Extract from the debate on Foreign Affairs: the Labour government’s position with regard to
the Vietnam War. Labour Party Annual Conference, Scarborough, Oct 4 1967
programme, his race programme, and his
The Chairman: … I now call on
domestic difficulties, yet overriding all
Cambridge C.L.P. and Hertford to
propose
and
second
these he has the problem of Vietnam and
Composite
all its perennial problems. He and he
Resolution No. 28.
35
5
Mr. G. Steele (Cambridge C.L.P.)
moved
be
following
States of America follows, and whatever
Resolution
policy he pursues he knows it will not
(Composite Resolution No. 28):
This
Conference calls
meet with the universal approval of his
upon the
Labour Government to dissociate itself
10
countrymen.
40
completely from the policy of the United
to
support
U Thant
and
and on the other side, alas too influential,
the
he has his hawks begging him to step up
overwhelming majority of the United
Nations in trying to persuade the
15
in every way the armed conflict and seek
45
Government of the U.S.A. to end the
would be any man having to work in
permanently and unconditionally.
believes
that
such close proximity with birds, of
any
settlement must be based upon the 1954
20
military victory. So all along the line he
is scratched and marked and spotted, as
bombing of North Vietnam immediately,
Conference
On one side he has his doves urging
him to end the war and sue for peace,
States Government in Vietnam and urges
it
alone must decide the policy the United
whatever feather.
50
Geneva Agreement, which required the
It is an unhappy situation which is
worrying for the President and I am sure
withdrawal of all foreign troops from
he derives a great deal of comfort and
Vietnamese soil, and the reunification of
consolation from the warm support he
Vietnam under the government chosen by
gets from allies in pursuing his policy.
the Vietnamese people.
55
25
He said: Mr. Chairman, in moving
that one such ally, namely this country,
this Resolution I should like to begin by
ceased to give one scrap more comfort or
considering the plight of the President of
consolation to President Johnson in
the United States of America. He is a
man beset by many problems. He has his
30
poverty
programme,
his
space
Mr. Chairman, I think it is high time
supporting his ill-begotten, misdirected
60
and wholly criminal policy. I hope
Conference will decide here today that
65
the Labour movement will no longer
fingers and drag my feet, and I am
associate with the United States policy in
wondering personally how long I can
Vietnam, and what comfort and support
remain in this uncomfortable posture and
and encouragement we can muster must
100
be directed instead at those growing
70
75
80
85
to hold a Labour Party card.
numbers of Americans who are urging
As for the Prime Minister's point of
the end of this bloody war. God knows,
view about denunciation, here again I
they need our support more than does the
will not concentrate on this, although it
President.
105
achieved in changing United States
to criticise the United States of America.
policy as a result of sub rosa and sotto
It is far harder and requires more courage
voce utterances behind the scenes.
to be a dissenter in the United States. I
Perhaps on this score alone we should
have no doubt that we shall be told that
110
see whether a clear, loud declaration will
such an action will have no effect and
achieve more than quiet murmurings
will be misguided. I quote the Prime
down a private hot line.
Minister on this, who said that our
I shall then pay heed to the Prime
objective is not to strike allegedly moral
Minister's remarks about moralising and
postures
or
to
make
unhelpful
115
denunciation.
I
take
comfort
from
denunciatory declarations. In deference
another remark he made. He said it is
to his view I shall not press the argument
absolutely wrong—in this context he
in moral terms, though in passing I must
meant incorrect—to suggest that the
say that no one ever told me the day
Americans pay no attention to us. If this
when the Labour Government ceased to
120
is right, as I believe it is, perhaps they
follow courses of action from a moral
will continue to listen to us, not
starting line.
denouncing,
'posture'
suggests
to
me
an
uncomfortable and awkward stance, and
not
moralising,
but
explaining to them that their policy is
doomed
125
I know this very well from going round
to
failure
because
it
is
misguided and misdirected.
A great deal of America's difficulties
defending Government policy which I
95
does seem to me that little has been
It is perhaps easiest for us here today
As for moral posturing, the word
90
at the same time have a hand still willing
in dealing with Vietnam stem because of
have been doing in Cambridge during the
this persistent and powerful body of
recent by-election. I find myself, in
opinion, which holds even today, that the
answer to questions about Vietnam,
having to hold my tongue, cross my
130
United States must pursue a war in
Vietnam as a means of combatting the
135
140
145
150
so-called menace of Communism. There
independence and national identity. We
are too many people shaping this policy
have seen the fierce and determined
in the United States who see this
action and devotion to these causes,
problem's solution as the annihilation of
170
the revolutionary forces, the obliteration
India, or indeed in the American colonies
of North Vietnam and the permanent
themselves, and we know too well that
occupation of South Vietnam, both as an
these springs cannot be dammed by force
example to other countries who may
of arms, whether the arms be muskets or
erupt in civil conflict against reactionary
175
160
165
bren guns or napalm. We have learned
regimes, and also as a staging post and
the lessons at the cost of loss of many
perhaps a launching pad from which they
English lives. Now let us teach it to the
can launch what they feel may be the
United States. After all, they were not
inevitable ultimate armed conflict with
slow in teaching us our history lesson in
China itself.
