How the North Vietnamese see
US. liability for war crimes

By DO XUAN SANG

i Deputy Secretary,
‘etnam Lawyers’ Association

HEN will they be punished?

This is being asked by tens

of thousands of Vietna-
ieee mothers whose children
ave been napalm-burnt or as-
Phyxiated by noxious chemicals
r poison gases.

British philosopher Bertrand
“ussell answered this question
pee by distressed mankind
en he-suggested setting up an
nternational court for war
Crimes to try Lyndon Johnson,

CNamara, Dean Rusk etc.

Ree Punishment of war crimes
ae become a principle of law
Hate the Nuremberg and Tokyo
peeae onal military courts pen-
ae ? the Criminal adventures
j € Nazis in Europe and the
apanese fascists in Asia.

Pesing to the stipulations

s Tucle 6, Paragraph (a) of the

eison Statute of the Nurem-

ect: war of aggression or

aa iniringing international trea-

coe agreements or assurances,
4 Crime against peace.

i Thatthe U.S. imperialists have

n Violating the 1954 Geneva

of ements and basic principles

a nternational law and waging

fame ee war on the Viet-

nen people has been recog-
by world public opinion.

oh Sept. 23, 1965, Senator
nae Morse stated before the
Viol, Senate that since its first
ations of the Geneva Agree-

ments by setting up its first pup-
pet regime in South Vietnam,
that of Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S.
had been openly and successive-
ly violating the principles of in-
ternational law.

Morse stressed that for 10
years, by infringing the 1954
Agreements, the articles of the
U.N. Charter and even Article 1,
Paragraph 8 of the U.S. Consti-
tution, the U.S. has been writing
shameful pages of history.

Besides its supreme war
crime—i.e. the aggressive war
against the Vietnamese people
—U.S. imperialism has commit-
ted and has daily been repeating
on a large scale tens, hundreds
of other war crimes violating
the laws and customs of war,
such as wholesale massacres of
the civilian population, looting
properties, deliberate destruc-
tion of cities and villages, the
use of prohibited weapons, in-
cluding noxious chemicals, na-
palm, war gases.

The first that should answer
for these inexpiable war crimes
are the American leaders who
are liable for their policy of
intervention and aggression in
Vietnam.

Then come the executants —
Americans or non-Americans —
who have been acting on their
orders and who owe the Vietna-
mese people a debt of blood.

The Statute of Nuremberg is
unequivocal about this. Accord-
ing to Article 8, the fact that

Murphy Neal Jones,
a U.S. pilot downed
over North Vietnam,
is inspected by his cap-
tors in Hanoi. Vietna-
mese lawyer Do Xuan
Sang comments on
Bertrand Russel’s plan
to set up an interna-
tional court to try U.S.
leaders for crimes in
Vietnam and explains
the Vietnamese view-
point on war crimes.

the accused has acted in accord-
ance with the orders of his gov-
ernment or officers does not
clear him of responsibility.

According to criminal law in
most countries the real criterion
of penal liability has nothing to
do with orders; it lies in moral
liberty, in the faculty of choice
of the accused. t

The. case of U.S. pilots cap-
tured in the Democratic Repub-
lic of Vietnam is left in no doubt
since most of them are educated
men. They cannot be unaware
that they have participated in
a war of aggression in violation
of the 1954 Geneva Agreements.

They cannot ignore the fact
that they have struck at schools,
hospitals, markets and hydrau-
lic works,

A sceptic may object to Ber-
trand Russell’s initiative by say-
ing that after all, his court for
war crimes is but an opinion
court.

It will be patent in the eyes
of the world, however, the Ame-
rican people included, that the
present U.S. leaders, convicted
of war crimes, would lose all
chance to deceive public opi-
nion.

U.S. pilots captured in. Viet-
nam unquestionably fall within

the cognizance of the Vietna-
mese courts. The juridical capa-
city of the country which is
victim of a crime was recognized
by the statute of the Nuremberg
International Court as well as
by the Convention of Dec. 9,
1948, on genocide.

U.S. pilots have no right to
benefit by the Geneva Conven-
tion of Aug. 12, 1949, on prison-
ers of war, because they are not
war prisoners but actually crimi-
nals. While adhering to the
aforesaid convention the govern-
ment of the DRV made plain in
its June 5, 1957 letter the reser-
vation that enemy’ nationals
tried and condemned for war
crimes in accordance with the
principles of the International
Court of Nuremberg could not

enjoy the provisions of Article

85 of the Geneva Convention.

In 1961 several spies and com-
mando officers of the puppet
Saigon administration, captured
after the downing of a C-47 spy
plane over Ninh Binh, were
tried by the DRV Central Mili-
tary Court and condemned by
virtue of decree No. 144 of Jan.
20, 1954, for crimes against the
security of the DRV.

