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declares; they miscalculated about the strength of the Soviet Union and of the Socialist states of Eastern Europe, about the Chinese revolution, the anticolonial revolt, and the "resistance everywhere to their grandiose ambition."

The Chinese revolution triumphed, the northern part of Vietnam took the Socialist path, and the Cuban revolution "established the first Socialist state in the Western Hemisphere."

On the domestic scene, the corporate-political leaders miscalculated also on the "resistance they would encounter among the American people to reaction at home and military aggression abroad.

Thus

"All the positions of superior strength from which the cold war was launched have either been seriously weakened or destroyed, but U.S. monopoly, driven by its inner compulsions, persists in waging the cold war. It still tries to achieve what it could not achieve when its circumstances were far more advantageous. it aggravates the contradiction between its policy and world realities. "The policy that arouses fear and hatred throughout the world is no deliberate choice of the American people, for nowhere is the erosion of democracy more pronounced than in the fateful sphere of foreign affairs.

"To promote exclusion of popular influence from the formulation of foreign policy two myths have been concocted. The first is that foreign affairs are too deep for the ken of ordinary men. The second is that 'politics stop at the water's edge,' so that the patriotic thing to do is to follow blindly wherever the President and the military-industrial complex may lead."

In describing the "character of U.S. imperialism," the draft program refers to the analysis of imperialism by V. I. Lenin, "foremost Communist leader and thinker of this century.'

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Lenin, the program says, defined imperialism "as the monopoly stage of capitalism, characterized by the dominance of monopoly and control of the economy by a handful of financial empires. It is characterized further by a growth of productive means and an accumulation of capital so great as to compel expansion beyond national frontiers, not only in the traditional quest for markets and sources of raw materials, but even more, for areas of capital investment, powered by a drive for maximum profit. By all these standards, U.S. monopoly is not only imperialist, it is the most powerful imperialism in the world today.

there must be vigorous, mounting action on the part of all the peace forces.

This means that while regarding the coexistence of states with different social systems as a form of the class struggle between socialism and capitalism the Soviet Union consistently advocates normal, peaceful relations with capitalist countries and a settlement of outstanding interstate issues by negotiation and not by war. The Soviet Union firmly stands for noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries, for respect of their sovereign rights and inviolability of their territories.

Imperialist powers, primarily the United States of America, have scattered numerous military bases throughout the world and have stationed contingents of their armed forces on the territories of other countries.

It is high time to end this situation which threatens the peace and security of countries, to dismantle military bases on foreign territories and to withdraw foreign armed forces from these territories.

The Soviet Union is waging a consistent struggle to slow and completely stop the arms race started by the imperialists, to reach agreement on practical steps in this field, steps toward general and complete disarmament.

The admission of many newly free countries to U.N. membership has substantially changed the situation in that organization by no means in favor of the imperialists. In the U.N. the Soviet Union undeviatingly strives to facilitate the unity of countries opposing aggression and thereby enhance the role played by the U.N. in the struggle for universal peace and the independence of peoples.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union considers that at this stage in the struggle for an improvement of the international situation, the consolidation of peace and the promotion of peaceful cooperation among nations it would be most important to:

Put an end to U.S. aggression in Vietnam, withdraw all U.S. and other foreign troops from South Vietnam and enable the Vietnamese people to decide their own internal affairs: accept the position set forth by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam as a basis for the settlement of the Vietnam problem;

Insure strict adherence to the principle of noninterference in the internal affairs of states;

Sign an international treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons;

"The drive for investment outlets and maximum profits places a special premium upon establishing effective domination over foreign lands, for only thus is the attainment of both aims rendered secure. Classically, such domination assumed crass colonial forms. In our age it assumes more typically the form of neocolonialism, an exercise in which U.S. imperialism is especially well versed by dint of its experience in Latin America."

There, through economic penetration, through military intervention or threat, through diplomatic intrigue, espionage, and conspiracy, U.S. monopoly has acquired "effective control" of many countries.

It is "extending that pattern throughout the world," the program

says.

This it is driven to do by the very nature of its own internal development. Accumulation of capital, flowing from the profits of World War II and the postwar boom, has been fabulous in the United States, far in excess of investment opportunities at home, especially the sort of opportunities that promise a maximum profit yield. Had it been restricted within the national frontiers, U.S. monopoly would have faced a threat of investment strangulation and the possibility of a depression producing powerful social pressures for radical economic changes. As a matter of fact, however, there has been a tremendous growth of U.S. corporate investment abroad."

"The profitability of neocolonialism is indeed enormous. Superexploitation of labor yields fabulous returns on investment. Inequality of trade, based on extraction or purchase of raw materials at low prices and the sale of monopoly-produced finished products at high prices, enlarges the profit yield. Control of sources of rare raw materials, strategic in either the economic or military sense, or in both, is often an added incentive for neocolonial acquisition.

"To establish, retain and expand the neocolonial empire requires a vast military machine, and this, in turn, also pays corporate dividends at home," the program declares.

"One or another specific policy of U.S. imperialism can be checked by resistance and popular pressure."

