OCR Text |
Show The Salt Late Tribune, Sunday, July IS, JOA Faces Only U.S. Cambodia since North Vietnam established bases therein 1964. American presidents denied South Vietnam that right of self defense. Editor's Note Mi Otn. 7hcnu A. U $ AMMtary Liie 4 radu-W 11 Academy. is a (ermr commissioner cf tne District of Columbia. Since his te retirement from the Army in has been a syndicated cciumnist He aiao is the author of ''The Leadership of President Kennedy," "Cry Pee e, THe Kennedy Years," and "The tfar or the World " Sanctuaries Allowed By Thomas- A. Lane . of The ipntral hang-uAmerican policy in Vietnam h,- . been the absuid notion restrain the if don't ou t.ikt criminal he will cease or limit his rinnnal activities volun- i- .ifih. Nations, like individuals have concepts of sell-- u t'rest which cause them to p upon pify the g members of the international cotnmu. ify. They are not all motivated by a desire for and concord. pce (1 is 1ST! transparently clear that North Vietnam is the ag-- p lessor in this war. There has been no invasion ot the North fioin the South. The North mkes war in an attempt to conquer its more peaceful neighbor. The South had the right, clearly defined in law, to strike back at in N($rth Vietnamese forces Taos, in Cambodia and in NdHh Vietnam; but that action had for a decade been pi&hibited by the United inter-nation- al States. (Neutral Responsibilities international law defines thf obligation of neutrals to deny the use of their soil to Neutrals are belligerents. required to disarm and intern forces entering belligerent their territory. If the neutral fails to fulfill this responsibility i the offender power has the ri;ht to attack belligerent fosces using the neutral territory. piis rule of law was applied by President Woodrow Wilson in J916 when the Mexican government was unable to restrain the depredations of Pan-ch- p Villa and his mounted bandits against the American Southwest. Wilson sent the Pershing Expedition into Mex-ieand though Pershing never brought Villa to battle. Villas forces disbanded and d; thf attacks ceased. law, South Vietnam has bad the clear right to attack Nrth Vietnamese forces in Lacs since the enemy established bases there in 1961; and a jsimilar right of action in The Kennedy and Johnson policy makers believed that In allowing sanctuary to enemy forces In Laos and Cambodia, the United States was avoiding a wider war. Instead, this concession Invited the enemy to expand the war into these countries and to use them as bases for attack on South Vietnam. A policy nominally designed to limit the war was the cause of its expansion. Sanctuary gave the enemy protected bases from which he could wage the war indefinitely. American policy had supplied the essential prerequisite for a Communist war of liberation." The consequence was disas- trous. The thousand mile land border of South Vietnam could not be sealed against invasion. From his secure bases across the borders, the enemy could attack at will, withdraw when expedient All of South Vietnam was open to attack. We could not secure our base areas as we had done in Korea. Our military superiority was neutralized by this prohibition against closing with the enemy. No amount of reinforcement in South Vietnam could compen- - The South ha$ a right to attack North Vietnam sate for the effect of sanctuary, War is not kind to peoples who embroider it with illusion. Sihanouk Ousted Then Prince Sihanouk was ousted. The successor Lon Nol government sought the withdrawal of North Vietnamese forces from the country. Instead of complying, North Vietnamese forces moved out of their sanctuaries to threaten the Cambodian government. President Nixon recognized the importance of sustaining the friendly Lon Nol govern 1 Choice: Preserve Freedom Through Viet War ment and the opportunity to the enemy bases destroy across the border. His attack on the North Vietnamese invaders was a prudent defense of our now common cause with Cambodia and South Vietnam. TVts Pivinpr rSnertb itturnrit SUV VUVpV i VllUi vii to restrain the President was the reponse of those senators who for jears, and despite all contradictory experience, had clung to the notion that in restricting allied operations to we were South Vietnam, avoiding a wider war. the The move against sanctuaries filled them with alarm. They saw the President starting a new war in a new country, against all the rhetoric which had sustained the limitation of our operations to South Vietnam. the situation at the Ume of action. These sensible and prudent measures of have in the past been vetoed by American presidents fearful of Red Chinese intervention. Policymakers drew from our Korean experience the false conclusion that China intervened in 1950 because an American army approached the Chinese border. It is a historical fact that Red China intervened in Korea because it knew that President Truman