U Thant and the Left : Two Comments (1) From Alan Kinchin

The scan: The Week v8 no7.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

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Although I agree with Alan Rooney that U Thant's speech at Greensboro, North Carolina, lacked socialist content, I cannot agree with him that it did not help the anti-imperialist cause. If the criteria to be adopted is “socialist content" then one could presumably argue with equal force that the verdict of the Stockholm Session of the International War Crimes Tribunal did not help the anti-imperialist cause, The importance of U Thant's speech lies simply in his description of the Vietnamese struggle as "a war of national independence". This description is accurate, for while the Vietnamese struggle arose from socio-economic factors, with the intervention of vast foreign armies the emphasis changed to a struggle for national liberation. The national liberation of Vietnam is a prerequisite of the success of the Vietnamese revolution, JU Thant recognises at least the primary aim of the Vietnamese people and his analysis is a direct contradiction of the case put forward by the vast propaganda machines of the United States and its puppets. In this respect alone I would submit he has made an important contribution to the antiimperialist cause. Like Alan Rooney I never expected any socialist content in U Thant's speech, but unlike him I'm appreciative of further ammunition to use against United States imperialism...