Workers World, Vol. 23, No. 9
February 25, 1981: Nothing so much underscores the dangerous foreign policy shift of the new administration as the crude, cynical, and downright provocative symbolism employed by Reagan to stir up anew the jingoism and war hysteria which was an invariable concomitant to the discredited U.S. launching of the war in Vietnam.
For instance, only yesterday Reagan took great pains to go to a ceremony at the Pentagon where a medal of honor was presented to a Vietnam War veteran. Reagan went to this ceremony not just to praise “the bravery of the American soldiers in the Vietnam War.” He went so as to once again bring up what he had so often brought up before: “The U.S. withdrew from Vietnam,” he said, “not because they [U.S. soldiers] had been defeated but because they had been denied permission to win.”
There you have it. The Vietnam War was lost because no permission was given to win. Permission to do what?
The U.S. military colossus did everything, from destroying defenseless villages, bombing everything in sight, vandalizing and wrecking the environment – everything, including near genocide. Only one thing was not done – unleashing a nuclear holocaust. (Bust, as Lady Bird Johnson said in that famous article in Heritage magazine last year, the military was pressuring Johnson to do it, which the latter presumably declined, also declining to run for president again rather than assume that responsibility.)
All this, however, could be dismissed as mere threats, except that it happened to come on the same day that the U.S. revealed that it was not merely sending more advisers, helicopters and gunships to El Salvador, but was actually proceeding with dispatching naval advisers and involving U.S. naval personnel in setting up a patrol off the Salvadoran Pacific coast. “It so happens,” explains today’s Washington Post, “that the U.S. Navy has a fleet of about 41 warships, including an aircraft carrier, around the Caribbean.”
So Admiral Zumwalt was right when, in answer to a question a few years back about why the U.S. needs aircraft carriers when they cannot be effective against a vast land power like the Soviet Union, he replied that aircraft carriers are destined for the Third World.
“These vessels and aircraft,” continues the Washington Post, “clearly could be used for some kind of blockade of Cuba, if that were planned, or to enforce some kind of U.S. threat to take action against vessels that cross a certain line off the El Salvador coast.” It is clear from this that they are contemplating not only a blockade of Cuba but also a quarantine against all other ships which dare “to cross a certain line” set by Wall Street imperialism and the military-industrial complex.
In a word, the Reaganite unbridled military chieftains are ready to declare virtually all of the Western Hemisphere off limits to any but the U.S. multinational corporations and their choice allies.
From this it should be clear that nothing is more important than to rally the broadest and widest coalition in a struggle against the emerging imperialist adventures by the Reagan administration.
The immediate and most visible target of the Pentagon is unquestionably El Salvador. By now the whole world knows this. Yet the forces that are truly capable of thwarting the plans of the military-industrial complex and the generals, admirals, and bankers at the head of it are only beginning to surface.
It is, however, a very promising beginning. New, vigorous, and serious elements in the anti-war struggle are coming forward. There are also new and more favorable objective conditions to generate a truly formidable anti-war movement.
For one thing, most of the early Vietnam War years were characterized by an upward period of capitalist economic development, when unemployment was relatively low. The full impact of the capitalist crisis, which was hidden by the stimulus to the economy of the war expenditures, did not surface until 1975, after the defeat of the U.S. war effort in Vietnam.
The Reagan administration, however, is faced with the double problem of huge unemployment and skyrocketing inflation. Neither of these problems can be solved by them. It is more than ever not only possible, but completely realistic, for the anti-war movement to become a true alliance of the working class, the oppressed people, and all other progressive elements in capitalist society which can be enlisted in the struggle against this most dangerous aspect of the capitalist system.
Significant initiatives in the struggle against the war danger are already in operation. One such initiative has clearly roused the interest and support of a wide spectrum of prominent individuals, groups and organizations. The People’s Anti-War Mobilization, whose organizing efforts have attracted the support of a very distinguished and impressive coalition of several hundred sponsors, is one of the most important signs of a resurgence of the anti-war movement. It is being invigorated daily by new supporters from among students, workers from the organized trade union movement, and others. And support is being vigorously solicited in all of the oppressed communities.
There are other efforts and initiatives. The need of the hour, however, is for a unified demonstration on an agreed-upon date, such as the one which was proposed and now is being effectively pushed for May 3 in Washington at a site which could scarcely be more appropriate – the Pentagon, and all that it symbolizes.
There can be no doubt that a great many anti-war activities are most necessary in order to promote a truly broad anti-imperialist offensive to counter the war preparations of Wall Street imperialism. Under present circumstances, when the initial forces in the struggle have only scarcely emerged, a coalescing of all the forces would have a common objective, clearly dictated by the urgent need for one great, powerful demonstration which can arouse and stimulate the potential strength of the millions of workers and oppressed people who have every reason in the world to fight against the impending danger of imperialist intervention in El Salvador.
Last updated: 11 May 2026