Anglo-Saxons against Germany, Japan, the Arabs, the developing sector, and the rest of
the world.
1972 was the second year of Bush's UN tenure, and it was during this time that he
distinguished himself as a shameless apologist for the genocidal and vindictive Kissinger
policy of prolonging and escalating the war in Vietnam. During most of his first term,
Nixon pursued a policy he called the "Vietnamization" of the war. This meant that US
land forces were progressively withdrawn while the South Vietnamese Army was
ostensibly built up so that it could bear the battle against the Viet Cong and the North
Vietnamese regulars. This policy went into crisis in March, 1972 when the North
Vietnamese launched a twelve- division assault across the Demilitarized Zone against the
south. On May 8, 1972, Nixon announced that the full-scale bombing of the north, which
had been suspended since the spring of 1968, would be resumed with a vengeance: Nixon
ordered the bombing of Hanoi and the mining of Haiphong harbor, and the savaging of
transportation lines and military installations all over the country. This mining had
always been rejected as a tactic during the previous conduct of the war because of the
possibility that bombing and mining the harbors might hit Soviet, Chinese, and other
foreign ships, killing the crews and creating the risk of retaliation by these countries
against the US. Now, before the 1972 elections, Kissinger and Nixon were determined to
"go ape," discarding their previous limits on offensive action and risking whatever China
and the USSR might do. It was another gesture of reckless confrontation, fraught with
incalculable consequences. Later in the same year, in December, Nixon would respond to
a breakdown in the Paris talks with the Hanoi government by ordering the infamous
Christmastide B-52 attacks on the north.
It was George Bush who officially informed the international diplomatic community of
Nixon's March decisions. Bush addressed a letter to the Presidency of the UN Security
Council in which he outlined what Nixon had set into motion:
"The President directed that the entrances to the ports of North Vietnam be mined and
that the delivery of seaborne supplies to North Vietnam be prevented. These measures of
collective self-defense are hereby being reported to the United Nations Security Council
as required by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter."
Bush went on to characterize the North Vietnamese actions. He spoke of "the massive
invasion across the demilitarized zone and international boundaries by the forces of North
Vietnam and the continuing aggression" of Hanoi. He accused the north of "blatant
violation of the understandings negotiated in 1968 in connection with the cessation of the
bombing of the territory of North Vietnam." "The extent of this renewed aggression and
the manner in which it has been directed and supported demonstrate with great clarity
that North Vietnam has embarked on an all-out attempt to take over South Vietnam by
military force and to disrupt the orderly withdrawal of United States forces." Bush further
accused the north of refusing to negotiate in good faith to end the war.