had promised Prime Minister Atlee of Britain that he would allow sanctuary for the Chinese base in Manchuria. Without the American concession of sanctuary, Communist China would not have Intervened, of our casualties in Korea would have been snared and Korea would today be a united country. three-quarte- False Issue Presidential power was a false issue. When you make war, it must be against the A enemy where he is. The presidential authority is to defeat the enemy and it has no territorial limits. In World War II, we declared war against Germany and we fought the Germans in North Africa, in Italy, in France, in Belgium wherever the German forces were. Our Cooper-Churc- h senators were daydreaming about limiting the war by refusing to the enemy. engage They expounded the very illusions which invited North Vietnam to wage its war of aggression against the South. Fortunately, the House of Representatives has a better comprehension of reality. America is injured only in the world astonishment that United States senators can be 90 naive. Must Prevail Although President Nixon has withdrawn United States forces from Cambodia, South Vietnamese forces remain. Sanctuary is dead. South Vietnam and Cambodia are coin operating opposing the North Vietnamese invaders. They must prevail. They must drive the enemy from the country. When this has been the boundary accomplished, between Cambodia and South Vietnam will be secure. The war in that region will be ended. Enemy sanctuaries in south ern Laos remain undisturbed. North Vietnamese forces wage the war against South Vietnam from these protected bases. The next task for South Vietnam Is to destroy these enemy forces and bases and secure the border against further intrusion. Because Laos is too weak to repel the Invaders, it will be necessary for South Vietnam and Thailand to cooperate in We must fight on enemy soil whenever possible this task. They could establish a defensive line generally along the 17th parallel, west to the Thai border. This position would protect South Vietsouthern nam, Cambodia, Laos and southern Thailand aggression from North Vietnam. The line is short enough to be defensible. It would vl course be desirable to have the approval of the Laotian government for the establishment of this position, but that cooperation may not be given. The remainder of Laos would continue open to attack.' North Vietnamese against Prince Souvanna Phouma will probably continue to try to negotiate with Hanoi some respect for his residual sovereignty. International law clearly defines the right of South Vietnam to attack the enemy in Laos without the concurrence of the Laotian government. It is clear that Laos cannot expel the North Vietnamese invaders. It lacks the military power to do the job. President Thieu must act to protect his own people by ending the Laotian sanctuary. Alliance Possible more comprehensive response to the North Vietnamese aggression is possible. Laos might join the present alliance of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Then Laos would move to expel North Vietnamese forces from its territory. It would welcome Thai troops to help with the task in the capital area and in the Plaines des Jarres. Whichever option is used, the allies should warn North Vietnam to withdraw within its proper borders or suffer the consequences of continuing the war. If North Vietnam then persists in its aggression, the war should be transferred to its soil by an invasion at least to sever the southern provinces of the country and possibly to occupy Hanoi. The decision must be guided by A rs Limit War Men who had misjudged the Korean conflict returned to positions of power in the United States Government as the Vietnam war was budding forth. They concluded that we had to limit the war to South Vietnam in order to avoid Red Chinese intervention. At first they alleged that bombing North Vietnam Would provoke Chinese entrance into the war. When it did not, they persisted that the ground war A allow the deieat of its satellite, North Vietnam, so we must accept the necessity for a compromise solution. We must, it is said, accept a coalition government in Saigon. Communists Cant Win In the first place, the imposition of a coalition government in the South would be a of negation representative government. President Thieu has offered to allow the Communists to participate in open elections under international supervision, but that is not what Hanoi wants. The Communists cannot win power in free elections. Hanoi demands the assignment of its men to key posts in the government from which they can control ' internal security, armed forces and other elements of internal power. By similar analysis, Gus Hall would he entitled to a place in the Nixon cabinet even though he cannot win office by vote of the people. It can be argued that Communists are entitled to auch government offices