What you all forget was that at the time of the Nigerian Civil War, the US was in the throes of the Vietnam War, which started at a low level in November 1955 under Dwight Eisenhower and did not end until the fall of Saigon in April 1975 under Gerald Ford - twenty whole years. Biafra was only two-and-half years - from July 1967 to January 1970.
So the US was not fully in a position to talk about compromises or teaching anybody any lesson when it came to ending a devastating war.
First some dates and dramatis personnae in the US:
1. January 20, 1953 - January 20, 1961: President - Dwight Eisenhower; Vice-President: Richard Nixon (Republicans)
2. January 20 1961 - November 22, 1963: President - John F. Kennedy, Vice-President: Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrats)
3. November 22, 1963 - January 20, 1969: President - Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice-President: Hubert Humphrey (from Jan. 20, 1965) (Democrats)
4. January 20, 1969 - August 8, 1974: President: Richard Nixon, Vice-President: Spiro Agnew (till October 10, 1973), then Gerald Ford (from December 6, 1973) (Republicans)
5. August 9, 1974 - January 20, 1977: President: Gerald Ford, Vice-President: Nelson Rockefeller (from December 19, 1974) (Republicans)
This means that the Nigerian Civil War started during the period of Democrat Lyndon Johnson - who had escalated the Vietnam War that started in Nixon's Vice-Presidency 14 years earlier; that much of what National Security Adviser Kissinger (from January 20, 1969 to November 3, 1975) was writing to President Nixon in May 1969 was as a NEW ADMINISTRATION (gleaning intelligence information from papers inherited from the immediate past regime (and not their own intelligence)).
The US also had its share of atrocities in that Vietnam War, and knew about bad things that happen in wars, and that if wars were so easy to end or so clinical, it could have shown the way. In March 1968 - during the first trimester of our Civil War - the My Lai incident was occurring in Vietnam:
QUOTE
My Lai incident (mē lĪ) [key], in the Vietnam War, a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers. On Mar. 16, 1968, a unit of the U.S. army Americal division, led by Lt. William L. Calley, invaded the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai (more correctly, Son My), an alleged Viet Cong stronghold. In the course of combat operations, unarmed civilians, including women and children, were shot to death (the final army estimate for the number killed was 347). The incident remained unknown to the American public until the autumn of 1969, when a series of letters by a former soldier to government officials forced the army to take action. Several soldiers and veterans were charged with murder, and a number of officers were accused of dereliction of duty for covering up the incident. Special investigations by the U.S. army and the House of Representatives concluded that a massacre had in fact taken place. Of the many soldiers originally charged, only five were court-martialed, and one, Lt. Calley, convicted. On Mar. 29, 1971, he was found guilty of the premeditated murder of at least twenty-two Vietnamese civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was later reduced to 10 years, and in Sept., 1974, a federal district court overturned the conviction and Calley was released. The My Lai incident aroused widespread controversy and contributed to growing disillusionment in the United States with the Vietnam War. The U.S. army formally released a report on its investigation of the incident in Nov., 1974. In 1998 three U.S. soldiers saved Vietnamese civilians during the massacre were honored with the Soldier's Medal.
Read more: My Lai incident — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/my-lai-incident.html#ixzz2AWIFdQxs
Read more: My Lai incident — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/my-lai-incident.html#ixzz2AWIFdQxs
UNQUOTE
During the period when peace talks were being mooted or engaged in in NIgeria, the US too was engaging in its own talks:
QUOTE
On 10 May 1968, despite low expectations, peace talks began between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. The Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, was running against Republican former vice president Richard Nixon.
As historian Robert Dallek writes, "Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps... cost 30,000 American lives by the time he left office, (and) destroyed Johnson's presidency..."[204] His refusal to send more U.S. troops to Vietnam was seen as Johnson's admission that the war was lost.[205] It can be seen that the refusal was a tacit admission that the war could not be won by escalation, at least not at a cost acceptable to the American people.[205] As Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara noted, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead
UNQUOTE
There were therefore parallels of illusion of victory in the US over VIetnam and same illusions in Biafra over Nigeria.
Now, you know - from the US use of nuclear weapons in Japan (ending the Second World War) that nuclear bombs kill both soldiers and civilians. Here is what Nixon did in 1969:
QUOTE
On 10 October 1969, Nixon ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons to race to the border of Soviet airspace to convince the Soviet Union that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam War.
