Vietnam

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30982, 11 February 1966, Page 10

Vietnam

Sir, —Your Vietnam picture today, “Soldier Aids Civilian,” tells perhaps better than words the effect of our high explosives among the civilian population there, though we may presumably be reassured by the information that “injured civilians are taken to hospital by helicopter.” These Vietnamese look scared of war. Your financial page says that certain Americans are scared of peace. Your report of a “Wall Street selling wave” and “Peace Scare Retreat” seems to show who some of the enemies of peace really are. Will they be brought to the conference table? Will they be given a course in napalm, or saturation bombing? One supposes not. The need for war is, apparently, deep rooted in the American economy. Our side’s escalation of this atrocious war has been excused on the grounds that it is being fought purely for ideological and altruistic reasons. Who can excuse it as a source of profit?—Yours, etc., H. C. EVISON. February 10, 1966. [The major stock markets of the world are very sensitive to any change in the international outlook. The brief decline on Wall street on Wednesday was a minor flutter compared with the prolonged slump in October, 1962, when the American blockade of Cuba seemed likely to lead to war.—Ed., “The Press.”]