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

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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