The Western press and TV gave much prominence to U THant's diplomatic kiteflying last Saturday. He said that if the U.S. Government would only stop bombing North Vietnam for three or four weeks, Hanoi would be ready to bein immediate peace talks, He added "I do not even think it would be necessary for Washington to announce publicly that it will stop the bombing unconditionally." The U.S. Government must be quite pleased with U Thant's remarks and with the publicity they have received. Such an inference can be drawn from the report by Dennis Bloodworth, the Observer's correspondent in the Far East (Sept 17):= "Mr. Dean Rusk, American Secretary of State, has confirmed that he is ‘examining the possibility' of a new approach to the problem by the United Nations, but has ‘little hope' that it will succeed. There is strong reason, to believe, in fact, . that this initiative is solely designed to deflate the doves, just as escalation of bombing is designed to placate the hawks." (emphasis added).
The reality of the U.S. Government's Vietnam policy is that they are escalating their war crimes, For instance, on September 12th the U.S. bombers made their heaviest raid of the war on the main North Vietnam prt of Haiphong. The Americans admit to bombing Haiphong four times in the one day. The raids were made by U.S. Navy pilots from two aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin, The American bombing targets were right in the middle of the port, or as the U.S. spokesman put it:- "within one mile of the city centre." The gravity of this barbaric escalation is underlined by a Times report (Sept 16) from Washington which indicates that Haiphong is about to face an even heavier blitz: "More was learnt today of the standing orders for the bombing of targets in Haiphong. It is understood that targets in the city are not to be attacked while Russian ships are in port." Apart from this, the people of Haiphong are likely to face unrestrained aerial bombing,
POottt! ass, 2287. 3