Jewish Congress President Deplores U.S. Bombing of Civilians in Hanoi

American air attacks on North Vietnam and the “inevitable slaughter of innocent civilians” must be halted, if the Administration seriously intends its offers of peace, the president of the American Jewish Congress declared today.

In a telegram to the White House, Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld referred to the eyewitness reports now being published from Hanoi by Harrison Salisbury of The New York Times and to “the reluctant admission by the Pentagon that civilian centers have indeed been hit by U.S. bombers,” and said:

“The dream of the Hebrew prophets was of eternal peace, of a world in which men would turn their swords into plowshares, and nations would not learn war anymore. The ethical demands of our Jewish heritage compel us to call yet again for a halt to the bombings. Only then will it be possible to move toward that peace conference which morality and sanity clearly demands.”

Declaring that “the inevitable slaughter of innocent civilians as a result of American bombing raids over North Vietnam is now verified,” the AJCongress president stated: “The conscience of the American people must make itself heard as American bombers invade a foreign state, as American policy earns universal condemnation, as more American and Vietnamese lives are sacrificed daily and as the peace and survival of mankind itself grow increasingly imperiled.”