as they can win in free elections. There is no case for awarding them positions which they cannot win by vote of the people. In South Vietnam, moreover, the power equation is wrong. We are not so weak that we must bow to the edicts of Peking. The Commuis nist proposition this: "When my satellite attacks your ally, that is a war of liberation and we have a right to" wage it, but if your ally By William Grieder Washington Post Writer (WASHINGTON Seven Army veteran who served with military intelligence unhs in the Vietnam War have offered public testimonials that they witnessed orjtook part in brutal treatment of civilian prisoners including i interrogation by electrical torture. The torturing, they said, was done, not by South Vietnamese soldiers or officials, but by American troops seeking to iedrlUfy the enemy. Robert Stemme, 27, of San Francisco, a former sergeant in the 172nd military intelligence detachment, attached to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, described the technique: i Electrical Charge "Certain individuals were fond of using field telephones in interrogations. They would place the individual on the ground and take two wires from the telephone and wire them up to various parts of the body. Then when you crank the telephone, it gives out a small electrical charge. The other veterans, who served in different areas of South Vietnam at differ ent times from 1964 to 1970, described the same technique used for interrogation bared wires attached to fingers, ears, armpits and other sensitive areas of the body. Peter Martinsen, 25, of Los Angeles, in the 542nd former specialist-fifth-elas- s M.I. Detachment with the 101st Airborne, said the field phone crank, which normally rings the phone on the other end of the field line, would regulate the electrical charge. Phone Him lp "The faster you crank," Martinsen said, the more current the telephone puts out. There was a saying, if a guy wouldnt talk, Wire him up, then phone him up and he always answers. Actually, the technique was not parsaid in ticularly effective, the telephony interviews. It was often accompanied by other forms of physical abuse, they said. According to several of the veterans, the most brutal treatment during quesnot a identified tioning was aimed Viet COng or North Vietnamese soldiers but at who were prisoners of war" Vietnamese civilians whose loyalties were suspect, but not known. After questioning, many were referred to provincial jails run by the South Vietnamese naCh-er- s tional police as "civil defendants. were released as innocent civilians, the veterans said. is really a peace policy had to be limited to South Vietnam. It is an elementary principle of war that you must fight on enemy soil whenever possible so that all the destruction of the battlefield will occur to him and his people, not to you and your people. But in this war, the United States has condemned its ally, South Vietnam, to suffer all the devastation of the battlefield. Who will want to be an ally of the United States if this is the way we meet aggression? Abusive Treatment John Patton, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a former second lieutenant with the 11th Brigade of the Americal Division, said he supervised interrogation and permitted the abusive treatment, but eventually halted the practice of electrical torture in his section. "I like the Vietnamese people very much. Patton explained. "My main concern was that we were trying to get information to help GIs and I was willing to go part of the route. I generally didnt stop until a certain point. 1 got sick of it all. "I even had it done on me once to see how it felt. It was very uncomfortable but not permanent unless you had a heart attack or something. A little turn of the crank would give you a sensation. If A big turn was very uncomfortable. you keep It up. it's just like sticking your finger in a socket." By Juan de Onis New York Times Writer CIUDAD JAlREZ, MEXICO -The divorce mills of Chihuahua State grind fast, and that is fine for the economy oi this Mexican border city, which has a unique relationship With New York. The five civil courts here grant about 45.0G0 divorces a year to United States citizens, well over half of whom are from New York state. The courts work from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. six days a week, including Saturdays. "Americans like to do things on weekends," said Oscar Narvaez, an 1 m g p e c c a bly dressed, Mexican lawyer, as he herded a dozen of them, men and women, into the Second Civil Court. For most applicants, the proceed- irgs are as much an assemblyline process as the production of slacks at fie huge Farah Sportswear plant across the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, the twin city of Ciudad Juarez. The little El Paso airport handles more than 30 flights a week from New York, including two daily nonstop