UNQUOTE
But even this October 1969 "anything to end the Vietnam war" move was after massive SECRET BOMBINGS of the rural countryside (in "Operation Menu") by Nixon from March 1969 (three months after he became president) till May 1970 (five months after the fall of Biafra). Apparently the carpet bombings had started during the Johnson era:
QUOTE
Operation Menu was the codename of a covert United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia and Laos from 18 March 1969 until 26 May 1970, during the Vietnam War. The targets of these attacks were sanctuaries and Base Areas of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and forces of the Viet Cong, which utilized them for resupply, training, and resting between campaigns across the border in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The effects of the bombing campaign are disputed by historians.
An official United States Air Force record of US bombing activity over Indochina from 1964 to 1973 was declassified by US president Bill Clinton in 2000. The report gives details of the extent of the bombing of Cambodia, as well as of Laos and Vietnam. According to the data, the Air Force began bombing the rural regions of Cambodia along its South Vietnam border in 1965 under the Johnson administration. This was four years earlier than previously believed. The Menu bombings were an escalation of these air attacks. Nixon authorized the use of long-range B-52 bombers to carpet bomb the region.
UNQUOTE
Finally, if President Nixon could be writing to Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk "in April 1969 assuring him that the United States respected "the sovereignty, neutrality and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Cambodia."", what else could he have been doing to NIgeria's General Gowon?
My whole point, Daniel Elombah, is that during this material time that you are quoting the US on with respect to the Civil War in Nigeria, it was having its own serious internal conflicts at home as well as external ones abroad over its own Vietnam War, and it was not in a big moral advantage to dictate or pontificate over Nigeria. It had no such magic wand.
I have also shown elsewhere that the Union side of the US during its own Civil War was far less charitable to the rebellious Confederates than the Nigerian side was towards Biafra - see the the Fourteenth Amendment as it related to the Confederacy and its officials and currency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
On Sat, Oct 27, 2012 at 10:38 AM, elombah daniel <elsdaniel@yahoo.com> wrote:
--"He forgets that the war was LESS THAN HALF WAY THROUGH then - it started July 1967, ended January 1970, and Awo's observation was mid-1968 - and that, post-Awo's observation, an encircled and dwindling-area Biafra facing imminent defeat had the options, particularly by end of 1968/mid-1969,"- Professor Bolaji AlukoYou forget one thing, which is that around this time, the war is in a STALEMATE! Kissinger told Nixon that the war continued to be a stalemate; British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's visit to Nigeria had produced no changes, as anticipated; diplomatic initiatives by Ivory Coast President Houphouet-Boigny and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had been unsuccessful; and Special Coordinator Clyde Ferguson's efforts had yielded no results but had satisfied Congressional critics and public lobbies at home.Nixon wrote the following note on page one: "Sunday, I have decided that our policy supporting the Feds is wrong. They can't make it. Let's begin to get State off this kick."Frustrated by Gowon's blocking of relief efforts.Again in May 15, 1969, In a status report on the war, Kissinger told the President that the fighting and diplomacy were stalemated. Biafra could win only through political exhaustion on the Federal side. U.S. policy was being carried out, i.e., political non-involvement and basic neutrality.In a conversation with his Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger, On July 18, 1969, President Nixon indicated a shift in control of Nigerian policy from the Department of State to the National Security Council. Nixon said that the United States had to use everything it had to end the war; support for the Nigerian Government should stop, British Prime Minister Wilson should cease his assistance, and French President Pompidou should increase Biafran support.Had this verbal threat been carried out, the direction and evntual result of the way could have been altered. But Eventually, Nixon lacked the political will to carry out his threat. As Kissinger wrote: Nixon was persuaded and "reluctantly agreed", that ONE NIGERIA is on America's wrong term interest.So for those that believed Ojukwu misled a people unprepared for the war of survival, they were simply wrong....what did Biafra in was Britrain, USSR and Starvation.....QEDSee this MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT, FROM: Henry A. KissingerSUBJECT: Status Report on the Nigerian Civil WarThere may be some break in the dull stalemate that has hung over the Nigerian war since the NSC considered the problem in mid-February. It is still too early to draw any conclusions, but I thought it would be useful to pull together a picture of where various developments -- military, diplomatic, and our own relief policy -- now stand.The Federal Offensive
.
