The Pentagon has refused to make public an official report describing the extent of the raids and damage they caused.

On Jan. 4 the North Vietnamese government released a preliminary survey of the death and destruction in Hanoi. It stated that 40,000 tons of bombs were dropped by U.S. planes on Hanoi alone in the 10 days beginning Dec. 18; killing 1,318 people and wounding 1,261.

Social, economic, educational, and cultural establishments were bombed in 353 places, some of them as many as 10 times.

The number of homeless has not yet been announced, but a total of 5,000 houses and other buildings were destroyed in Hanoi.

The Jan. 8 Time magazine described signs of bitterness in Hanoi over the bombings: "Here and there on a wall, someone scrawled, `Nixon, you will pay this blood debt,' and `We will avenge our compatriots massacred by the Americans.'"

January 19, 1948
Seventy-nine cents of every dollar the American people will shell out for Truman's proposed 1949 budget of $39,669,000,000 (that's billions) will go for war - past, present and future. Six times more will be spent for war preparations than for human needs. Direct military expenditures alone will cost $11,025,000,000 - 28% of the total. The Social Welfare, Health and Security program will take $2,028,000,000 -one-third less in 1940.

Almost 17 times as much will be spent for developing the atom bomb ($674,000,000 under the heading "Natural resources not primarily agriculture") as for long-range public housing ($40 million).

In addition to direct military outlays, Truman proposes to spend $7,009,000,000 to bolster capitalist dictatorships and military machines in Europe, Asia and Latin America - under the heading of "international affairs" and "foreign relief." Another major war cost will be the payment of $5,250,000,000 of interest on public debt -mostly to bankers and corporations for war loans and on interest-bearing government bonds.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home