runs tht take four hours. English-speakin- Since 1965, when the New York State Supreme Court handed down two key decisions accepting the pro forma Chihuahua residence require- ment and the principle of having absent spouses submit to the state's jurisdiction, the flow of cases from New York has been in the tens of thousands a year. In most states the validity of a Chihuahua decree is not so clear. The airlift has recently brought such divorce litigants as Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., Steven Rockefeller, son of the governor of New York, and Huntington Hartford, the millionaire patron of die arts. The lists posted daily outside the courtrooms in the modern courthouse at the foot of the Santa Fe Bridge also include the unpublicized Browns, Schwart-zes- , Ousamanos , and Condons who have ended their marriages here. The names are in the same civil registry that holds entries for Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Carlo Ponti, the Italian movie producer now married to Sophia Loren, and Elizabeth Taylor, among other celebrities whose divorces have attracted international attention to this city of almost 500.000 people. z The petitioners shepherded by went to court in taxis chartered by the law firm after having signed the municipal registry in a nearby tjiiding. The signature by one spouse is all that is necessary for the couple to become legally resident and under the court's jurisdicNar-vae- tion. Wuhin iO minutes the group had finished the paperwork and signing in the court offices. The cases, all by mutual consent, did not involve even a hearing before the judge, who simply endorse the documents. "Gee, that was fast! a young woman said to another divorcee as they left both smiling, Is that all there is?" an older woman with a new hair style asked the lawyer. A young, very blond girl who did not talk with her companions looked dazed and on the verge of tears. For those who arrived in the company of prospective partners, it was necessary only to walk across the courthouse to be married imme- diately. Before the blazing summer heat the harsh, sandy hills around the dty. JJie proceedings rp reaches ' over and the newly divorced are In the hotel swimming pools. Arent you going to congratulate me? a tanned girl in a white bikini called from the pool to some friends she had made the night before. As a result of the heavy traffic, notarization of divorce documents by the United States Consulate, at $2.50 for the service, makes it perhaps the only consulate that runs up a net profit to the U.S. government. As for the economy of this city, the contribution of the Americans getting divorces is enormous, involv-in- g expenditures of at least $25 million a year. It has mad the fortunes of about 15 leading Mexican divorce lawyers who have dose working ties with New York lawyers. , The "package plan divorce costs $300 to $1,500, according to established rates; the round-trisir fare from New York is $200. With papers and property settlements prepared in advance in New York and translated into Spanish here, a spouse can leave New York in the morning, complete the proceedings and be back home by late evening. (Copyright) p is Those who peace-oriente- Preserve Peace We can therefore say with confidence to Red China: "If your . , satellite wages war against out ally, our ally will sanctuaries is part of a coherent policy of repelling aggression. we can look forward to an era of peace, in Southeast Asia and in the world. El Pasos the Stopping Off Point to Juarez, And in Juarez Divorce Is a Big Business against the information on the enemy, but would have been prosecuted by higher headquarters if they had been discovered. Some Torture Fred Brown, 26, of Anaheim. Calif., served in the same unit with Stemme, said he participated in some of the torture incidents which Stemme witnessed. Brown said that his commanding officer "When we were under extreme pressure to get information, would tell the men that as long as no marks are left on the prisoners, it was all right for us to use force. But we would be held re- sponsible If there were marks." Stemme, who said he did not interro- who . gate prisoners himself, emphasized that "not all of the Interrogators did this. Some of them felt very strongly about the use of force." It was airly well accepted that vio- lence was acceptable to get information," said Edward Murphy, 24, a former sergeant in the 4th M. I. Detachment .. with the 4th Infantry Division. It was obvious that it wouldn't get you anyI where to report it. when you rent a hospital bed at home. 24-ho- ur , - i , , ' Americans Adjusts easily to any desired position to help keep the to patient comfortable and healthier. Its waist-hig- h make bedside care much easier. Foam mattress Included in low four-wee-k rate. Electrically motorized hospital bed also available. Prompt delivery, , ! Cambodian Ths