However, the "innermost character" of U.S. imperialism is "inherently reactionary," the program continues, and these "reactionary pressures inherent within it will seek some other outlet," either abroad or at home.

completely remove the question of the nuclear armament of the Federal Republic of Germany or of giving it any form of access to nuclear weapons; meet the desire of the peoples for the creation of nuclear-free zones in various parts of the world; have the nuclear powers solemnly pledge to refrain from using nuclear weapons first; sign an agreement on the banning of underground nuclear tests-implementation of these steps aimed against the threat of a nuclear war would open the road for a further advance toward the complete banning and destruction of nuclear weapons; initiate talks on European security; discuss the proposals of socialist and other European countries on a relaxation of military tension and a reduction of armaments in Europe and the development of peaceful, mutually advantageous relations between all European countries; convene an appropriate international conference for this purpose; continue to look for ways of settling one of the cardinal problems of European security; namely, a peaceful settlement of the German problem by recognizing the now existing borders of the European countries, including those of the two German states, in order to completely remove the vestiges of the Second World War in Europe.

We have every reason to declare that the international position of our country is stable. The peace-loving foreign policy of the Communist Party and the Government of the Soviet Union reliably serves the interests of Communist construction and the cause of preserving and strengthening world peace and security. The CPSU will continue to pursue this tested course.

U.S. imperialism's "operation curtailed abroad, it will turn with more relentless fury upon the American people, seeking to recoup losses abroad by more intentive exploitation at home. Thus, we foresee a protracted, stubborn, many-sided conflict with U.S. imperialism, the termination of any single encounter serving as prelude to another. But it is not an endless struggle. Each setback for U.S. imperialism serves to weaken its position and to strengthen the forces arrayed against it. The realizable aim in the series of encounters is, therefore, the creation of a preponderance of antiimperialist strength sufficient to keep U.S. imperialism in check, and finally, with the American people themselves in the forefront, to replace it with a new and just society."

SOVIET LIVING STANDARDS

(From: The Worker (U.S.A.),
January 23, 1966, p. 5)

VICTOR PERLO-DOLLARS AND SENSE
RISING SOVIET LIVING STANDARDS

On my October visit to the U.S.S.R., I superficially compared living standards with those I observed in 1960. People are more brightly dressed, their clothes are better cut. Stores are better supplied with meat and fruits. There are more shops, restaurants, and snack places. Many more people have decent flats, with unshared kitchens and baths. Wages in factories I visited averaged about 20 percent above those in like factories 5 years earlier. Prices seemed to average just a shade higher than in 1960.

U.S.

(From: Political Affairs (U.S.A.), April 1966, p. 15)

THE GENOCIDAL WAR

(By Betty Gannett)

(From: International Affairs (U.S.S.R.), January 1966, p. 3)

"Scientific principles in management of the national economy are the basis for creating the necessary prerequisites for accelerating the rate of industrial development and agricultural production, for raising the people's material and cultural level and providing for a further increase in the might and defense potential of the Soviet state. These scientific

principles are the guarantee that our achievements, expressed first and foremost in the fulfillment and overfulfillment of the 7-year plan target figures, shall provide the basis for further advances in building the material and technical foundation of communism." (A. SOVETOV).

ESCALATION

Vietnam is today the tinderbox which can set off a world conflagration. The brutal, savage war raging on the soil of Vietnam has entered a new and more perilous phase. In what is described as "one of the swiftest, biggest military buildups in the history of warfare," U.S. imperialism has transformed this small Asian land, 10,000 miles away, into a formidable armed encampment. With a limitless arsenal of destructive power, it seeks to beat into submission a people whose only crime is their burning desire to live in peace and freedom.

(From: International Affairs, No. 1 (U.S.S.R.), January 1966, p. 6)

As events have shown, Washington has adopted the course of combining military ventures, political maneuvers and subversive activities. The escalation of armed aggression in different parts of the world was undertaken together with intensified activities directed at undermining the unity of the anti-imperialist forces.

(From: The Worker (U.S.A.), Mar. 27, 1966, p. 3)

NEXT STEPS FOR PEACE

The national debate initiated by the February hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unleashed new forces with the power to force a halt in the Vietnam killing.

The March 25-26 marches, demonstrations, and rallies mark a great step forward.i

Now further steps must follow.

The potency of the forces for peace is enhanced by the fact that this is the year of congressional elections. The shadow of defeat looms over many Members of Congress who have tied themselves to the coattails of the President and his Vietnam policy or have remained silent. The Democratic leadership is worried; so is that of the Republican Party.

President Johnson himself took cognizance of the threat last Tuesday when he devoted a major portion of an unscheduled press conference to the congressional elections. He indicated this obliquely in reporting on discussions about Vietnam and the elections with a number of Democratic Congressmen. He said, "They are all worried about the sacrifices our men are making there."

The President is so worried about the possibility that he might lose effective control of Congress, particularly the House, over the Vietnam issue that he made an indirect bid to the Republicans not to oppose their candidates if they continued their support of him. He said:

***The Congressmen on both sides have done a good job, and I don't think that the Republican Congressmen, except in rare instances, have much to be worried about. Most of them have a chance to be reelected. ** **

But the President is whistling in the dark.

