7 Days 19 January 1972

INDO-CH INA: Panic in Saigonforeign news desk

US intelligence in Saigon appeared to be panicking last week, in the face of what appeared to be a growingly successful revolutionary offensive. In Thailand guerrillas of the Thai People’s Liberation Army launched their first attack on the US air base at Utapao, destroying B-52 bombers on the ground for the first time ever.

In Laos the Pathet Lao forces were using SAM missiles further south than before and successfully surrounded the CIA base at Long Cheng. Royal Laotian Air Force planes, backed by US aircraft, dropped hundreds of gallons of napalm on advancing troops, but at week’s end it appeared that the base would fall.

Cambodian PulloutIn Cambodia the Lon Nol clique were

putting out “rumours” protesting at the Saigon government’s decision to pull back around 20,000 back into south Vietnam. They had been sent in, in November and December, but had failed to make contact with revolutionary forces.

The biggest surprises were in south Vietnam itself, and some journalists in Saigon were saying the Saigon troops had been pulled back to protect the situation there. NLF guerrillas attacked a South Vietnamese base near Saigon and made the first attack on the US air base at Da Nang for two years. Military sources reported heavy fighting in at least four areas along the central coast, the NLF forces deployed in battalion­sized actions for the first time there in more than a year. US spokesmen in Saigon said that they were expecting an offensive in south Vietnam, and that the present revolutionary onslaught in Laos was the heaviest dry season attack they had ever known.

Fake PulloutMeanwhile back in the US Nixon

announced that 70,000 GIs will be pulled out of Vietnam in the next three months. But the US commitment to the air war remains as great as ever, Nixon had insisted that a residual force of 25,000-35,000 will remain till the DRNV has released the US military personnel held in the north.

Cambodian soldiers resting in their hammocks near Krek. Krek has recently been evacuated by the south Vietnamese invasion force deployed there to shore up the Phnom Penh regime. No doubt these guys will get shot out of their hammocks in the near future.

CAMBODIA:“Make Money W hile The War Lasts”GRAB while you can, in war­

time” is an old Cambodian, saying. It well describes the

regime that has been in power since the ousting of Sihanouk in March 1970. The country is now experiencing a catastrophic econo­mic, financial and social crisis as a result of the decision to bring Cambodia into the Indochinese war. While the rich and powerful grab what they can for as long as they can, knowing their next destination will be Hong Kong, Paris or Switzerland, Cambodia has been turned into the main battlefield of the Indo-china war; it will perhaps be the decisive one for the long suffering people of Indochina.

Many promises were made by the leaders of the coup in order to justify this new national concord. These in­cluded radical changes in the political, social and economic structure of the country, changing Cambodia from being a blocked and archaic society, long abused by a corrupt feudalistic class of mandarins and the royal family, which had pursued an obscurantist policy, to a new, democratic and open society The main square in front of the royal palace was renamed “Place de la Concorde” , in the true spirit of the French revolution of 1789.

Factions at WarThis political honeymoon was short­

lived. The political contradictions of the new regime began to undermine belief in any possible political cohesion. The frequent cabinet changes bear good witness to this state of instability: there

have been four cabinet changes in the period of eighteen months.

One faction is led by Son Ngoc Thanh. Son Ngoc Thanh was head of the Khmer Serei and Khmer Krom forces, all trained and equipped before the coup by the American Green Berets in neighbouring Thailand and South Vietnam. They were among the most effective soldiers and, in fact, did most of the significant fighting to save the new regime from total collapse in 1970. Premier Lon Nol and his men were compelled to let Son Ngoc Thanh and the Khmer Serei and Khmer Krom have a share in power.

Son Ngoc Thanh was first made councillor of the Republic with the rank of Deputy Prime Minister, then shortly after he became one of the Deputy Prime Ministers, but was later dropped from the cabinet. His appointment always raised serious concern among many Cambodians. They can never forget that Son Ngoc Thanh was a collaborator with the Japanese fascists, during the Second World War; since 1955 he has become the CIA’s man.

