I read a letter from a GI in Korea, saying that the majority of those he has talked to do not know what they are fighting for in that distant land, destroying lives and possessions of non-combatant civilians. He said that if he had his way, he would not meddle in internal affairs of Korea.
There among people who have been subjugated for 40 years by the Japanese military and economic exploiters, he wrote that he sees sullen, often hostile faces of people suffering from poverty, hunger, disease and lack of adequate shelter because of destruction by war. This is unlike World War II. It is a war of intervention, and for that reason it is unpopular, particularly among people in whose land it is going on. It is so in Viet Nam, as well as in Malaya.
It is unpopular with the GIs, too, who want to return home and who are bitter against the U. S. insistence on "voluntary" prisoner exchange.
GIs Commit Crime To Escape Active Duty
It is unpopular with air force reservists who refused to fly during training, objecting to flight duty because they did not believe in this war. And it is unpopular with recruits, too, and a good example is the locally unreported happenings at Camp Stoneman, California.
The San Francisco Chronicle in January reported that every month more than 100 GIs assigned to replenish units in Korea were getting themselves arrested to escape Korea duty. The commanding officer of the camp, Major Muhm, in explaining; the crowded conditions of local jails, told a Chronicle reporter: "Soldiers reluctant to go overseas do the most- obvious things to get arrested by civil authorities. They tamper with parked automobiles, break windows near police stations and when arrested, plead guilty and get sentenced to 30 days in civilian jails, which is just what they want. "
1, 000 Shipped To Korea from Stockade
For months this situation had been going on and when finally the reporter, got the story, military authorities already had obtained permission to try recruits in court martial. Following the trial, the authorities at one time shipped "1,000 men direct from confinement in stockades to overseas duty. "
One naturally asks how many more of these cases are successfully kept from the public.
The war of intervention is unpopular with numerous parents, and in unprecedented actions, some have returned medals posthumously conferred on their sons. The anti-war and peace sentiment of those directly or closely affected by the war drive is clearly apparent, and many are beginning to see what a myth it is — this talk of continual jobs and prosperity through, war economy. High taxes and higher cost of living, with less and less of civilian goods produced because the people cannot buy them, are hard practical experiences today.
People United To Win Better Conditions
And there is another side, a most important side, to the demand for peace today. That comes from the billion people who seek change and 'are working for a social change to better their living conditions. There was a time when the people of Africa, Asia and Europe were shipped abroad by tyrants and weak governments, for slavery and semi-slavery, as in the case of Hawaii's contract laborers. This condition has changed because of the struggle for human rights everywhere, by people in the slave-holding countries as well is in the areas that provided the manpower. The gains made in human rights are always threatened by, a privileged few, but the establishment of independent democratic governments in former colonial and semi-colonial areas among united people, furthers human welfare, dignity and decency.
U. S. Can't Continue Feudalism Abroad
I always recall the stories of contract labor days I heard as a child and in later years, of the experiences of my parents and other immigrants who were shipped from poor and weak countries. There are various ways by which masses of people are subjugated and exploited, as well as the degree to which they are abused. Contract labor and open slavery are only two aspects. The conquest of nations, like the subjugation of Korea by Japan, is another. And today's strategy of Western bloc leaders to stabilize conditions of feudalism and semi-colonialism by conniving with puppet landlord governments is another. Justice William O. Douglas of the U. S. Supreme Court, says that this cannot be done. "It can't be done with all the wealth of America. With all the atom bombs of America it can't be done. " He, in his own way, is waging an anti-communist campaign, trying to "contain communism" and in effect blocks social change because he feels the change must be "helped" by the West — or else, he condemns independent people's struggles as Russian-instigated.
Point 4 Develops Into Sweatshops
The strategy of the Western bloc leaders is two-fisted —. one a mailed fist of military might and another the Point 4 kid glove. On Point 4, Justice Douglas says that it would "become a monstrosity" if private capital under this program were to turn loose and develop sweatshops in the world. He said further: "Why should the taxpayers of America undertake this kind of project? In most of Asia you have the conditions of feudalism, of filth and hunger that you had in Europe 900 years ago. When you talk to any American who wants to stabilize that situation, you are talking to the most dangerous man in the world today."