The people will repudiate his dirty Vietnam war in the November congressional elections if the peace forces move unitedly and vigorously to mobilize them.

There are two phases to this action. The first is to commit the present Members of Congress who have remained silent up to now on Vietnam, and to change the minds of those who have been lined up on the President's side. The second is to guarantee that in every congressional primary and in November there will be a peace candidate.

1 Italics supplied.

(From: International Affairs. No. 3 (U.S.S.R.), March 1966, pp. 21 and 22)

MORE WANTON ESCALATION

The U.S. Government has no intention of leaving the path of war. This is shown by the further expansion of aggressive U.S. operations in southeast Asia. Piratical air raids on the Democratic Republic of Vietnam have been resumed on President Johnson's orders. In early February, the Pentagon used the occasion to sum up the results of a year's bombing: the U.S. Air Force had dropped a quarter of a million tons of bombs, rockets, and napalm on peaceful towns and villages of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Needless to say, the official spokesmen of the U.S. Defense Department said nothing of the destruction, misery, and suffering the "scorched earth" tactics inflicted on the peoples of the Republic.

The military powwow in Honolulu in early February decided to intensify punitive operations against the South Vietnamese patriots and increase the number of interventionist U.S. troops. The Washington Post said, for instance, that by midsummer the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam would double to 400,000, and would then be increased to 600,000.

The military conference in Honolulu, one of the largest and, you might say, most representative during the whole period of the U.S. Government's Vietnam gamble, was shrouded in secrecy. Still the press got wind of some of the topics discussed by Johnson, McNamara, and Rusk with their generals and admirals, and the South Vietnamese puppet dictator, Air Marshal Ky. The Washington Evening Star said the generals insisted on a further extension of operations, specifically on carrying direct military operations by South Vietnamese and American troops into the territory of Laos.

The Pentagon is also expanding its military operations in southeast Asia by trying to inveigle more countries into its gamble. The South Korean puppets have undertaken to prepare another division for dispatch to Vietnam. More pressure is being brought to bear on America's allies in the military aggressive blocs but on a selective basis, because most of her partners have refused to back the U.S. policy of military gambles. More and more bases and

The basic elements for achieving these objectives are already in the making. The organization set up in Detroit by labor unionists, the one in New York, the opposition to the Vietnam war registered by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, all these indicate the possibility of mobilizing working people everywhere for peace. The disenchant

ment of the AFL-CIO with the Democratic Party, as intimated even by George Meany, opens the door for independent political action by labor for peace.

The Negro people, worst sufferers in the Vietnam war, are increasingly acting in opposition. This is indicated in the actions of most leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and of the Students NonViolent Coordinating Committee, and the organization of such groups as the Harlem Peace Committee.

The clergy have cleared the way for mobilization of tens of millions of churchgoers for peace in Vietnam through organization of the National Interreligious Conference.

All over the country, peace forces in the Democratic Party are pressing for anti-war candidates in the primaries.

The first major national opportunity to register the people's opposition to U.S. aggression in Vietnam will come in the campaign of the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) for pledges from millions of voters to cast their votes only for candidates backing a halt to the killing in Vietnam. This campaign will culminate in a national march and a Congressional Districts Peace Convention in Washington May 14.

Women Strike for Peace is conducting its own peace pledge campaign as well.

The success of this drive will demonstrate to Congress and to the White House the will of the American people for peace in Vietnam. The united effort of all peace forces will guarantee its success.

manpower reinforcements are being demanded of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand.

There is obviously great danger in the further enlargement of the nidus of war, which is already a serious threat to world peace. This has got through to sober-minded politicians in the United States and in Washington itself. Senator Morse told a recent sitting of the Senate Foreign Relation Committee that the United States is becoming the greatest threat to peace on the globe, and that by their actions in South Vietnam the Pentagon militarists have drawn America to the darkest day of her history. In another speech, Senator Morse said: "The most dangerous men in the world today are in our own Pentagon building. *** They are leading us into a massive war.'

Apart from the fact that such is now the opinion of the public in various countries of the world, many Americans are also coming to accept it. Thomas Benham, public opinion specialist, says, for example, that 46 percent of Americans believe that the Johnson administration's current foreign policy is leading to war. The escalation in Vietnam is a source of growing alarm among the American people, Benham said; slowly, but surely, the President's popularity is waning.

The White House and the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party are highly worried by this fact. In the midterm congressional elections this autumn, the Republicans will surely play up the failures of Johnson's policy, chiefly in Vietnam, and will make use of the mounting protest movement of the American people against the criminal colonial war which the present U.S. administration is waging. will the Republican politicians fail to capitalize on the historical fact that America has usually started or entered into wars under Democratic administrations.

Nor

Accordingly, the White House has tried to win over public opinion at home and abroad. In January, it launched a loud "search for peace" propaganda campaign or, as it was called, President Johnson's "peace offensive." It was organized on a purely American scale. Six special White House emissaries, including the well-known Averell Harriman, traveled to the capitals of 34 countries. The President sent personal messages to many other heads of state. These socalled "doves of peace" were an at

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