Then there were Sirik Matak and his faction, who were equally demanding. Sirik Matak - had a big claim to the leadership as he was the man who played the most decisive role in the coup; he was the éminence grise of the regime. His “legitimacy” was further strengthened by his background. He is a prince, a cousin of Sihanouk, and was one of the contenders for the Cambodian Crown in 1941. Lately, his men have been demanding the re­signation of Lon Nol from the leader­ship of the Republic - this “super­stitious old man and semi-paralysed marshall” , as they put it.

Lon Nol, the Commander-in-chief,\

Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, had the traditional officer corps and the secret police force solidly behind him. His younger brother, colonel Lon Non, is head of the secret police. There is no indication that Lon Nol will quit his office although he has not quite re­covered from the stroke he had last year.

Sterile DemocracyThe end of the period of euphoria in

the revolution of the Khmer Republic began when the youth and idealist elements began to experience the re­pression of the military: political tension within the Republic got out of control. Critics of the government were arrested and imprisoned, and finally on October 16, 1971, Lon Nol dissolved the National Assembly and the Council of the Republic To justify this Lon Nol cynically declared that while he still “respected the basic principles of democracy,” he also had to choose whether to “obey the sterile game of a liberal and outdated democracy which would inevitably lead to defeat by the enemy,” or to “combat these anar­chists.”

The most obvious signs of disappoint­ment and disillusionment with the Republic are seen, perhaps, in the immobility and passivity of those who were once its enthusiastic supporters. Some have deserted the regime and have taken to the jungle to join the Cambodian resistance forces. A recent pro-guerrilla statement by 91 well- known intellectuals is proof of this new development. Many among them are medical doctors and university teachers who were once among the strongest admirers of the coup.

The Cambodian resistance forces, on

the other hand are showing every sign of rapid expansion, both in number and in effectiveness. Before the coup, according to the CIA’s estimates, there were between 3 and 4 thousand ‘Khmers Rouges’. Recently, in an inter­view with Le Monde. Sirik Matak had to admit the existence of some 15,000 ‘Khmers Rouges’ apart from thousands of others who are Sihanouk’s partisans.

The U.S. government, by fomenting the coup in Cambodia and then invading the country in 1970, through “Operation Total Victory” , has suc­ceeded in turning the whole of Cambodia into a vast “sanctuary” for the Vietnamese revolutionaries. The operation was launched under con­ditions that the worse enemy of the U.S. might have hoped for, and suc­ceeded in fulfilling Che’s call for “two or three Vietnams” . Here they are, from Phong Saly to Kompong Som: two or three Vietnams.

Washington, which started with less than a dozen men in the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh before the coup, now has 220 men, not to mention scores of others who cross the border daily from Tailand and South Vietnam on various euphemistic missions. The military and economic aid to the Khmer Republic, which started with several millions dollars in March 1970, shot up to almost 300 millions dollars in 1971, two thirds of the Cambodian GNP of 1969. But according to one estimate, if visible aid is included the U.S. needs to spend at least one billion dollars a year on Cambodia alone, i.e. on the U.S. bombing (100,000 tons on Cambodia in 1971, according to the recent study of Cornell University), on the CIA activities, on the South Vietnamese in Cambodia (50,000 as of November

1971), on the Khmer Serei and Khmer Krom forces, and on the hired mercenaries from Australia, the Philip­pines, South Korea and Thailand used to train the Lon Nol army.

SaigonisationAs the US bombs continue to rain

down on Cambodia, the familiar cleavage between town and country has become clearer and clearer. Phnom Penh used to have a population of 600,000 before the coup: it now has 2 million people. This “Saigonisation” fits the Nixon pattern of “forced urbanisation” , disguised as “enclavisation” . Phnom Penh is catching up with Saigon, Manila and Bangkok as prostitution, drugs and crime ravage the city and thousands of children and old people live in the streets.

