fifty-eight! That is
ie over oneclassroom, Does
Justify 25,000 marines? That

A high school student
writes Pres. Johnson

Last week the following letter was sent to President Johnson by
a 15 year-old North Vancouver high school student, Kathy Rush:

man that was down there from
CBC interviewed some people in
the Dominican Republic and it
showed actual pictures, He asked
them if there was any communist
action and they said definitely not,
They seemed quite opposed to the
idea,

Beside the point, you had no
right to just go down there and
start war without consulting the
O.A.S. or the U.N, On Jack Parr
show one night? Senator Dirkson
was on, Jack asked him if Presi-
dent Johnson was right in doing
that, He said yes, that there was
no time to consult them, Well,
in my opinion, you have to make
time, It is too important for one
man to go ahead and send troops
into a country that he has no
business in without even getting
the consent of the American
people who, after all, make the
country,

They elected you on a policy
of peace, -You made a speech in
which you said — “The only war
I intend to fight is war on
poverty.” You did not make any
exceptions then, now you are
making exceptions,

By doing this you are not living
up to your election promises and
you are letting down the Amer-
ican people. This is becoming
evident in many ways, For ex-
ample — the Universities are
holding teach-ins and your repre-
sentatives are receiving very
poor reception,

* kK O*

If the late President Kennedy
was alive today, I am sure there
would be no American troops in
the Dominican Republic, The Bay
of Pigs Invasion took place under
President Kennedy but, unlike
yourself, he learned from his ex-
perience, He realized he was
playing with fire and that a third
world war would mean disaster
for the world,

I believe you stated that it
would be justifiable for the United
States to bomb China because she
had troops in Vietnam, Would it
not then be equally justifiable
for China to bomb the U.S, on
the same basis?

By now you must have realized
that I am very much opposed to
American foreign policy, or
should I say Johnson policy. But,
I would like to say that even if I
did have your ideas I still would
not do what you are doing. The
reason is this — I would want to
be on the best of terms with the
other countries of the world and
I would not risk the great image
of America by trying to change
the inevitable,

If this image is ruined, it is
doubtful if it could easily be re-
stored, It is almost destroyed
already, and if your American
imperialism is allowed to pro-
ceed further in this way, the word
« American” will spell hatred and
distrust for the peoples of the
world,

So if you lookat this objectively
there is no good to come out of
doing this for anyone.

I hope you will take this letter
to heart, President Johnson, be-
cause it comes from the heart.

Respectfully yours,
(Miss) Kathy Rush.

Their rights and lives must be defended.

Children’s Day to be marked
in Vancouver this Sunday

International Children’s Day
will be celebrated in Vancouver
on Sunday, June 6 at the Grand-
view Community Centre, 3350
Victoria Drive and in Trout Lake
Park,

There will be folk singing,
puppet shows, dancing, sports,
races and a display of children’s
paintings from around the world,
The B.C.. Women’s Committee
for World Friendship is spon-
soring the event.

The public is urged to take
part, The program will be from
1:00 to 5 p.m. Free ice cream

will be provided, Bring your own

picnic lunch,

This year’s celebration will
mark two important anniver-
saries. The first of these is In-
ternational Children’s Day which
was proclaimed by the Women’s
International Democratic Feder-

ation in 1945 for June 1 of each
year,

The second is the Declaration
of the Rights of Children adopted
by the United Nations in 1959,

Plan summer
tour of USSR

The Canada-USSR Association
has announced that it will organ=-
ize its third annual summer tour
of the USSR between July 19 and
August 5,

The tour will leave Montreal on
July 19, The itinery in the USSR
will include Moscow, Minsk, Kiev
and Yalta, The tour will depart
from Moscow by plane on August
5, arriving in Montreal the same

day.

The all inclusive cost from
Montreal to Moscow return, and
all expenses in the USSR is $965.
The air ticket. portion of this
cost (about $600) may be pur-
chased on deferred payment plan,

The Canada-USSR Association
is organizing the tours with the
assistance of the Union of So-
cieties for Friendship and Cul-
tural Relations with Foreign
Countries and their branches,
The Society has been asked to
include in the Canadian tour pro-
gram visits to large industrial
enterprises and factories,

Visits will also be conducted
into other spheres of activity,
including educational and recre-
ational facilities and institutions,
medical and children’s care
facilities, a collective farm, as
well as concerts, art galleries
and historic sites,

Deposits of $100 are required
prior to June 15, Application
forms are available by writing
the Canada-USSR Association, 84
Avenue Road, Toronto 5, Ontario.

BRITISH ACTOR IN PEACE MARCH. Picture abewve shows Peter O'Toole, right,
taking part in a Trafalgar Square rally against the U.S. war in Vietnam. On the

left is British writer John Bird.

IT’S THE EVENT OF THE YEAR

Sat., June 12
8 p.m.
QE Playhouse

*

Be there

early!
(Doors open

at 7 p.m.)

30th Birthday Party

WILL PERFORM AT PARTY. One of the
star attractions at the PT 30th Birth-
day Party will be TOMAS! TAWAKE,
young folk artist who came to Van-
couver from his native Fiji Islands re-
cently. He will be joined by many
other young performers at the gala
celebration.

Music Dances
Folk Songs

Festivities
*

Final results
of Spring
Financial

Drive

June 4, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 1}