The Nixon Doomsday Machine

President Nixon last night brought the world to the edge of disaster. As we face the gravest crisis in a decade, we must not forget that it is the Indochinese people who continue to suffer as American planes thunder overhead and a U.S. supported government prosecutes a monstrous war. The President has told Hanoi: surrender, or else we will starve you into submission. We ask the President how much of the world he is willing to destroy in his effort to impose the American will.

In his speech last night, the President went beyond the most foolhardy policies of his predecessors. Previously, when the most exuberant military and civilian advisers recommended mining North Vietnam's harbors, the President in office always bowed to reason and refused to raise the conflict to a new and dangerous level. Nixon's desperate step proves the bankruptcy of his Vietnamization policy. We rejoice in the failure of his evil plans, but we tremble at the prospects that his mad actions foreshadow.

Will the allies of North Vietnam passively accept this new provocation? Will the Soviet Union withdraw its ships from Haiphong harbor and bow to American arrogance? Will the Chinese sit by calmly as the railroads and highways by their borders are bombed? The President has thumbed his nose at the other superpowers and dared them to respond.

For there is no doubt: the latest American tactic is a clear provocation. Nixon offered nothing new in his speech last night. He has been proposing an immediate ceasefire and a release of prisoners-of-war since October, 1970. Refusing to discuss a political settlement, he is asking the other side to give up their guns and their bargaining counters at once. He is demanding the surrender of the armed cadres of the Vietnamese liberation movement. The Vietnamese have been struggling far too long to give up now. But the President apparently is willing to destroy their country--and maybe ours as well--to make sure that their struggle fails.

"Let us not slide back toward the dark shadows of a previous age," the President pompously told Moscow last night. "We do not ask you to sacrifice your principles or your friends." Reaching a new depth in sickening self-righteousness, Nixon instructed his opponents to tuck in their tails and run. As he ran amuck, he demanded restraint.

In the face of nuclear disaster, we too pray that China and the Soviet Union will exercise restraint. But from the American people, we hope for the opposite. Critics of the President and his war policy have been too restrained for too long. As Nixon revs up the war machine and veers toward the abyss, we must place ourselves in his path. We must force the slaughter to a halt.

At this time, groups here in Boston and throughout the nation are discussing ways to voice the general outrage. Massive civil disobedience in Washington is being considered. We support it. We support all reasoned actions to reverse Nixon's drastic error and bring the war to a close. As the President surrounds North Vietnam, attempting to choke off the liberation movement, it is particularly appropriate for us to surround his buildings and strangle the American war effort.

Time is short. The mines that Nixon placed in the territorial waters of North Vietnam will activate automatically at 6 a.m. Thursday, Washington time. No one knows what will happen next.

We cannot afford to waste an hour making pointless demands of this University. We have tried that before--unsuccessfully. Instead, we must aim our force against the source of the suffering: the United States government. The varmakers in our midst are most vulnerable now, as they bear the attacks of people throughout the world.

The Nixon Administration is plainly desperate if it is willing to risk the promised glory of a Russian journey. The people of Vietnam are defeating the invader. As long as it insists on winning, the U.S. can make no exit. Like a trapped rodent gnawing at its leg, Nixon is ripping apart his hopes for diplomatic triumphs in Moscow and Peking. Now is the time to push the U.S. out of Indochina. Now is the time to spring the trap.