The US is pouring its money into the regime, but it is only creating and feeding the unproductive and parasitic class of Phnom Penhese, soldiers of fortune and war profiteers. The US are finding that their Khmer “allies” will not fail to pay them the necessary lip-service, but once their backs are turned they can hear a different story. “These vulgar and grotesque crew-cut Yankees . . . The French were at least much more civilised and sophisticated. They even knew more about ‘joie de vivre’ ” . Doesn’t this all sound very familiar?

by Lek TanLek Tan is a Cambodian freelance journalist. He is the author o f a forth ­coming book: “Cambodia in the Southeast Asian War”, by Lek Tan and Malcolm Caldwell, to be published by Monthly Review Press later this year.

9

7 Days 19 January 1972

NEWS OF THEW O R LD

This job was not performed by virgins" , said one leading New York policeman after jewel-thieves robbed $5 million worth of jewel ry from 47 safety deposit boxes in the city's exclusive Hotel Pierre a fortnight ago. Cheapest rooms at the Pierre, where Onassis and the Duke of Edinburgh have been star guests, are $50 a night. The Pierre is the latest luxury hotel in New York to be hit in the last eighteen months, and the haul there was the largest in the city's history. The thieves raided the Pierre at 4 a.m. in the morning three of them sprouting false noses, and armed with 14 pairs of handcuffs with which they locked up the night staff and a Brazilian lawyer who came down the elevator with his wife and mother-in-law. Police were quick to react to the raid and early on the morning of January 8 four men, shown here, were charged at the City Police Station on East 67th Street. Police claimed they had picked up $250,000 worth of stolen jewelry and 14 pairs of handcuffs. But there is still no accurate account of what they stole, since many of the Pierre s residents are holidaying in the sun. Police intend to charge the four with the whole series of raids, as well as stickups on Sophia Loren and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

NLF Medics sayDon’t Shoot Honey by John HoweBEE HONEY has been used

successfully for a number of different treatments. It has

an antibiotic effect on external wounds and is particulary suitable for treating burns,” explained Dr. Am. Dr. Hung added: “It would be possible to dilute it and supply it in aerosols.” Is this a pure joke or is the doctor trying to give the assembled press its “story”?

Wounds and Malaria“As you know, the enemy is using

the most modern methods against us. So, we have to deal with a high proportion of medium to grave injuries: we get large numbers of head wounds, bone fractures, punctured lungs and stomachs and of course burns of all types.” They have a malaria problem too, exacerbated by the presence of millions of shell-holes filled with stag­nant rainwater, which provide a huge and ever-increasing breeding ground for the carrier mosquitoes. There’s a whole group of other health problems resulting from spending a lot of time in under­ground bomb shelters: typhus and ricketts from the ticks that live in the dugouts, anaemia, rheumatism, circu­latory problems, dysmenorrhoea in women, and a general lowering of physical tone and morale including rickets and retarded growth. “But the children grow up all the same and supply us with new forces” (Dr. Am).

"Ask our Comrade"Dr. Nguyen Kim Hung and Dr.

Nguyen Tang Am were passing through London after a visit to an international medical conference in Paris. They had been invited here by the Medical Aid Committee for Vietnam. Their press conference at the end of December, was in a dugout in the City - a curtained-off alcove in a basement restaurant. They spoke clear French with an accent like slight loudspeaker crackle. Ranged before them, twenty-odd medical and other correspondents: they speak English. The interpreter is a hectoring lady, not too good on technicalities. The doctors work for the Provisional Revolutionary Government, organising medical services in the liberated areas of S. Vietnam. Dr Hung is a Civilian Health Service Deputy Director and Dr Am is a specialist in immunisation against

tropical diseases (e.g. malaria). They refer to one another as notre camarade”, “our comrade”.

They describe their hospital system: front-line mobile brigades, regional hospitals and big central hospitals for specialised operations. They describe the hospitals themselves: nylon-roofed dugout wards and theatres with deeper shelters down passages to the sides. Dr Hung makes nervous gestures with his hands. “We have three categories of patients. The most seriously ill have bamboo beds.” He holds his hands about eighteen inches apart. “The next category sleeps in hammocks, which make possible great economies of space and are very mobile. “ And the third? “They can walk.” The doctors laugh.

