March 1, 1979

Communist War In Asia A Breather For Us

No one should delight in the troubles of others, yet Americans can be allowed a moment of secret satisfaction over the communist squabbles in Asia.

Hypocritical denunciations of U.S. do-good policies abroad finally are exposed.  It is communists that start invasions, trample on the rights of people, take power by naked force.

For some strange reason, President Jimmy Carter pretends to see danger for the free world in the recent attack by China on Vietnam and by Russia's belligerent response:

• China might again turn loose the North Koreans on their southern countrymen.
• Russia might take over Iran or other Middle East nations to obtain gasoline for its tanks.
• Either one of the communist giants might resort to nuclear weapons in an all-out war thus "legitimatizing" their use.  Not hardly.

The North Koreans, all smiles, have returned to the truce table at Panmunjom after an absence of six years.

Russia certainly has its eyes on Iran, but confines its activities to propaganda.  Carter has let it leak that he is considering sending a task force of marines to the Indian Ocean "just in case."  Still to be determined is his (our) will to protect U.S. interests there with arms.

It is hard to imagine China, having, only a half dozen primitive atom bombs it can't deliver to target, provoking a nuclear war with powerful Russia.  And the Soviets, stung by a new Sino-American detente, would be foolish to miscalculate possible U.S. intervention triggered by nuclear bombing.

So, the communists are at each other's throats.  Who cares?

Vietnam started the current era of Asian unrest 35 years ago with the wanton murders of thousands of Christians.

Last year it wiped out a Cambodian communist regime more despicable than that of Adolph Hitler.

Red China, which operates the world's largest concentration camps, undertakes to "punish" Vietnam for the Cambodia invasion.  It was the communist Chinese, it will be remembered, who furnished arms to Vietnam with which thousands of Americans were killed trying to preserve a spark of freedom in Asia.

Russia, to support its Vietnam ally, threatens to launch war against China which helped subjugate two-thirds of the world's people to totalitarian rule.

Perhaps Liberty will be lucky enough to see the communist giants obliterate each other.  Good riddance!

At stake in the Asian conflicts is control of a continent - perhaps, ultimately, the world.

At one time India had visions of leading the largest half of the earth's peoples.  That dream faded with the civil wars after World War II that divided the country into Hindus and Pakistani Moslems.  The coup de grace, interestingly, was a 33-day punishment war of India by China.

Today, Vietnam has staked out Indo-China Japan has developed the technology and industrial capacity to dominate the Eastern world.  Soviet Russia is building a new Siberian railroad and establishing settlements there to exploit Asia's untapped minerals.  The Peoples' Republic of China is a late starter.

The present shooting, therefore, is a test of wills.  A new communist pecking order is being determined.  Who will flinch first?

For the Western nations the matter is six of one and a half-dozen of the other -- so long as Japan stands clear.

That country, feeling secure under the American nuclear umbrella, might wade in too deeply in order to rush the promising Chinese market.

If Japan gets tangled up with Russia in a shooting war in China, what should the U.S. response be?  We are committed by treaty to defend Japan, and Russia already is in the Kurile Islands, only 70 miles away.

China has a Population of nearly a billion.  Potentially this vast number of people could consume all the gross national products of the rest of the world without drawing a deep breath.  The temptation to let in on the ground floor of this trade mother lode is compelling.

The Japanese are close by and have the know-how.  They are fellow Asians.  Their economy, like ours, is faltering.  Allies are favored.  Neutralists - no matter how "evenhanded" - - are left out when the spoils of war are divided.  Conditions favor Japanese involvement.

The United States seems determined to keep a safe distance from the belligerents.  With good reason.

Russia has tempted us with a SALT II agreement for six years while communists took over large chunks of Africa and the Middle East.

Teng Hsiao-ping, deputy premier of China, painted us into a corner during his recent visit by criticizing the "Polar Bear" on every occasion and announcing boldly he would attack Vietnam.  A stunned Carter failed to dispute his guest and thereby inspired a charge of complicity.

Hereafter we must be more discreet.  In this fight we should be content to hold their coats and ward off outsiders.

Frankly, any communist disarray gives democracy a breather.  And we are due one.

Author: Lindsey Williams