24 MAY 1975, Page 2

Mayaguez the bloody act

The greatest power on earth found it necessary last week to launch a vicious, bloody and unprovoked attack on a small peasant community dragging itself from a war that was never of its own choosing. This attack Involved the use of the largest conventional bomb in the arsenal of the West, together with nauseous gas and an air-land-sea assault that has cost the lives of many young American marines, and without doubt dozens of Cambodian soldiers and civilians. The purpose behind this outrage was not the recovery of a small and old United States merchant vessel, since her Captain had already arranged its release. The crude plan behind this criminal attack was the work of the United States Secretary of Defence, Mr Schlesinger, and the evil brain-child of Dr Kissinger. It was not a demonstration of the might of America, that has been preserving the free world for so long, but a warning to Kim-il-Sung and the government of North Korea that a direct invasion of South Korea, or its attempted subversion from within, will not be tolerated by the United States. Cunning is said to be the dark sanctuary of incapacity, and it was this cunning — the product of Dr Kissinger's angry and impatient intellect— that President Ford allowed to guide him in this tragic affair. Congress and the United States may care to be reminded of the words of a kindly American philosopher: "No matter how noble the objectives of a Government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breathes ill will and suspicion — it is an evil Government."