Peace Seekers Lie

By James Mitchell

Peace campaigners are spreading deliberate lies in efforts to discredit our troops in Vietnam.

Smear tactics, using known lies, are employed by anti-Vietnam protesters in the U.S.A. Similar attempts to slander New Zealand and Australian troops may be expected in the near future.

Recent examples of the use of the "big lie" were uncovered by a hospital physician who has served nearly three years in Vietnam, Dr. E. Archer Dillard.

An article in Ramparts, a militant anti-war magazine in the U.S.A., published a photograph of a Vietnamese girl allegedly horribly burned by napalm. Dr. Dillard recognised the girl, who had been treated by him after she had fallen into a fire at a Montagnard village.

Another doctor, Dr. Ward B. Hurlburt, who had also served in Vietnam, recognised one of his own patients. The photograph of the alleged "victim of American atrocities" was actually of a Vietnamese burned by Vietcong action.

In a preface to the magazine article written by Dr. Benjamin Spock, who has not visited Vietnam, a million Vietnamese children were reported as having been burned, killed or wounded in the war, mainly by American troops.

Another picture illustrating the article showed a girl with an eye bandaged and scars under her face. The caption indicated that she had been "scorched and seared by fire." Dr. Jaskon Radge, University of Washington Hospital, recognised her as a patient of his hospital who had been injured by shrapnel.