BrainwashedPsychological effects? Dr Am:

“Ordinarily, psychic illnesses are in­creased in wartime . . . but with us, thanks to political education, and per­haps also because the doctors spread propaganda with a medical content . . . we have managed to keep psychic illness within bounds . . .” Daily Mail: “Sorry, I’d hate to misconstrue this to meaning that you’re successfully brainwashing your people into resisting the effects of war . . . is this what you’re really saying?” The interpreter can’t manage “brainwash There’s an em­barrassed roar of laughter; Dr Am explains seriously: “We are struggling for a just cause. But the enemy is very powerful from the economic, technical and material point of view. We are struggling for a just cause, that is why we have to surmount the difficulty. Because our people know that nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.” Dr Hung adds: “There’s no question of brainwashing.” The Mail tries again but Dr Am blocks him effortlessly, without giving anything away.

What's In It For Us Capitalists?“Have they found anything which

might be useful to us here in the West?” The doctors are modest. “You are very advanced scientifically. Dr. Am hopes to meet British malaria experts and discuss his problems with them.” Someone wants to know about CS: “As you know, we have a small war of a kind here in Britain - nothing on the Vietnam scale of course - and they tell us that CS is harmless when used against civilian populations. What is your

opinion?” The doctors go through the CS routine. In the open air it disperses quickly, it’s tear gas. In concentrated doses it can have lasting effects. In high concentration it can cause death. They’ve done experiments on monkeys. In the shelters, old people are some­times killed by it. Dr Hung describes the canisters and grenades in which CS is packed. He says there’s a special appara­tus for pumping it into underground complexes. “Like an aerosol!” says the interpreter brightly.

Dr KildareThe Correspondents have heard all

this before. They want something with a bit more zing to it. “Could we have more on the gynaecological effects of living in the shelters and biological warfare?” Women have given birth to deformed children: Dr Am has seen cases of microcephalic babies and children with webbed fingers. There are other deformities, he adds; those are the ones he’s seen. “What about the so- called aphrodisiac qualities of honey?” These sods will be talking about rubber underwear in a minute.

Unknown SubstancesNo, the honey does the trick. Dr Am

launches into the subject for the third time in an hour, a little severely. The French, he says, have been using honey since 1956 to treat cirrhosis of the liver. His dedicated eye sweeps across the audience. Honey contains glucose, other sugars and various vitamins. It may usefully be applied to external burns - at any rate it does no harm — but he cannot recommend it for injecting intra­venously. This is because it contains unknown substances. Research is being carried out into the use of honey and bee-stings as treatments for shock and various allergies. At this state of the research, however, he repeats coldly, he cannot recommend anyone to inject honey.

The conference breaks up. The doctors pose seriously on either side of Dr. Joan McMichael, Hon. Sec. of the MAV Committee, for the lone photo­grapher. They smile after the picture has been taken, tough brown men eager to get back to their people at war a world away.

MEDICAL AID COMMITTEE FOR VIETNAM, P.O. BOX 100, 36 Welling­ton St., London WC2E 7BG. Tel. 01-836 1350

USA — The crisis of the US economy is by now the major issue in Nixon’s re-election campaign. Last week, Hubert Humphrey announced that he was officially a candidate for the Democratic nomination, and de­clared that “with determination and faith, a man or nation can grow from defeat” . Four years ago Humphrey campaigned for the politics of joy and the Vietnam war. Now he hopes to “revitalize our economy and put our people to work” . Meanwhile, five months after the first of Nixon’s economic Phases, the US unem­ployment rate is continuing to rise. More than 5 million Americans are out of work, including nearly one in five teenagers. The unemployment rate among black workers is in­creasing particularly fast.

ITALY — 14 militants, members of the Potere Operaio (Workers’ Power) group, are to go on trial accused of “political conspiracy” and of “making and keeping explosive materials in a public place” . Eight were arrested on the night of December 11 in Milan, while al­legedly driving around in two cars, containing 135 Molotov cocktails. PO has denounced these arrests as a frameup, fabricated after it refused to call of a march planned for December 12 in protest against un­employment and the role of the police. PO points out that the police in Milan co-operate with the local fascists, and that fascist provocateurs get light sentences in court. The attack on PO is designed, with press support, to distract attention from this rightist collusion.

