DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | University of Iowa anti-war protests, 1970 | 1970-10-07 ""Iowa City People's Peace Treaty Committee"" Page 1

Transcribe
Translate

University of Iowa anti-war protests, 1970

1970-10-07 ""Iowa City People's Peace Treaty Committee"" Page 1

PAPER PUT OUT BY IOWA CITY PEOPLE'S PEACE TREATY COMMITTEE

[photo]
THE WAR AND THE PEOPLE'S PEACE

VIET NAM
South Viet Nam is in increasing political turmoil despite its barely being hinted at in the US press. Opposition to the Thieu-Ky-Kiem regime is growing in broader sectors of the population than during the 1963 period which saw the undoing of Ngo Dinh Diem. To hold their own against an inflation rate which has seen prices rise 50% in less than a year, workers are striking despite a 1965 law labeling such action treasonous. Over two-thirds of the student population has been in continuous open rebellion against the regime sparked by recruitment pressures resulting from Vietnamization. Mass arrests and repeated rip-offs of leadership have succeeded only in broadening the base of support for the student struggle. Major newspapers now openly attack the Saigon regime and Amerikan imperialism while reporting accurately and in depth the statements of PRG spokesmen.
These emerging popular forces show every indication of pulling together for a major political offensive intended to dislodge Thieu-Ky-Kiem long before the presidential ele
ctions scheduled for Sept. 1971. Such an offensive could well be crushed if not responded to in this country in a massive and significant way.
UNITED STATES
The Nixon Doctrine applied to Viet Nam, replacing US combat troops by the more cost-effective Asian mercenaries, is designed to silence establishment war critics by cutting the economic costs fo the war and holding US casualties with "reasonable" limits, thereby leaving him a free hand to crush the Vietnamese people through sheer technological and military power. According to recent statements of Secretary Rogers, the Administration timetable calls for completion of this transition by May 1, 1971.
At the sme time, there is a broad and varied but unorganized mass of people in the United States dissatisfied and angry about the war. The dramtic events of last May, in response to the Cambodian invasion, brought forth only a fraction of this constituency and just began to tap its anger. Those who still work through the electoral process have few illusions as to its efficacy to change the course of the war. They act mainly out of inertia and apathy in a strategic vacuum which the movement has been totally unable to fill.

PARIS
On September 17 Mme Nguyen Thi Binh, Foreign Minister and Chief Delegate of the PRG to the Paris talks, issued an Eight Point Peace Initiative (reprinted in the last NUC Newsletter) laying forth a detailed yet flexible and reasonable approach to a negotiated settlement of the war. The immediate response of the US Ambassador David Bruce was that it contained "old wine in new bottles". He refused to taste this "old wine" despite the fact that it contained direct responses to the questions most persistently raised by US negotiators since the beginning of the Paris talks, safety of US troops and release of US prisoners.
Nixon's own Five Point Plan, by contrast, is a witch's brew of delaying tactics, unrealizable proposals and emotive rhetoric based on misrepresentations of the PRG position and a misreading of history. It is designed to obscure the significance of the PRG Initiative and buy time during which to destroy the popular opposition in Saigon and cool out or repress the political opposition at home.

II
The PRG Initiative came in the present period because peace in Viet Nam is finally a possibility. The time has come to talk substantively about peace precisely because the power base exists to force an end to the war. The components of this power base are the new popular movements in South Viet Nam, the political and military cadre of the PRG, the aid and support of the DRV and the masses of Americans who only began to move last May. If this is to become a unified and effective force the coponents must be in close contact and act cooperatively.
Solidarity is not a sentiment. It is organized, coordinated action toward agreed upon goals. The US movement has the opportunity to take the initiative in forging this solidarity with the people of Viet Nam. There is no question that every sector of the Vietnamese people, north and south, will welcome and respond to such an initiative. This was clearly implied by the symbolism of the militant Buddhists who staged a take-over of the National Pagoda (pro-Thieu) with the US-inspired slogan "The pagoda belongs to the people". It is made explicit by the appeal of the Saigon Student Union for immediate action by US students and intellectuals to protest their repression.
The people of Viet Nam have stated clearly and repeatedly, through spokesmen of the NLF, PRG, and DRV, that they are not at war with the people of the United States. We can respond concretely by asking the American people to ratify a People's Peace Treaty with the people of Viet Nam.  (cont. on page 2)

Saving...

