The Greatest Purveyor of Violence

Last Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The New York Times wrote that the war “killed 58,220 American soldiers.” Across the mainstream, there was little mention of the effect on Vietnam. Project RENEW wrote, “American aircraft dropped over 5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam.” It was “the largest bombardment of any country in history.” It killed over 3 million Vietnamese. 500,000 were children.
In 1945, Japan ended its occupation of Vietnam. Later that year, Ho Chi Minh drafted Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence from colonial rule. It stated that for 80 years, French imperialists “have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials.” They “reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty.” Vietnamese independence scared Washington. The Pentagon Papers admitted the “supreme importance” in Indochina was US control of “rubber, tin and other commodities.” Therefore, the US sought to crush Vietnamese independence from foreign domination. The Miller Center at the University of Virginia wrote, “By 1952, the United States was paying for at least half the cost of France’s war there.” After the French withdrew from Vietnam, the US rejected Vietnam’s unification under the Geneva Accords. Washington put the puppet Dictator Diem in power. The Pentagon Papers revealed South Vietnam “was essentially the creation of the United States.”
The New York Times reported, “On May 11, 1961… President Kennedy… ordered the start of a campaign of clandestine warfare against North Vietnam.” President Kennedy approved the creation of “covert bases and teams for sabotage and light harassment.” By 1962, the US was bombing South Vietnam. Kennedy approved the use of Agent Orange and napalm, too. ABC News reported that 3 million people “still suffer serious health issues associated with exposure to (Agent Orange).”
President Johnson escalated the clandestine war into a war of annihilation against South Vietnam. President Nixon extended the criminal aggression. He ordered the invasion and bombing of Cambodia and Laos. From 1965 to 1973, the US dropped more than 2.7 million tons of bombs on Cambodia. Henry Kissinger gave the order, “[Nixon] wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia… Anything that flies, on anything that moves.” From 1964 to 1973, the US dropped 2.1 million tons of bombs on Laos— the world’s poorest nation. Anthony Lewis wrote that the bombing of Laos was “the most appalling episode of lawless cruelty in American history.”
In 1967, Reverend King said the US government was “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” He continued, “I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam.” Fifty years later, the US is still the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. US drones strike Somalia. US bombs pummel Yemen. US missiles drop on the tents of homeless families in Gaza. All at the taxpayer’s expense, as 42.5 million Americans in poverty pay the double price.

Anton Porcari

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