Again the anti capitalist forces were right. New Documents..

To take the US into full scale war with Vietnam in 1964 the Johnston administration claimed that the North Vietnamese military had attacked US destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf, on Aug. 4th, 1964. This was known as the Gulf of Tolkin incident. Practically all the anti Imperialist forces and the socialist movement at the time said this was a lie and never happened. It was a lie concocted by the ruling class to take the US to war. Those who said this at the time were viciously attacked and slandered. In the recently released formerly classified documents of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee we have been proven right.

This Committee has just released over 1,100 pages of previously classified Vietnam related documents. These show that senators at the time, and of course only behind closed doors, seriously doubted whether the attack ever took place. Even Johnston who was pushing the lie that it had taken place to justify his drive to step up the war said to his under secretary of state; "Hell those dumb stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish." Of course in public he was saying the North Vietnamese had attacked US ships and the US had to go to war. What incredible dishonesty.

The cowardly Senators discussed the issue but as I say only behind behind closed doors. The mass of the population could not be let into the discussion. These cowardly capitalist politicians decided not to make their doubts known. They were in favor of war also. But they also were worried about discrediting the US system and ruling class. On member of the committee, a Senator Church, spelled it out. "If we come up with proof that an attack has never occurred we will have a case that will discredit the military in the US, and discredit and quite possibly destroy the President. The big forces in this country that have most of the influence and run most of the newspapers and are orientated towards the presidency will lose no opportunity to thoroughly discredit this committee."

So millions died and are still dying, in South east asia, 58,000 Americans died in combat and many many tens of thousands more in after affects of the wars, and all on the basis of the lie of the Tonkin incident and the subservience of the capitalist politicians to the ruling class in the US, to the military industrial complex, to the corporations and to the mass privately run capitalist media. This is the way that the US runs. Think about the invasions and wars in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan. There were no weapons of mass destruction but this lie was used along with 9/11 to justify invasion which has and is resulting in hundreds of thousands dead.

Think more about these comments by the Senator Church. He enumerates the "big forces that have most of the influence..." in the country. He talks about his fear of discrediting the military. In all his assessments of the situation never does he refer to the mass of the population and what they would want if they had a say, nor does he refer to them as having any part in "most of the influence...." nor does he refer to democracy which if we remember was what the US has been supposed to be fighting for round the world.

The US is a class based society where a tiny ruling class runs the country. Only the working class majority by organizing into independent organizations, mass trade unions, a mass working peoples party, and by taking on and overthrowing capitalism and replacing it with democratic socialism can ensure that the country's policies are in the interests of all working people in the US and internationally and are decided by democratic processes not the lies of the ruling capitalist class.

Sean.