Vietnam: Fraud of “The Other War”

On March 22 The New York Times declared editorially that at the Guam meeting of U. S. and South Vietnamese leaders, the emphasis was not on military problems but on “that other side of the war—the progress toward economic and social development and constitutional and representative government in South Vietnam.” Only through a government “responsive to the needs of the people,” the Times warned, can “the kind of victory be achieved that could never be won by military means.” The Guam communique, the Times concluded, “seems implicitly to recognize this fact, by its stress on the so-called Revolutionary Development program, on the importance of the coming village and hamlet elections, on the necessity of financial stability and reform of land policies, on the creation of a `free modern society’ in South Vietnam.” The Times also quotes premier Ky as saying that the only way to eliminate Communism in South Vietnam is through a “social revolution.”

Ky’s reference to “social revolution” brings to mind a promise we are obviously supposed to have forgotten: that the need for a vigorous prosecution of “the other war” was precisely what Premier Ky and President Johnson proclaimed at their Honolulu gathering, just over a year ago. In their Declaration of Honolulu dated February 6, 1966, the South Vietnamese leaders stated: “We are dedicated to the eradication of social injustice among our people. We must bring about a true social revolution and construct a modern society etc.”

Building a new society and dedication to “social revolution” are also the slogans of the report on the Honolulu conference issued by the Saigon Ministry of Information. This publication, which contains both the separate and the Joint Declarations of the Saigon and Washington governments, lists no less than nine firm promises of “democracy,” three assurances that “corruption and social injustice” will be eradicated, and four references to the “work of social revolution.” Furthermore, there are more than a dozen promises of better education, better medical care, and more “human dignity”—promises which have deluded the American people (unlike the Vietnamese themselves) into believing that something other than death and destruction is being showered on the people of Vietnam.