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= Cal we wOTHDRARD ) THE LOGEC’ OF WITHDRAWAL | BY HOWARD ZINN 3 ; _This article is reprinted from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where it was _ , published as one of three articles presenting different positions on Vietnam. ‘The other two were one by Rép. Mendel Rivers favoring escalation and another by Sen. William Fullbright favoring de-escalation. Readers were then asked to vote on which position they favored. The results, out of 9000 votes, were 5600 for withdrawal, and 1800 each for escalation and de-escalation. HOWARD ZINN, Professor of Government at Boston University, is the author of Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, published by the Beacon Press, His previous books include SNCC: The New abolitionists, The Southern Mystique, .New Deal Thought, and LaGuardia_in Congress. ‘He has also written for Harper's Magazine, The Nation, Thé New Republic, Commonweal, The American Scholar, and > other journals. He earned his Ph.D. at Columbia, and has done reseatich on Asian XS affairs as a Fellow in East Asian studies at Harvard, and as director of the ws Non-Western studies program at Atlanta University. “ . af ole oe ok se ok oR aie ook ok ok de oe ok ok deo ok ok ak ok ~] , ‘ R Last: January, a reporter for Life magazine wrote: "ifter nearly two months in Vietnam I find this the most hateful war we have ever foughte Surely we never would have gotten into it if we had known how deep was the well, but, we are the victims of one tragic miscalculation after another. We find ourselves supporting QR a government of: mandarins with little basis of popular support, fighting for an army that has little-inclination to do its own fighting." t When you have blundered into a terrible situation(and surely historians will SQ record the Vietnam war as one of the great blunders in American diplomacy) it ee oe co wT. TATION CO c a ‘Bigs makes no sense to say that you must continue in your foolishness. The challenge (Foe “] of communism in the world must be met with wisdomg not hysteria. Europe's Fifanqa strongest anti-Communist, Konrad Adenauer, when asked what he would do if he were Lyndon Johnson, said: nT would get out of Vietnam. This wouldn't be the first war broken off in the middle. You can't get out by going on more strongly. If I take a road and find myself going in the wrong direction, I see no purpose in continuing along it. I take another road." Ls : There ‘are times when one must be willing to give one's life for a good cause, for every such time in history there are many more instances where people have been Led intd devastating wars, and always with sincere, high-sounding explanations. Recently Gen. David Shoup, former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, said in criticism of our Vietnam Policy? "NT ‘don't think the whole of- Southeast Asia, as related to the present and future dafety and freedom of the people of this country, is worth the life or limb of -a single American." One man has the power to turn us back towards sanity: Lyndon Johnson. But this requires some Courage on his part, the courage to: say, to the nation: Too many have died already. Too many have suffered. We refuse to-continue the pretens that we are'defanding' -Yietnam, because it is now clear the Vietnamese themselves _ have no desire to fight for the government. we are supporting. It is time for us” > - to‘ Leave, and let the Vietnamese settle their own affairs. Whatever the, consequenc they will not be worse than what is going on today, which is the acre-byyacre destruction of that land and its people under the most concertrated barrage of ‘bombs any country has éver endured." ; The idea of withdrawal disturbs many people, who say: "Let's negotiate our - way out.'? But this has not worked. If we wait until all parties find exactly the right conditions for negotiation, we may go on for years while the dead pile wp. A voluntary U.S. withdrawal has the advantage of requiring no one's consent, . no one’s decision but our own. With the American army leaving, the present government in Saigon would undoubtedly give way to a new one, which would negotia= t@ with the Vaet-Cong's ational Liberation Front(Something the present govern~ ment hog been unwilling and the U.S. government reluctant to do} for an end to the hostilities an’ the establishment of a coalition government in South Vietnam. ALL FTE DATE