RUSSELL APPEALS FOR CONTINUED SOLIDARITY WITH VIETNAM
{The following statement by Bertrand Russell was read at demonstrations in London October 21.]
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It is fitting that demonstrations take place today in many parts of the world. Those who demonstrate in Washing~ ton and in London, in Norway and in New Zealand, do so in order to confront a single foe, just as the guerrillas in South America and the partisans of Vietnam oppose the same cruel power. A worldwide pattern of aggression requires international resistance.
It is a hopeful sign that after more than two decades of American intervention in the affairs of small nations, humanity has begun to take note.
Whole peoples have been crippled by American power. The recent fascist coup in Greece struck a decayed nation, which had never recovered from the counterrevolution effected through the Truman Doctrine.
The murderous hand of the CIA has been ubiquitous. How efficiently it disposed of Mossadegh, Arbenz and Sukarno.
The motto of the American Marines is "Semper Paratus"; and they were ready to land in the Lebanon in 1958, in Santo Domingo in 1965, etc. America rarely hesitates to commit aggression against a people attempting to shape its own destiny
Her power has seemed irresistible to most small peoples; but the heroes of Vietnam have destroyed this myth by their endurance. Moreover, their struggle has awakened humanity. We should now recognise that, through unity, the peoples of the world can withstand and erode the might of the Pentagon.
Our duty in the West is to arouse massive opposition to America's wanton infliction of torment and suffering upon the population of Vietnan.
It is our indifference which has permitted American war crimes to reach unimaginable proportions. Napalm was not used for the first time in Vietnam. Civilian centres were incinerated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki long before we had heard of Hanoi and Haiphong. The term "escalation" applies not only to Vietnam; it is a worldwide campaign of terror and torture which has escalated and intensified for twenty years.
We were apathetic. We erected no serious barriers to stop aggression and to forestall genocide. We looked complacently to the United Nations and its Charter as the guardians of liberty and justice, without noticing that American domination had rendered such institutions hopelessly ineffective.
It has become necessary for private citizens to expose America's crimes and to judge them. This has been the task of the International War Crimes Tribunal, which provided massive evidence of the systematic destruction of civilian targets, including hospitals, schools and churches. In eight of North Vietnam's twelve provinces, our investigators verified this destruction. The world must be made to see this evidence. Humanity must be mobilised to stop this criminal policy
of extermination.
Our debt to Vietnam is enormous. How can we counterbalance the seventy million dollars which America spends every day to enact her crimes? We should not hesitate to proclaim our solidarity with the partisans of Vietnam. We must enlist millions of men and women to our cause. Each of us should accept this responsibility.