OMAN — A letter that arrived in our office last week from a militant in Dhofar, describes the situation after the recent British offensive in which members of the SAS were killed (see 7 DAYS no. 11). The “mercenaries” , referred to are the troops Sultan Qabus has hired in the Baluchi areas of Pakistan and in some parts of Oman itself.“We would like to tell you that the situation in the liberated areas is very good. The latest invasion by British forces and the mercenaries of the eastern region of Dhofar has failed. Britain has lost many men and weapons, especially from the com-, mandos. Many mercenaries have been killed and British officers have been killed too, about six up to the end of September, and more since then.

“The British and Qabus were com­pelled to pull back their remaining forces and under our comrades’ heavy attack they had to give up many of their camps, such as those at Dhaybdoot and Edot.

“The British forces and Qabus’ forces have been taught a very hard lesson they will never forget. At the moment, Britain is only using her planes, and is bombing the liberated areas no less than ten times a day. Their main targets are the in­habitants, their cattle and their farms.

“Because of this failure, Britain pushed Qabus to go on a visit to Saudi Arabia, where he settled all his differences with the Saudis. Saudi Arabia has now recognised the Qabus regime.

“Lastly: our comrades are in con­trol of everything. The latest news is that the mercenaries and the com-, mandos are having a rest. We can assure you that a lot of British and Qabus’ forces are now lying in the hospitals, and that the government has prevented all the inhabitants from receiving treatment in these hospitals”.

SOUTH-WEST AFRICA - The13,000 Ovambo workers deported back to their home areas by South African police after crippling the South-West Africa economy with a wave of strikes (7 DAYS no. 10) have elected a 25-member Repre­sentative Committee to voice their demands. The South Africans have flown in police reinforcements, and are planning to hold a meeting this week between their subsidised tribal chiefs and the authorities. But the Committee have rejected in advance any agreement not reached with their consent. The Ovambos provide 90 per cent of the labour in the white- run mining economy and are now refusing to work till their demands are met. The British National Union of Mineworkers last week issued a statement of solidarity with the strikers.

DENMARK — Axel Larsen, 74-year old head of the People’s Socialist Party, S.F., died in Copenhagen on January 10. Larsen was a founder member of the Danish CP in 1920 and was one of its leading members in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1957 he came out in opposition to the Russian policy on Hungary and in 1958 split the Danish CP. In sub­sequent elections the S.F., proclaiming support for revolu­tionary socialism independent of foreign tutelage, has scored con­siderable success. In the most recent election the S.F. won 17 seats.

A man, widely thought to be Howard Hughes, told newspapermen recently on the phone he had a Van Dyck beard. AP artists have reconstructed this face, using a 1957 photo.

LEBANON — The 3rd Congress of the Lebanese Communist Party, held in Beirut last week, has provoked a wave of anti-communist hysteria among the leaders of the Arab nationalist camp. Sudanese President Numeiri, who massacred the leaders of the Sudanese CP in July, de­nounced “a group of international agents who have sold their con­sciences” and who were meeting in Beirut to “harm the Sudanese” — a reference to the speech at the Con­gress by a leader of the Sudanese CP.

Libya radio said the Congress had “come at this particular time as a help to the British imperialists, whose interests are being liquidated by the Libyan revolution” . The aims of the Congress, Libya radio said, were to strengthen Soviet influence in the Middle East, to further a capitulationist solution with Israel, to campaign agains the new Federa­tion (of Egypt, Libya and Syria) and to mobilise Arab opinion against China.

10

7 Days 19 January 1972

The war is over, the myths begin. Idealised portraits of Mujib and Mrs. Gandhi, against a background of the defeat of the Pakistani army, are now on display in Bangladesh. Below, the reality as Mujib passes through on his way home.

foreign news deskIF THE SOURCES were identi­

fied it would embarrass the Administration more than it

would me. It would a very funny story.” Jack Anderson, columnist whose articles are syndicated to 600 papers in the US, has provoked a scandal in Washington by printing top-secret government minutes, detailing the Administra­tion’s thinking during the Indo- Pakistani war.

