CASTRO POINTS WAY OUT OF VIETNAM CRISIS
On.March 8, the first contingent of U.S.Marines landed in South Vietnam. When the rest arrive, the admitted number of U.S. armed forces intervening in the civil war will be 27,000.
The main significance of the landing of Marines, however, is not the quantitative side. These are the first ground troops. More will come. If the thinking of Hanson W. Baldwin, military editor of the New York Times, accurately reflects Pentagon blueprints, as many as 1,000,000 may eventually be brought in. [See World Outlook | March 5. j
This latest move. taken by Johnson i& another step in the "escalation" through which the Pentagon is probing .the defenses of
North Vietnam, the People's Republic of China and, in the final analysis, the Soviet Union. The "escalation" will proceed, accord~ . ing to all indications, until the Pentagon feels that it has-run up against solid resistance,
While this has been going on, both Moscow and Peking have loudly and correctly denounced the U.S. aggression against North Vietnam, Moscow has promised adequate material aid, But as yet evidence of this has not appeared.
Is the slowness of the Kremlin in living up to its promise one of the factors in the renewed flare-up of the Sino-Soviet dispute? It is hard to say, although this seems to be implied by Peking's angry denunciation of the repressive moves taken by the Soviet police and soldiers against the students in Moscow who demonstrated in front of the American embassy.
This is the situation which gives full meaning to recent courageous moves made by the Cuban government. -Castro has pointed a-possible way out of the Vietnam crisis that appears to offer much more hope than, for instance, merely following Tito's example in writing a letter to the madman in the White House.
On March 3 in a television broadcast, Fidel Castro accused the United States of being guilty of "Hitlerite crimes" in Vietnam.
He regretted that Cuba does not lie closer to Vietnam geographically so that it could help Southeast Asia with “all its resources" and send North Vietnam "anti-aircraft guns and planes together with pilots.'
"The American imperialists," he qgontinued, “are destroying cities and killing people with whom they are not at war, The imperialist master blackmailers have taken off their mask and are now undertaking systematic attacks that are no longer even ‘reprisal! attacks,"
The Cuban prime minister added: "We must’ show the imperialists that we are not afraid of them. When you don't resist them, they continue further; but when you resist. them, they stop."
"They are only blackmailing master murderers, but if. they want to kill, they can also die."
He said that he was “sure that North Vietnam will not find herself all alone in face of the crimes of imperialism. We know. that the North Vietnamese people are a heroic-people, they belong to the socialist camp and it is the duty of all of us socialists to. help them with all our strength." oo
Castro also said, "The situation in Vietnam proves that Cuba must remain alert, and that is why we are guarding our arms and are-
~ Se
ready to repulse any traitorous attacks."
This was not oratory. It was plain speaking. But after all what can tiny Cuba do, only ninety miles from Florida, under blockade, and with the entire American continent and the Pacific Ocean separating it from the heroic Vietnamese?
On March 8, the Cuban government did do something.-- It. made a gift of 10,000 tons of sugar to the North Vietnamese people, in order to help them in “their heroic struggle against Yankee imperialism," a
At a ceremony in Havana President Dorticdéds and Prime Minister Castro presented the gift to Nguyen Than Ha, ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Vo Dong Giang, head of the mission of the South Vietnamese Front of National Liberation.
Cuba thus won the honor of being the first workers state to publicly present North Vietnam with substantial material aid for use in its defense against the aggression of U.S. imperialism.
It would seem that it is now up to the others to do as well in proportion to their size, strength and proximity to the scene.
JOHNSON -- A CASE OF "UNGLOUDED VISION"?
President Johnson refuses to talk about his aims in escalating the dirty war of conquest in South Vietnam. He has imposed Silence on his entire entourage. This silence is supposed to confuse and frighten "the enemy" -- which includes the American people -- so that they will not be able to tell what he is really up to. Thus various informed guesses are being offered as to the nature of his game. We offer four of interest: Raising on a Pair of Jacks
"In. the middle of the storm, President Lyndon Johnson maintained a calculated silence. In his own councils, he is bitter about domestic proposals for a swift settlement -- and he is irked by the diverse and mounting diplomatic pressure to push him to the confer-~ ence table. Fundamentally, he thinks he is in a precariously weak bargaining position at the moment. He sees nothing to be gained by being harried into serious negotiations when the conditions are patently unfavorable.
"Mr,