Page 568 - 1970S

March 1971
has received more careful attention from
the combined dcstructive forces of mod–
era technology. It costs millions to blast
rice paddies and defoliate, or burn
mangrove swamps.
But blasted, defoliated, and burned
they have been. From February 1965
untH October 1968 ( when the bombing
in the North was halted), the United
$tates dropped two million, nine hun–
dred and fifty-five thousand tons of
bombs on North Vietnam alone. All
this cost about 6 DILLION dollars, or
more than the U. S. spent on either edu–
cation, space research, h ighways, or
agriculture, in thc calendar year of
1968.
Believe it or not, this represcnts more
than double the total bomb tonnage
dropped on Europe during World War
JI.
North Vietnam receivcd (if that is
the word to use) about 50 tons of
bombs for every square mile of its ter–
ritory, making it the most heavily
bombed area of comparable size in the
history of man's useless wars.
Over seven thousand, four hundred
American aircraft, induding helicopters,
have been lost, costing about 7 billion
dollars.
Not all these dollar signs were
attached back in U. S. factories, however.
No one .really knows, and no one
will ever know for surc just how much
of thc $8 billion spcnt by the U. S. to
bolster the sagging South Vietnamese
economy h as gonc into prívate pockets,
or hidden bank accounts.
Estimates range from 5 pcrcent to 50
percent, meaning that anywherc from
$400 million to $4 billion may have
been siphoned off from economic aid to
become prívate loot.
Corruption is a ~tench in Vietnam.
From smashed bodies and rotting man–
groves to graft, vice, and a flourishing
black market, corruption is an apt
description for a whole new way of
things.
Billions of dollars' worth of U. S.
military goods have been stolen. It has
disappeared from the waterfronts, while
being unloaded from ships, or from
warehouses. It has bcen stolcn by black
marketeers, both without and within the
military. It's estimated there are at lcast
The PLAIN TRUTH
one thousand American-made b lack–
market millionaires in Saigon alone.
It's all very confusing.
In fiscal 1969 the U. S. Govern–
ment spent S28.8 billion in Vietnam.
By comparison, in fiscal 1968, we spent
only a total of S330 million on air pol–
lution, tbe Peace Corps, the Head Start
program combined - Jess than one
eightieth the money spent on Vietnam!
The U. S. Government allocated $1.3
bi ll ion for Food for Freedom in fiscal
1968, and $1.8 billion for the Office for
Economic Opportunity (the "poverly
program") - less than one ninth the
money spent in Vietnam.
The Federal Government spent $4.4
billion on highway construction in lhe
United States - less than one sixth the
money poured into Vietnam in the
same year. In Vietnam, government con–
tracts have resulted in the construction
of six deep-water ports, eight shallow–
draft ports, eight big jet air bases with
twelve new 10,000-foot runways and
more thao 80 auxiliary airfields. Hun–
dreds of miles of new roads, hundreds
of bridges, oil pipelines, tanks, storage
and maintenance arcas, docks, barracks,
buildings, hospitals, etc., have been
built.
According to one calculation, at the
peak of the buildup in Vietnam thc
U. S. was Iaying asphalt in Vietnam ata
rate which would have built a New Jer–
sey turnpike every 30 days, pour ing
enough concrete to build a Washington,
D.C., beltway every two months, and
digging enough earth to excavate a Suez
Canal every 18 months.
What Are the Goals?
Still, for all this incomprehensible
expenditure in effort, gigantic sums of
money, and heartbreaking Joss of human
life, Americans cannot understand what
is truly being gained.
America may never understand.
Is the United States at war, or not? It
has massive numbers of meo in the
field. Its soldiers are killing, and being
killed. Yet, at home, there is a sem–
blance of "peace." Millions live daily
lives lost in the usual materialistic pur–
suits blithely unaware of the isolated,
vicious struggles in the swamps and
jungle.
Amer icans havc been taught to avoid
45
war like diphtheria. But, once it is forced
upon you, they have been schooled by
experience to react with swift, total
force. They knew it took total com–
mitment, and that victory was the only
goal worthy o f costly warfare.
They had grown accustomed to
winning.
But Korea, and now Vietnam, and all
the tiresome minor defeats in between,
have bewildered the American people.
They neither know how to act like
the Israel of the Old Testament, nor the
Church of the New.
Americans cannot accept war as a
part of politics. War is utterly dis–
tasteful to Americans, notwithstanding
their penchant for petty violence, west–
ern movies, and gangster novels. They
can fight "holy wars" with a will
fight them and win - so long as they
are fighting against an enemy who is
regarded as thc embodiment of evil.
The general, blind;ng fear of Com–
munism has prepared the American
mind for such a war, were it L936,
against Bolsheviks. Were a "con–
ventional" war such as that of Korea, or
World War JI, to be joined against
Russia and her immediate allies, Amer–
ica would pull out al! stops, and no
doubt tens of thousands of youths who
today say they will "not go" would,
indeed, do just that. But only for a
"holy war" for "just causes," in order
to save their country, or make the world
safe for Democracy.
Ameri cans cannot enthusiast ically
fight in any sort of war short of a
" righteous" war, for victory.
The American spirit cannot accept
the vision of empire, or of the nced
for professional Jegions. Still, in a
world filled with real and potential
enemies, a country so richJy endowed as
the United States makes a potentially
fatal omission if she fails to choose
between two alternatives.
She must either trust in ber God, or
trust in her armies.
But since a liberal, pragmatic society
cannot stomach the kind of armies
which comprise legions, since Ameri·
can families cannot stand to see their
sons become cold, professional kiJlers,
Ame rica remains distrustful of legions.
She could never submit to a purely