WIDENS RIFT QVER JOHNSON'S POLICY
In a statement to the press February 19, Senator Robert F. Kennedy declared that the United States should offer to "admit" the National. Liberation Front. "to a share of power and responsibility" in a. government in south Vietnam. .
Kennedy's new position is a considerable departure from the stand of the Johnson administration that the NLF could be admitted to."negotiations" to present their point of view but not to be recognized, the argument being that to include the NLF in an eventual government . to be set up. would mean . their taking over eventually.
‘This was also the position ‘Of ‘the Eisenhower administration’ ; which blocked the holding of elections in south Vietnam-in 1956 out of conviction that. the representatives of the freedom fighters would win by an overwhelming majority. ..
Kennedy's main argument is that the terms on which the United States would negotiate must be clearly intimated and that they must be of such nature.as not to force the adversary into a position. that would mean his destruction. "For the United States it must. be that we will not turn South Vietnam over. to the North. For North | Vietnam it must be that they will not accept a settlement which leaves in the South a hostile government, dedicated to the final. physical destruction of all Communist elements , refusing any economic cooperation with the North, dependent upon the continued presence of American.military power." As a precedent , he cited the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. _
Kennedy' s proposal for a "compromise government," is, of course, a calculated bid. for leadership of the liberal wing of the Democratic party whose doubts about the wisdom of Johnson's course in Vietnam were dramatically reflected in the nationally televised hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Kennedy also has his eyes on a still more. “important phenonenon -- the swift rise of an antiwar movement in the United States that goes right down to the grass roots. From the capitalist point of view it is crucially important to gain and maintain leadership of this movement and keep it channelled within the two-party system.
While Kennedy thus assumed a ‘posture. that could be interpre-. ted as a break with Johnson's warmongering policy, he did not de- | part from the basic imperialist position. The United States has° ~ absolutely no business intervening in the internal affairs of the Vietnamese people. It is up to them to exercise the right of selfdetermination and decide what kind of government and economic system they want, free from any restraints, including the demand -of a foreign power that they meet its: specifications on the Compo sition of their government.
The antiwar movement in the United States is duty. bound to continue to insist on the immediate withdrawal. of American troops from Vietnam.