This case presents a striking
analogy with that of captured
American pilots.

We may venture the opinion
that the latter could be tried and
condemned under the same de-
cree which includes penalties
from 10 years’ imprisonment to
capital punishment.

- Barometer of world economy falling

By Y. POKATAYEV and
N. RYDVANOV
Fee THE past while a num-
ber of big capitalist coun-
— tries have been _— facing
Ous economic difficulties.

em for example, is in a
ate of chronic economic crisis.
doe cement rates are in a steep
2 wngrade. The pound sterling

Plagued by instability and
Nere are balance of payments
Spiculties. Military spending,
ne of the chief causes of the
Currency troubles, remains high.

The British government has
resorted to the economic meas-
ures of increasing unemploy-
ment and a wage freeze.

A curtailment of the output
or the coal and steel industries
in the Federal Republic of Ger-
Many is an indication of an eco-

‘omic slowdown in that coun-

He Prices are going up fast;
€ré is increasing inflation.
Despite this, West Germany’s

Military spending, now one-third
of the entire budget, is slated

for an increase.

va Italy, from 1962 to 1965, a
Slowdown in industrial output
aS registered in 3, then in 5,

w

Two Soviet observers take a quick look at the economic situation in
the capitalist countries. They find more troubles on the horizon.

jn 14, then in 12 of the: coun-

trys 22 major __ industrial
branches.
In Japan the decrease in

growth rates took place 4.5 times
as fast in 1965 as in 1964, Un-
employment was up and a num-
ber of small and medium ‘enter-
prises went bankrupt. Industrial
enterprises are working at 70
percent capacity.

France’s policy of stabiliza-
tion introduced in September,
1963, including credit limita-
tions, tax increases-and a wage
and price freeze, led to a one-
and-a-half year growth in indus-
trial production. But a certain
halt in the growth of prices on
the home market and a reduc-
tion in the state budget were
achieved at the expense of the
working people in the form of
reduced wages and consumption,

In the United States and Can-

ada there has been a rise in

economic growth rates in the
past two vears. These rates were
boosted by government reforms

in depreciation allowances and
corporation taxes, which prov-
ided millions of dollars for big
business.

Since 1965 the U.S. economy
has been increasingly influenced
by military expenditures as a re-
sult of U.S. aggression in Viet-
nam. The possible effect of this
on the economy is very compli-
cated. An indication is the way
the stock exchange has been
shaken in the past few months.

The competition among the
capitalist, imperialist states is
keen. The USA, the main citadel
of world imperialism, is opposed
by other. economic groupings
such as the Common Market
(EEC) and the European Free
Trade Association. Japan is wag-
ing a struggle to win new posi-
tions in world markets.

Common Market countries
have cut their import duties on
goods from non-market coun-
tries by 20 percent; at the same
time they have cut the duties on
trade between market countries
by 80 percent.

To overcome EEC import bar-
riers. U.S. direct investments in
Western Europe amount to more
than $12 billion, of which 45
percent is in Common Market
countries.

Clashes also take place with-
in the EEC, where West Germa-
ny tries to play the role of a
supranational leader. Difficulties
revolving around internal agri-
cultural tarrifs led to a compro-
mise decision which merely re-
duced the acuteness of the con-
tradictions for the time being.

_ In the monetary field, as one
American newspaper put it,
there is an “undeclared curren-

cy war” among the capitalist .

countries. There has been a loss
of confidence in the American
dollar as a result of that coun-
try’s chronic balance of pay-
ments deficit, and the reserve of
gold currency in Western Eu-
rope has been growing. In Bri-
tain the pound sterling continues
to be weak.

At a recent meeting of the In-

ternational Monetary Fund
France proposed a return to the
gold standard. The USA wants
to introduce an artificial money
unit into international transac-
tions. Unconnected with gold, it
would play the role of a reserve
currency along with the dollar
and pound sterling. There is no
agreement, however, on these
matters.

The underdeveloped countries
find themselves in a difficult po-
sition. Prices on many of their
raw materials exports continue
to drop. The debt of these coun-
tries now amounts to $35 bil-
lion, compared with $9 billion
in 1955. Their annual balance of
payments deficit amounts to
more than $5 billion.

The economic situation in the
capitalist world may be sum-

med up as follows: industrial
growth rates are dropping, con-
tradictions in the currency and —
financial sphere are sharpening,
there is growing inflation.

There is no doubt that the in-
ter-imperialist conflicts of the
capitalist system will be further
aggravated.

September 2, 1966—-PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9