Word: dikes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fusillade of charges began in late June, when a North Vietnamese diplomat in Paris alleged that the U.S. was systematically bombing the dikes -"purposefully creating disaster for millions of people during the coming flood season," as Hanoi's chief negotiator in Paris, Xuan Thuy, said later. Systematic bombing of the dikes could, in fact, result in the death by drowning and famine of millions of people-as occurred in the floods of 1945. Hanoi's allegations were soon taken up by several Europeans who had recently been in North Viet Nam. Jean Thoraval, Hanoi correspondent for Agence France...
Eight-Foot Wave. Hardest hit by far was Pennsylvania, where rampaging rivers slashed through dikes, destroying factories, homes, shops and theaters. In Wilkes-Barre, thousands of volunteer dike-builders worked frantically to stem the surging Susquehanna-to no avail. When the river burst the sandbagged levee, an eight-foot wave surged through Wilkes-Barre's central business district. "My God," a volunteer wept, "we just couldn't do it." Finally, the water receded, leaving a three-inch layer of sour-smelling muck on everything it touched...
...Such a false perception was intensified by the outbreak of the Korean War and China's eventual entry into that war as MacArthur marched to the Yalu. From this point on, Washington saw Chinese-directed communism "spilling out" all over Asia, and Vietnam became merely one break in the dike...
...bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong suggest that there are no limits. Strategic options left to the U.S. government include further bombing of population centers: mining or closing by naval embargo the access to Haiphong harbor: bombing the North Vietnamese dike system causing broad destruction and the likelihood of mass starvation: invading North Vietnam: and use of tactical nuclear weapons. Nixon has said, "All of our options are open." We say: "All options except withdrawal are abhorrent...
...locals cannot afford to fix the dike, and so far they have been unable to get state or federal aid. Finally, in exasperation at bureaucracy, Jack Zuelke, the owner of a Three Forks inn with six feet of water in its basement, dispatched a telegram to the Soviet embassy in Washington: "The people of the Three Forks area, having been ignored by all state and federal agencies, do hereby appeal to the people and government of the U.S.S.R. for foreign aid to alleviate present flood conditions...