Can't Keep People from Fighting for Better Conditions
Thus sweatshops— actually runaway shops from the U. S., exploiting cheaply-paid labor that is forced to compete with and depress the pay of American workers — and feudalism, as in Iran today where the peasants turn 80 per cent of the crops over to the landlord for rent, aggravate social ills. No one can stop people from fighting for their health and well-being, and happy tomorrows. Thus the battle in Viet Nam against the French, who are backed by the U. S. military. And thus also, the liberation struggle of the, Malayans against the British.
We Were Interventionists In China
In a war of intervention, the talk of democracy and liberation wears thin quickly. This is so in Korea today. It takes the Smith Act, the McCarran Act, thought control and. intimidations and all sorts of anti-communist scares, and deportations and threats and jailings to whip up the war feeling— to "contain communism.
"But still the "selling" job designed to frighten people into submission has not succeeded. Actually, the "containing of communism" means suppression of people's struggles for liberation. - It boils down to that. U. S. intervention was similarly unpopular in China after Japanese capitulation in 1945. I remember my return to Yenan after my trip to Chungking when I reported, as I wrote last week, to General Albert Wedemeyer and Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley. As soon as our plane came to a stop, one of our officers from the U. S. Observation Mission boarded it and closed the door. I thought this was strange.
He then briefed the transport's crew not to discuss politics or American military activities in Nationalist China. I asked the officer what had caused this new security measure. "The colonel doesn't want any loose talk," he explained.
Afraid Yenan Might Hold Anti-U. S. Demonstration
He told me that a crew from a transport told Yenan's liaison officers connected to our mission that OSS agents were defending Kaifeng with Japanese and puppets against Yenan's forces. Another crow had mentioned that the 315 Troop Carrier Transport moved a Nationalist fighter unit from Ankiang to Hsuchow.
The fighters quickly started strafing Yenan-held territory. "When the Communists hear stories like these, they surely get burnt up, " he said to me. The colonel pondered whether we should take precautions against Chinese demonstrations and possible attack against our mission. We had code machines and documents to protect, he said.
The officers who had been in Yenan for many months did not think that we would be attacked. Yenan was still cooperating, supplying us with weather reports. Weather in China moves from west to east.
Ironically, meterological reports sent from Yenan to Theater Headquarters were being used in transporting Chiang Kai-shek's troops by air. We Were Informed About U. S. Forced Landing Then early in October we were notified that an American fleet would land at 'the Yenan-liberated port of Chefoo. The Chinese Communists protested strongly through our mission. Theater Headquarters notified us that our fleet was making a forced landing, if necessary, on Oct. 10. The colonel called me to his quarters for discussion. He finally decided to keep our personnel in our compound that day. He ordered me to have all firearms of American personnel locked up. On the morning of the Chefoo landing, about which Yenan did not know, the Border Region government invited us to attend a simple ceremony of the Double Tenth (Oct. 10) anniversary, to observe the birth of the Chinese Republic under Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
Barbey Clashes With Wedemeyer Over Intervention
We went to the Border Region headquarters to congratulate Chinese officials but we did not stay long. We rushed back to our mission and anxiously waited for news from Chefoo. It was a great relief when Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey, commander of the Seventh Fleet, did not land at Chefoo. He announced from his "flagship off the Chefoo harbor that: "American forces will not land at Chefoo, which is under the control of the Chinese Communists... The result of the American landing here will have no other meaning than to help the Central Government troops to occupy the port. Such a move will become a direct intervention in Chinese internal affairs. " The admiral's views clashed with those of Gen. Wedemeyer. He went so far as to advise against transporting Chiang's troops into Manchuria. Shortly after, Wedemeyer and Barbey went to Gen. Mac-Arthur's headquarters in Japan for a pow-wow. The admiral was relieved of Asiatic duty. When I went to Theater Headquarters shortly after, I learned more about this policy clash.