Wilson and Vietnam

Politically, Prime Minister Wilson is well to the right of such staunch defenders of American free enterprise as Mansfield, Fulbright and Morse. His refusal to protest against the brutal American bombing of Hanoi and the dykes is in keeping with his previous toadying policy. However, not even the threat of a third world war arising out of the American attack on targets only ten miles from China can move him, Surely, Wilson will rank, in history along with Chamberlain, as one of the great disasters of British politics. Wilson's contemptuous treatment of the parliamentary left has many lessons: for those M.P.s who responded to American bombing it surely shows that they cannot confine their opposition to appealing to Wilson's principles. The attitude of this Government on Vietnam and welfare demonstrate that nothing whatsoever is gained by soft-pedalling. On the contrary, the more the left pulls its punches the more Wilson and Co. gallop to the right. It is very clear that the lack of response to Margaret Herbison's resignation has encouraged such right-wing creatures as Gunter to go even further in their demands that the poor in this country must pay to preserve the pound and for Wilson's East of Suez policy. Between now and the Labour Party conference every effort must be made to ensure that conference goes on record against Wilson on every major policy question, This in itself, as writers in The Week have pointed out, means Jittle but it gives the left a mandate for mobilising rank and file support for a fight against the Government.