But no-one has been able so far to trace the source, or to stop the flow of leaks. Anderson insists that his sources are in the Administration itself: “If they want to finger them, they’re going to end up with bubble gum all over their faces”, he says.

The minutes Anderson printed were of meetings of the Washington Special Action Group, a group rustled up by Kissinger to discuss and advise on foreign policy. Apart from mini- Metternich Henry himself, the group included CIA Director Helms, Joseph J. Sisco, Assistant Secretary of State responsible for the Middle East and South Asia, and Admiral Thomas M. Moorer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The minutes did not provide startling revelations about US policy: it was clear all along that the US were working hard to keep good relations with Yahya Khan. There had already been a press scandal when the Washington Post named Kissinger as the official who threatened Nixon would cancel his Moscow trip if the Soviets went ahead in India as they were doing. What it did reveal is that the South Asia war has fouled up the neat strategic game Kissinger has been playing. Up jumps the rebellious Indian bourgeoisie and shoots ahead all on its own, and the wretched three-cornered parlour-game he has been dreaming about collapses.

For the mystified Washington- watchers of the US press these texts offer a “rare glimpse” into the “inner sancta” “highest deliberations” etc. of the US State. For the rest of the world all this “tilting” and “bending” is what everyone assumes is going on anyway. What is excellent is that the US press gets round to publishing these things at all: one can hardly imagine the heroes

of Fleet Street ever printing such material, even if they had the initiative to get it in the first place.

Here we print extracts from the WSAG minutes:

MEETING OF DEC. 3Henry Kissinger: I am getting hell every half hour from the President that we are not being tough enough on India. He has just called me again. He does not believe we are carrying out his wishes. He wants to tilt in favor of Pakistan. He feels everything we do comes out otherwise.

Richard M. Helms [director, Central Intelligence Agency]: . . . The Paks say the Indians are attacking all along the border; but the Indian officials say this is a lie. In the east wing, the action is becoming larger and the Paks claim there are now seven separate fronts involved.

Kissinger: [Is India] seizing territory?Helms: Yes, small bits of territory.Joseph J. Sisco [Assistant Secretary

of State]: It would help if you [Helms] could provide a map with a shading of the areas occupied by India. What is happening in the west — is a full-scale attack likely?

Adm. Thomas H. Moorer [chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff]: . . . The Pak attack is not credible. It has been made during late afternoon, which doesn’t make sense.

Kissinger: Is it possible that the Indians attacked first, and the Paks simply did what they could before dark in response?

Moorer: This is certainly possible.Kissinger: . . . If the U.N. can’t oper­

ate in this kind of situation effectively, its utility has come to an end and it is useless to think of U.N. guarantees in the Middle East . . . We have to take action. The President is blaming me, but you people are in the clear.

Sisco: That’s ideal!Kissinger: The earlier draft statement

for [U.S. ambassador to the U.N. George] Bush is too evenhanded.

Sisco: . . . We will update the draft speech for Bush.

Maurice J. Williams [deputy admini­strator, Agency for International Development]: Are we to takeeconomic steps with Pakistan also?

Kissinger: Wait until I talk with the President. He hasn’t addressed the problem in connection with Pakistan yet.

Sisco: If we act on the Indian side, we can say we are keeping the Pakistan situation ‘under review.’

Kissinger: It’s hard to tilt toward Pakistan if we have to match every Indian step with a Pakistan step. If you wait until Monday, I can get Presidential decision.

USA: "I’m getting hell from the President ”

GHANA: Army Boots Busia Outby Richard SyngeAt 5.30 last Thursday morning the Ghana Army seized power from the Government of Dr. Kofi Busia. Neither blood nor tears were shed for the unfortunate Prime Minister, who was in any case well out of trouble — in London having his eyes tested.

The new “National Redemption Council” that replaces Busia’s Govern­ment will include army officers, civilians, tribal chiefs and trade union leaders — an all-embracing national set-up. Whether it moves “right” or “left” depends on who emerges as the strong man of the regime. It is possible that Ghana’s former “Redeemer” , Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, will be asked to return from exile in Guinea to

help sweep away Busia’s reactionary policies.

