HUNDREDS OF PUERTO RICANS REJECT SERVING IN-U.S. ARMED FORCES
Declarations. of opposition to being drafted fer service in the U.S. armed forces and being sent to Vietnam are piling up in Puerto Rico.
The October 30 issue of Claridad, the weekly publication of the Movimiento Pro Independencia de Puerto Rico, listed the names of more than 600 who have signed a statement that they will not serve in the "armed forces of the United States under any circumstances."
Through this action, the statement said, the signers expressed their repudiation of "the tyrannical law of compulsory military service, which, as part of the colonial subjugation of our country, North American imperialism imposes on Puerto Rican youth.":
"We affirm in addition," continues the statement, "our solidarity with and support for the heroic struggle which the National Liberation Front of south Vietnam is waging for national independence, neutrality, peace and national sovereignty.
"As evidence of our determination, we are ready to face all the consequences, sustained by the knowledge that our stand is completely principled and morally Justified."
Claridad reports that many others are adding their signatures.
CORRECTION
-.. In the text of the Joint Korean-Cuban Statement on Vietnam, published in World Outlook November 18 [Vol. 4, No. 36], a paragraph referred to in the accompanying editorial note was inadvertently omitted.
The missing paragraph should be inserted on page 2%. To facilitate finding it, we have placed it in the context of the preceding and following paragraphs and have underlined it for easier identification:
"Both sides consider that the socialist countries, the communist and workers' parties, all the anti-imperialist forces in the world should unite and actively assist the Vietnamese people in their war of resistance against U.S. imperialism for national salvation and shatter the imperialist aggression.
"The socialist countries should dispatch international contingents of volunteers to aid the fighting Vietnamese people.
"The war of resistance against U.S. imperialism for natiohal salvation waged heroically by the Vietnamese people is an example for the world people in the struggle for peace, national independence and socialism."