patient Is happier... i ' e. nism. If these former soldiers "had such knowledge," the Pentagon said, "it was their duty to make this known to their superiors st that time." In each case, the accounts are referred tor Investigation, the Pentagon spokesman said. The seven veterans themselves had differing opinions on whether the beatings and torture were sanctioned by higher officers. Some thought the interrogation techniques were tacitly condoned, even though officially prohibited. Some thought the practices persisted at die field level because of the pressure to get" . Soviet policy cannot let this happen. Before an invasion of North Vietnam can be made, Soviet interests will require North Vietnam to cease its aggression. Communist wais are waged for profit, not to risk the survival of Communist regimes. It is therefore important that the United States define a It clear policy of must be positive that the free world will not be sacrificed to Communist piecemeal aggression. It must be prepared, as at Berlin, for war with the Communist powers if that is necessary to protect our interests. Some will say that so forthright a defense of freedom is warlike. In truth, the policy submit to blackmail, out of fear or Ignorance, are the real warmakers. If President Nixons action ..." the past, but their scattered statement have not provoked much reaction in the press or with the public. Jeremy Rifkin and Tod Ensign, national coordinators for the citizens group, said the current congressional concern over Con Son prison "tiger cages" operated by the South Vietnamese government prompted them to raise again the issue of how U.S. military units But if the war continues, if South Vietnam invades North Vietnam and seizes the southern provinces of the country, new questions will be raised. Mars For Profit Soviet Union has built dispro- themselves treat prisoners. "The widespread use of torture by U.S. forces," Rifkin said, "indicates that they are part and parcel of standard operating procedures The Defense Department, asked to comment on the veterans, statements responded, as It has in the past, by pointing out that all soldiers are required to report any knowledge of suspected war crimes or other violations of the rules of warfare immediately. Duty te Inform Prompts Issue With the exception of Patton, the testimonials of these and the four others were gathered by the National Citizens Commission of Inquiry on U.S. War Crimes, ad antiwar group based in New York, which has been collecting veterans allegations. Most of these men have spoken publicly on various occasions in conflict; Soviet-America- n portionate military power, it is still debarred by its relative weakness from a policy of open conquest. A general war would destroy world Commu- Others have advanced the thesis that Red China will not Patton, who said the same technique was used by military intellegence in the 198th Brigade when he was assigned there, said he tried to limit the abusive treatment because, I didnt want anybody hurt. First, it was for my own feelings and for humanitarian reasons and, naturally, you didnt want any bruises. thats what Thats the main thing conies down from command. ist viewpoint It is eager td extend Communist conquests wherever practicable but it Is also mindful that its present domain must be preserved. It would be the worst kind of adventurism, for example, to press the attack in Indochina to the point of risking war with the United States which would endanger the Soviet home base. As long as the United States allowed sanctuaries in Laos and Cambodia and in North Vietnam, the war could be prosecuted without danger of strikes back at my satellite, that will start World War III. It is astonishing that American policy has for a decade accepted this preposterous contention. If we must retreat every time Red China attacks, we had better get off the planet. The reality of power supports a very different free world posture. We hold the preponderant industrial the Even though power. forthright defense Seven Army Veterans Describe Brutal Treatment of Vietnam Civilian Prisoners-b- y I with decisive force satellite. And your against to intervene; dare dont you because if you do. we shall meet you not with restraint but with decisive action." suchada-man- t Only the posing of the can deter opposition d aggression of the conquest-orienteCommunist leadership. Only such determination to preserve peace can preserve peace. The Soviet Union, like Red China, pursues a rational polirational from the Marxcy respond service. Medicare Patients Abbey's home fare equipment is now Available to you. And 44 years of experl ence uniquely qualities Abbey to provide equipment that tits each patient's precise needs. On any questions about equipment end procedures, including processing of claims, call your Abbey Rents store 436-715- 1311 1) Ni rwSJOlCT 1 South Stato lt l TERMS . . |