Recorded Message for Spring Mobilization [New York, 1967]

June 25, 2012 (9:21 pm) E:\CPBR\RUSSJOUR\TYPE3201\russell 32,1 060 red.wpd russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies n.s. 32 (summer 2012): 80–2 The Bertrand Russell Research Centre, McMaster U. issn 0036-01631; online 1913-8032 RECORDED MESSAGE FOR SPRING MOBILIZATION [NEW YORK, 1967] Bertrand Russell Stefan Andersson, in his review in this issue of Erik Eriksson’s book on Vietnam, cites the message that Bertrand Russell reportedly tape-recorded for the largest antiVietnam War demonstration in the United States. It took place in New York City, 15 April 1967. Russell’s tape was to have been played at the demonstration, but it was rain-shortened and the tape wasn’t presented. The whereabouts of the tape, if it is extant , are unknown. The message is of special interest for its several explicit and oblique references to the upcoming sessions of the International War Crimes Tribunal. It was not known at the time where and when they would take place, but later in April, France having failed Russell, Sweden stood Wrm in its tradition of free speech, assembly and press. The message was Wrst published in the tenth number of the New Yorkz brpf’s Foundation Bulletin (B&R C67.08). It was reprinted in Volume 2 of Bertrand Russell’s America, without the nine sentences from “We will demonstrate this” to “who insist that we identify Johnson and his policy with you the American people.” The present text is printed from the typescript, dated 7 April 1967, in the Bertrand Russell Archives (220.148669) and was compared with that in thez Foundation Bulletin. The typescript’s type is of baggage-stamp size. In extreme old age Russell commonly made his tapes from type of this size. There is no manuscript with it. Corrections are in another hand. Indeed, some of the phrasing is uncharacteristic of Russell’s prose, but his tape-recording the message must be regarded as conferring his approvalz—zjust like his extant tape-recording of “Appeal to the American Conscience” the previous year. (K.B.) I t is clear t0 all who have the will to see that the United States Government is committing genocide in Vietnam. The Secretary 0f Defence informed the Senate that approximately 4,000,000 pounds of bombs fall daily on Vietnam. The tonnage exceeds all the bombing in the PaciWc theatre during the entirety of World War Two. It exceeds the bombing in Western Europe during the same period. June 25, 2012 (9:21 pm) E:\CPBR\RUSSJOUR\TYPE3201\russell 32,1 060 red.wpd Recorded Message for Spring Mobilization 81 1 [The word “confused” was deleted here and no replacement verb inserted on the typescript. The version in the Foundation Bulletin has, as would be expected from the next sentence but one, the word “identiWed”. (Ed.)] This concentration of explosives is taking place in a relatively tiny areaz—zin a country the size of New York and Pennsylvania. The Washington Post of March 17 reported that in the month previous, the United States Air Force dropped 68,000 tons thus raising the daily total of bombardment to four and a half million pounds daily. This is four times the Korean total. Four and a half million pounds daily of bombardment in a small peasant country is terror bombing aimed at the population. Reports from North Vietnam brought by our investigators make clear that roads, bridges and railways are rarely hit. Villages, towns, hospitals, schools, churches, pagodas, tuberculosis sanatoria and leprosariaz—zthese are destroyed andz especially targeted. Fragmentation bombs, steel pellet bombs, napalm, white phosphorous and magnesium bombs are used to terrorize and massacre the peasants of North Vietnam. That is their sole purpose. For any person capable of human impulse, for any man with a shred of intellectual probity, for any with the faintest murmur of moral feelingz—zthis supreme atrocity is hateful. The cynical men who discourse in the newspapers about the extent of civilian damage as opposed to military targets are men who lack honour. They compare with Germans who argued as to the extent to which Jews polluted the Aryan race when these Germans discussed the Gas Chambers. What is our proper response...

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