Politically Ghana will be starting again from scratch. Parliament has been dissolved, all political parties banned and the constitution withdrawn. There will have to be a new economic start too. Ghana could not have gone on any longer as it was — a totally bankrupt country being squeezed for its very last penny by its so-called friends, the Western capitalist nations. When Busia became Ghana’s Premier two years ago he was hailed in the western press as the new hope for Africa. Now his patrons have helped to drive him out.

With the abandonment o f Nkrumah’s version of socialism in 1966 Ghana went into rapid decline. Since then the national currency, the Cedi, has been devalued twice, production of food

crops has dwindled, unemployment has soared. The stage was reached last year where sooner or later there had to be either a popular uprising or a military coup.

The military struck first. Progressive military regimes are rare but if this one wants to succeed it must immediately defy the usurers of Britain, France and the US and set about nationalising the economy. It should also mobilise Ghana’s workforce for the production of food.

No Pics of NkrumahGhanaians have been angered by the

sight of their Prime Minister calling for dialogue with South Africa. This reactionary foreign policy was linked with a repressive approach by

democrat” Busia to internal dissent.

Last year when students and socialist. parties began to demand Nkrumah’s return Busia’s Government made the display of the former President’s photo­graph and the advocacy of his policies crimes punishable by jail.

Last September Ghana’s workers threatened to go on general strike over the imposition of a new tax and the Government’s refusal to raise their mini­mum daily wage (about 30 new pence). Busia ruthlessly banned their strikes and dismantled the trade union move­ment. His Ministers said that the workers’ demands were “Communist- inspired” .

Cocoa Farmers ProtestWhile Busia’s Progress Party was

never popular in Ghana’s towns and cities it did have strong support in the

rural areas. But in the months before Christmas cocoa farmers staged demon­strations throughout the country — against the Government’s withholding of money due to them for their crops.

The latest 40 per cent devaluation of the Cedi after Christmas was the final straw. Smuggling foreign currency became the only way for many people to make a living. Essential imported goods increased in price. Those who had money spent it on those goods in short supply. Even home-grown food became beyond the pockets of the working population. A single yam now costs about 35 new pence.

Things had got to such a state that the parliamentary opposition Justice Party demanded the Government’s immediate resignation. Busia refused — so the Army took over.

11

MEETING OF DEC. 4Helms: The Indians have begun their

‘no holds barred’ offensive in East Pakistan. There is no evidence of ground action in the west. Yahya’s speech today referred to the ‘final’ war with India and the need to drive back and destroy the enemy. Moscow is support­ing Delhi throughout.

Kissinger: If the Indians announced full-scale invasion, this must be reflected in our U.N. statement this afternoon. By Monday morning, I [want] to get a full chronology of the sequence of events in both East and West Pakistan.

Samuel De Palma [Assistant Secre­tary of S tate]: Both Yahya and Mrs. Gandhi are making bellicose statements. If we refer to Mrs. Gandhi’s in our statement, do we not also have to refer to Yahya’s?

Kissinger: The President says either the bureaucracy should put out the right statements on this, or the White House will do it. Can the U.N. object to Yahya’s statements about defending his country?

De Palma: We will have difficulty in the U.N. because most of the countries who might go with us do not want to tilt toward Pakistan to the extent we do.

Kissinger: Whoever is doing the backgrounding at State is invoking the President’s wrath. Please try to follow the President’s wishes.

De Palma: . . . As other countries will quibble with our statement, we need to decide how far we can bend.

Kissinger: We have told the Paks we would make our statement. Let’s go ahead . . . regardless of what other countries want to do. We need now to make our stand clear even though it has taken us two weeks of fiddling . . . Nothing will happen at the Security Council because of Soviet vetoes. The whole thing is a farce.

G. Warren Nutter [Assistant Secre­tary of Defense]: It goes without saying that the entire press is slanting this war to place the entire blame on the Pakistanis and to show that they attacked India.

Kissinger: This has been a well-done political campaign for which we will pay.