PAPER PUT OUT BY IOWA CITY PEOPLE'S PEACE TREATY COMMITTEE [photo] THE WAR AND THE PEOPLE'S PEACE VIET NAM South Viet Nam is in increasing political turmoil despite its barely being hinted at in the US press. Opposition to the Thieu-Ky-Kiem regime is growing in broader sectors of the population than during the 1963 period which saw the undoing of Ngo Dinh Diem. To hold their own against an inflation rate which has seen prices rise 50% in less than a year, workers are striking despite a 1965 law labeling such action treasonous. Over two-thirds of the student population has been in continuous open rebellion against the regime sparked by recruitment pressures resulting from Vietnamization. Mass arrests and repeated rip-offs of leadership have succeeded only in broadening the base of support for the student struggle. Major newspapers now openly attack the Saigon regime and Amerikan imperialism while reporting accurately and in depth the statements of PRG spokesmen. These emerging popular forces show every indication of pulling together for a major political offensive intended to dislodge Thieu-Ky-Kiem long before the presidential ele ctions scheduled for Sept. 1971. Such an offensive could well be crushed if not responded to in this country in a massive and significant way. UNITED STATES The Nixon Doctrine applied to Viet Nam, replacing US combat troops by the more cost-effective Asian mercenaries, is designed to silence establishment war critics by cutting the economic costs fo the war and holding US casualties with "reasonable" limits, thereby leaving him a free hand to crush the Vietnamese people through sheer technological and military power. According to recent statements of Secretary Rogers, the Administration timetable calls for completion of this transition by May 1, 1971. At the sme time, there is a broad and varied but unorganized mass of people in the United States dissatisfied and angry about the war. The dramtic events of last May, in response to the Cambodian invasion, brought forth only a fraction of this constituency and just began to tap its anger. Those who still work through the electoral process have few illusions as to its efficacy to change the course of the war. They act mainly out of inertia and apathy in a strategic vacuum which the movement has been totally unable to fill. PARIS On September 17 Mme Nguyen Thi Binh, Foreign Minister and Chief Delegate of the PRG to the Paris talks, issued an Eight Point Peace Initiative (reprinted in the last NUC Newsletter) laying forth a detailed yet flexible and reasonable approach to a negotiated settlement of the war. The immediate response of the US Ambassador David Bruce was that it contained "old wine in new bottles". He refused to taste this "old wine" despite the fact that it contained direct responses to the questions most persistently raised by US negotiators since the beginning of the Paris talks, safety of US troops and release of US prisoners. Nixon's own Five Point Plan, by contrast, is a witch's brew of delaying tactics, unrealizable proposals and emotive rhetoric based on misrepresentations of the PRG position and a misreading of history. It is designed to obscure the significance of the PRG Initiative and buy time during which to destroy the popular opposition in Saigon and cool out or repress the political opposition at home. II The PRG Initiative came in the present period because peace in Viet Nam is finally a possibility. The time has come to talk substantively about peace precisely because the power base exists to force an end to the war. The components of this power base are the new popular movements in South Viet Nam, the political and military cadre of the PRG, the aid and support of the DRV and the masses of Americans who only began to move last May. If this is to become a unified and effective force the coponents must be in close contact and act cooperatively. Solidarity is not a sentiment. It is organized, coordinated action toward agreed upon goals. The US movement has the opportunity to take the initiative in forging this solidarity with the people of Viet Nam. There is no question that every sector of the Vietnamese people, north and south, will welcome and respond to such an initiative. This was clearly implied by the symbolism of the militant Buddhists who staged a take-over of the National Pagoda (pro-Thieu) with the US-inspired slogan "The pagoda belongs to the people". It is made explicit by the appeal of the Saigon Student Union for immediate action by US students and intellectuals to protest their repression. The people of Viet Nam have stated clearly and repeatedly, through spokesmen of the NLF, PRG, and DRV, that they are not at war with the people of the United States. We can respond concretely by asking the American people to ratify a People's Peace Treaty with the people of Viet Nam. (cont. on page 2)