The Federals have been trying for more than a year to mount a "final'" push to overrun the 70 x 40-mile Biafran enclave. They have been stymied by their own inefficiency and dogged Biafran resistance fueled by the French arms supply. But the political pressures and frustration have been building steadily inside the Federal coalition. General Gowon and his colleagues are clearly afraid (and justifiably so) that if Biafra survives to celebrate its second anniversary of independence on May 31st, it will be a major diplomatic and moral victory for the rebels.Operating on that timetable, the Federal First Division apparently launched a major attack last week from the north side of the Biafran perimeter (our latest intelligence map is attached). They seem to be striking directly for Biafra's capital of Umuahia, though a secondary target would be the airstrip 20 miles to the west of the capital where Biafran arms and food come in by night airlift. There are few hard facts so far on the progress of the offensive. First reports had the Federals moving against. very heavy resistance to within 12 miles of the Biafran capital. Federal 105 Howitzers could have been within range of the capital over the weekend. Destruction or capture of Umuahia would be a major Federal victory and a serious blow to Biafran morale.Today, though, there are Biafran claims that the Federals are being pushed back. Judging from the slim evidence we have, our intelligence people now think the Federal offensive has been stalled.There are just too many imponderables here to predict the outcome For example: (1) Federals have taken much of this ground before only tobe repelled or outflanked by the Biafrans; (2) Biafra is still getting enough arms, by air - ab out 100 tons a week -- to support a credible defense against the larger Federal force; (3) the other two Federal divisions on the line -- in the west and south -- have not been able to move, yet their breakthrough is probably essential to make possible a sustained advance by the attacking division in the north; (4) finally, even if the Biafran capital should fall, the rebels would have their forces largely intact and could regroup to a new defense line.On paper, in sheer numbers and materiel, the Federal offensive ought to be successful. As throughout this bitter little war, however, the issues will probably be decided by factors of Biafran morale and ingenuity that no military manual could measure. In sum, this latest Federal offensive might alter the fighting line, but the odds are still against a quick end to the war and sufferingSource: Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume E-5, Documents on Africa, 1969-1972Daniel Elombah+44-7435469430Every Nigerian that has something important to say, says it on www.elombah.com
Is it ok for the JTF to kill innocent civilians in pursuit of Boko Haram?Is anything that can be done to end Boko Haram acceptable, even if that anything includes the death of hundreds of innocent civilians?Is it ok to starve 2 million Biafran kids to death since the starvation policy will hasten the end of the civil war....Asks Joe Atueyi
From: Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
To: OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com
Cc: "naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>; "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianid@yahoogroups.com>; Joe Attueyi <topcrestt@yahoo.com>; naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2012 2:25 PM
Subject: [Naijaintellects] Re: Owning evil - The 1983 Interview - Another quotable quote
--Dear All:So Pastor Joe Attueyi, living and thriving in Lagos all of this while, who (according to him) used to LOVE Awolowo (apparently out of abject ignorance), now HATES him because he has just now read on the Internet (a week or two ago) a 1983 interview in which Awo owned up to seeing children with kwashiokor at the war front in June/July 1968 and, learning that food meant for them was being diverted to soldiers, made him support the blockade in order to stop feeding the soldiers, and thereby shorten the war?Welcome to the warped logic of that position of Joe Attueyi and his ilk.He forgets that the war was LESS THAN HALF WAY THROUGH then - it started July 1967, ended January 1970, and Awo's observation was mid-1968 - and that, post-Awo's observation, an encircled and dwindling-area Biafra facing imminent defeat had the options, particularly by end of 1968/mid-1969, of:- agreeing to internationally-supervised land corridor for food; or- surrender;but did neither until the situation became un-tenable - whereupon it quickly did the latter in January 1970.Ozoemena indeed, with all its attendant double entendre, echoing the JDL's "Never again!" ! K'a ma ri iru e mo! Ki Olorun ma je! [Amin.]And there you have it.Bolaji AlukoOn Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 1:26 AM, Ayo Ojutalayo <ayoojutalayo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Peter Opara expects Awolowo to have been more concerned about biafran children than Ojukwu and other biafran leadership? Even the Red Cross, United Nations and the United States of America concluded that if biafran leadership would rather use its starving populace for propaganda instead of allowing delivery of relief materials (food and medicine), then the world could as well let biafran leadership have its way. Henry Kissinger said the starving populace could not be force-fed!!! And for this, every country and institution in the world has ignored the so called genocide since and after the civil war.Ayo OjutalayoFrom: peter opara <ogbuonyeiro@yahoo.com>
