On 16 April. for the find time in the history of the Indochinese war. Harorand Haiphong North Vietnam'stwe main cities MCIC SIT ject to saturation bomhing. The tonnage of The B5?% on that day equalled the desructive power of three quartens of the nuclear henh dropped on Hiroshima. These planes are at present flying a daily average of ten six-plane missions, which is the cquivalent of 20 nu clear hiastagainst the Vietnamese people evers der. Hy October of int year, the Nixon administration alone had dropped greater tonnage of hombs on Indochina than the total American bombing of Asia and Europe in the second world war and the Korean war put together. The Scienie American in its May issue calculated that between 1965 and 1971 that is, before this Spring's escalation The Tinited States had poured the equivalent of 450 nuclear homhs on Indo€ hina, and the writers commented: "From the air some areas of Vietnam look Ike photographs of the moon." the suthers state that in the South the Pentagon's pol Icy has been to "disrupt and destroy the soeial and economic fabric of rural, agriculcural Vietnam in order to drive the peasant population into areas under central control and to deprive the guerilla enemy of a power base". Such massive bombing has not only disrupted the social base of the Vietnamese peasantry by breaking up the intricate irrigation syslems for rice-growing, by destroying livestock and damaging large sections of timberlandi: its impect can be permanent. The craters, tilled with water become permanent features of the landscape and breeding grounds for mosquitos, laterisation can occur around the edges of the crater themselves: the tearing of hilly terrain causes soil erosion. The additional use of herbi cides such as agent orange to defoliate wooded areas has much the same impact The Scientific Amerinen estimates that the use of this chemical between 1961 and 1970 "destroyed upwards of a quarter of a million acres of mangrove forests" and permanently damaged the soil.
The conclusion drawn by the authors shows the lengths desperialisa will go to in its altempt to stem the rise of revolutionary strugale: "The cumulative effect of the munitiant attack on the land has to be seen to be grasped fully. Reports by mil itary observers speak of the landscape's being torn as if by an angry giant and of areas of the green deltaland'‹ heing "puiverised into a gray porridge Still to be aexed are the effeets of the persisting bom bardment on the people's habitations. on the animal life and general ecology of the region. The damage caused by the largeseale disor eatalion of the environmen may be felt for centuries"
American war scientists have devoted great attention to the problem of ensuring that the pilor cargoes are not guandered. The so called "Igion While technique in voives dropping smail acoustic devices on a ANCHANT These transmit any sound of vibration to a computer system which guides waiting bomher squadrons onto the target TV cameras and laser beams are used to assist the hombers. Mines are fitted with tripgers which respond to sound, pressure or vibration. The anti personnel bomb can now spray one quarter of a million pellets over a 45,000 square foot range The U.S. administration is proud of the accuracy of its vast bomteng apparacus. la the face of questioning on the effecriveness of air power against the Vietnamese liberalon forces the Defence Department has produced volumes of evidence to demonstrate the precision of its bombing techniques. This wealth of Pentagon material cannot he setuted and in fact the events of the last 3 months make it particularly worthy of study by opponcats of American aggression in lado-China. For on & June the Narch Vietnamese spokesman in Paris Nguyen Thanh Le informed the world that berwced 10 April and 24 May a total of SKU ponibs had been dropped on the dykes of the Red River delta and Tonkin hay. At first the admenistration launched an international campaign to denounce what they called a "hig lie and communist propaganda But a whole series of international witnesses hive since confirmed the North Vietnamese declaration and last week's evidence from President Johnson's ex-Attorney General has removed the last shadow of doubt as to who has been doing the lying. The Pen tagon is therefore now cataring that such hombing is accidental, that its own incontestable proofs of the B52's deadly accuracy are notto be bebered alter all! Thisatterpted about face on Nixon's part i understandable. The destruction of the Tonkit dyker as the monsoen period app roaches can turn the Red Raver delta into a mass grave for its fifleen million inhshitants. An Anthony Lewis, the New York Tomer reporter put it on 26 June: "No one should be in any doubt about whar systematic destruction of the dykes at this time might mean. Ir would bring into play. jus lifiably for once. that much abused word Genocide"