180
1956 at the time of Suez.
This view is not only desperately
I do not denounce, I do not moralise, I
dangerous to world peace, it also
will not even doubt the sincerity of the
prevents the solution of the immediate
chief figures in this master. I believe
problem, and I suggest it hampers a
President Johnson wants peace, and I
détente in other trouble spots throughout
185
the world.
155
whether in Kenya or in Ireland or in
believe Harold Wilson wants peace, but
how can we expect a response from the
At least our Government does not go
other side when President Johnson still
this far. At least it is prepared to explain
shows this ambivalent and erroneous
that Vietnam must have a political and
view of the struggle? How can he expect
not a military solution, but why do we
190
a response to offers of peace when, as he
not go further? Why do we not explain to
did in a speech lest week, he goes on to
the United States that this conflict is a
compare the United States determination
civil conflict on the part of the whole
to win in Vietnam with the determination
Vietnamese people seeking to shape their
they showed against Nazi Germany ?
own future? Surely, Mr. Chairman, no
195
Then he goes on in the same speech to
country is better able than ours, arguing
talk about totalitarian regimes not being
from our own history and our own
able to understand the nature of United
experience, to explain this to the United
States democracy. I had not realised that
States of America.
the N.L.F. was a totalitarian regime.
We have known the power of national
movement, of people's desires to seek
200
If any moral posturing is unhelpful, it
is this attitude still colouring American
205
policy which has the United States
Government departments policy is being
posing as guardians of the Faith, as if in
followed with this painstaking regard for
some holy war against the infidels.
the feelings of the White House. Had the
Home Secretary his own reasons for
L.B.J.'s supporters may see him as the
good Texan sheriff against the Red
240
forbidding North Vietnamese workers to
Badmen, but this attitude does not solve
speak
to
British
workers
here
in
the war.
Scarborough, or was this again so as not
to upset the Americans ?
Thus, one part of the argument on
210
ending our shameful association with the
215
Our support for American policy
which this motion is based is that by
245
hampers our efforts to find peace. It is
United States policy we can freely and
quite intolerable and it is anomalous. We
independently
is
press for peace, yet we send our soldiers
fallacious, but I think it will even more
and police to train the South Vietnamese.
enable the United Kingdom to play a
We press for peace, yet we permit our
explain
where
it
250
stronger part in the search for peace.
hovercraft
to
be
used
in
military
operations. The longer we support the
I do not wish to belittle the work
United
being done by the Prime Minister or his
but how much greater the chances of
the
more
tarnished
becomes our reputation and the more
colleagues. We admire these initiatives,
220
States,
suspect becomes our belief in the United
255
Nations.
success if we were seen to be acting
I see nothing to be lost by a clear
independently. I heard George Brown
at
break with United States policy. I think
Cambridge two weeks ago and I was
that the chances of peace stand to gain if
impressed by his sincerity, but how can
we dissociate from American policy.
speak
225
on
the
same
platform
his overtures abroad be received with
230
260
sincerity whilst he is constrained within
much in our present moral posture. Each
the policy limits drawn by the White
day the war escalates still further, and
House ? How much more productive
each day the world becomes more
would his efforts be if he had not to
cynical and nauseated by the lies and
choose his words with such care so as
265
hypocrisy which surround every move
and every utterance.
not to offend President Johnson and his
colleagues.
You told us in your address on
Monday
In passing, I think that Conference has
235
God knows, we do not seem to achieve
Mr.
Chairman,
that
this
Conference was Labour's shop window.
the right to know in what other
270
Let us remove this piece of soiled and
shoddy policy from our shop window,
and let us say at last to the world that the
that on Vietnam at least, we will not go
275
all the way with L.B.J. (Applause.)
British Labour movement has declared
[…]
Voting on the Resolutions followed and the results were as follows:
Composite Resolution No. 49 was carried.
In the other Resolutions card votes were taken and the results were as follows:
Card Vote No. 7. For Composite Resolution No. 28: 2,752,000. Against: 2,633,000. Composite Resolution No. 28 was
carried. (Cheers and applause from the floor.)
[…]
Report of the 66th Annual Conference of the Labour Party, Scarborough, 1967, p. 223-4 and 236-7