Southeast Asia."
So you see, the reason why you American soldiers are in Vietnam is to suppress the people of Vietnam, who are trying to free themselves from economic. strangulation and. foreign military cute - You are sent to Protect the riches of ‘a ‘few men’ in the United tates.
Do you know ebae the United States controls 60 percent ‘of the resources of the world, but only has 6 percent of the world's. » population, and yet one out of three Americans live in poverty?
Do you know that the United States has over 3,300 military bases in the: world, almost all of which are used against the population of the country. in which the bases exist? The U.S. rulers have built an economic empire which is being resisted from the Dominican Republic to the Congo, and especially in Vietnan.
Could you. imagine. yourselves voting for Cao Ky? If a foreign power occupied the United States to steal American resources for itself and if a traitor government were established by force, would you feel it was your. government? ©
Worse than this, because the Vietnamese people are so: -aetermined and show such fantastic heroism that the greatest military power on earth has found it impossible to conquer them, you smerican soldiers are trained to use every modern weapon of war.
Your Air Force is flying 650 sorties a week in the north and the tonnages used in the south are higher than those used during the Second World War or the Korean War. You are using napalm, which burns everything it touches. You are using phosphorus, which eats like an acid into those who are in its path. You are using fragmentation bombs and lazy dogs, which cut up in pieces and lacerate women and children in the villages, hit without discrimination. You are using poison chemicals which cause blindness, affect the nervous System and paralyze. You are using poison gases which are listed in army manuals of World War II as poisons, and other gases which are so deadly that even soldiers with gas masks have been killed by their own gas.
When you return from battle, ask yourselves, who are these people you are killing? How many women and children died at your hands today? What would you feel if these things were happening in the United States to your wives, parents and children? How can you bear. the ‘thought of what is taking place around you, day after day and week after week? -°
I ask these questions of you because you bear the responsi-. bility and within your hands lies the choice of whether this criminal war is to. continue.
Whien Britain occupied the United States in the eighteenth century, American farmers fought with pitchforks in their. bare hands, although they were hungry and in rags. They fought for eight years and they defeated the British empire in their own country.
Do you know that in the United States today, 66 million people are living in poverty? Do you know that in the United States. today the unemployed equal the: ‘population of 52 individual states?
You are being used to enrich the few industrialists whose |, profits depend on taking the natural resources from other countries, and this is why the world is rising against this. brutal war waged by the- United States government.
You know that the Geneva Convention outlaws gas, chemicals, torture and mutilation and you also know that American special _ forces are’ trained in techniques used at Auschwitz and the other concentration. camps. Don Duncan has revealed the truth about the films showing ‘Nazi tortures which were used for instruction of American servicemen. And you yourselves know from your daily experience what happens to villagers who are suspected of being Vietcong and who are captured.
You know also that the strategic hamlets are little more than concentration camps, where forced labor, torture and starvation occur. These things were the reason for the hatred the world had for the Nazis. These things led to the trials at Nuremberg, in which the Nazis leaders were hanged as war criminals.
I know that most of you came to Vietnam not because you
wished to but because you were sent. I know that most of you have been told that you were defending helpless people against a stronger neighbor. But you have been lied to and no one knows it better than yourselves.
You must not think that. you are alone, for throughout the United States.people are opposing:.this war. When 100,000 people meet . in New York City alone and tens of thousands: meet in other cities across the United States, it should be clear that the. American people have seen through this war and want it. ended.
Why else has the government been unable even to make a declaration of war?
Have you been present when an officer has attached electrodes to the genitals of a woman or-a:child? ;
Have you been one of those who, out of fear or nervousness, pulled the trigger on an automatic rifle, releasing so many hundreds of bullets in an instant that, before you knew what had happened, women and children lay dead before you”
Along with world famous ‘figures,’ Nobel prize-winners, novelists, philosophers, mathematicians, I am forming a War Crimes Tribunal in order to pass judgment, in most solemn terms and with the most respected international figures, upon. the crimes being committed by the United States Government against: the -Peopte of Vietnam.
I appeal to you to end your participation in this barbarous and criminal war of conquest. I. appeal to you to inform the War - Crimes Tribunal of the: truth about this war and to place before it the evidence of your own eyes. I appeal to you as a human being to human beings. Remember your humanity and forget the rest.
If you can do ‘this, you will perform a courageous service to mankind. If you cannot, you will allow your rulers to continue to degrade your country and cause its name to be hated by decent people the world over.
Join us, Americans, Englishmen, West Europeans, Latin Americans, Asians, Africans, people from every walk of life, in our determination to defeat those in the United States responsible for the . suffering and horror which you American soldiers have seen and for which you have responsibility.
Refuse to fight any longer in this unjust war. Demand to be transferred anywhere but Vietnam.
. Make known that you will make public your opposition to this war and the way:in which it is fought. There are too many people ready to support you for reprisals. to take place.
It is no use postponing your decision. The moment of trial is always. Now is the appointed time.