To: naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com; naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com; nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com; talkhard@yahoogroups.com; yanarewa@yahoogroups.com; raayiriga@yahoogroups.com; igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com; anambra-worldforum@yahoogroups.com; omoodua@yahoogroups.com; NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com; igboworldforum@yahoo.com; imostatecongress@yahoogroups.com; ogbuonyeiro@yahoo.com; Vin Otuonye <vincentotuonye@msn.com>; Vincent Modebelu <vin_modebelu@yahoo.com>; wharfsnake@yahoo.com; Joe Attueyi <topcrestt@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2012 7:45 PM
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] Owning evil - The 1983 Interview - Another quotable quote
A man goes to a war zone. He sees a child, helpless and skin stripped to the bone, with deep-set eyes from hunger and Kwashiokor. He does not order food or milk for the child; he does not order that this child be quickly fed, he shudders at the vision of this hunger-mangled child. But rather than feed the child he orders that no single grain of food be sent thence because soldiers are taking much of th food crossing the border. "This child will suffer and die certainly," he says to himself, "but the soldiers will suffer more" and stop fighting Obi Nwakanma
Boy Joe, you can see how all of us feel. We express our pain thus, and we are said to be telling "moonlight tale". Hey! Joe. Who among those who deny our tale hereabouts can say they have been hungry for once, and had nothing to eat? That interview of Awolowo told me all I needed to know about the man. One forgot or never indeed knew this evil part of him even when I had seen him up close at Columbia University decades back. Those who worship him may go ahead. But they must know, however they slice it, the man was the re-incarnate of Satan. So base was he, so wicked, so mean, so heartless, it is unspeakable. May this good earth never see a thing like him ever again. Good things he did. Okay. Hitler can be said to have done good things too. Right?
--- On Thu, 10/25/12, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:
From: Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com>
Subject: ||NaijaObserver|| RE: [NaijaPolitics] Another quotable quote
To: naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com, naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com, nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com, nigerianid@yahoogroups.com, talkhard@yahoogroups.com, yanarewa@yahoogroups.com, raayiriga@yahoogroups.com, igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com, anambra-worldforum@yahoogroups.com, omoodua@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 5:47 PM
Joe, I hear you bro!ObiTo: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com; NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com; NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; nigerianID@yahoogroups.com; talkhard@yahoogroups.com; yanarewa@yahoogroups.com; Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com; igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com; Anambra-WorldForum@yahoogroups.com; omoodua@yahoogroups.comFrom: topcrestt@yahoo.comDate: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:28:48 -0700Subject: [NaijaPolitics] Another quotable quoteA man goes to a war zone. He sees a child, helpless and skin stripped to the bone, with deep-set eyes from hunger and Kwashiokor. He does not order food or milk for the child; he does not order that this child be quickly fed, he shudders at the vision of this hunger-mangled child. But rather than feed the child he orders that no single grain of food be sent thence because soldiers are taking much of th food crossing the border. "This child will suffer and die certainly," he says to himself, "but the soldiers will suffer more" and stop fighting Obi NwakanmaObiI grew up in Lagos and as I became politically conscious starting from circa 1978 Awo was my political hero. UPN's manifesto and the methodical way the 4 cardinal points were marshaled caught the attention of my young mind and from Lagos to Akure to Enugu till Buhari torpedoed that experiment I was an Awo supporter ---while disagreeing with some of the war policies I previously believed Awo supported. In fact over the years I have argued with some here that if they want to assign the benefit of managing the war prudently to Awo then they should also assign the opprobrium of the federal war policies like starvation to him --- all the while believing that the starvation policy was a second leg of the pogrom forced down the throat of those who had chosen to join the fight against 'Igbo domination'To read Awo's 1983 interview where he basically took ownership of the starvation policy as per your quote above is a shock I am yet to recover from. Totally unbelievable. When medical doctors, even with the benefit of hindsight , vociferously support such then clearly a guy has to move on for the sake of his own sanity.Most Igbos , at least the ones I know, have moved on. But insist we must that OZOEMENAJoe__._,_.___
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