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Mayaguez Fraud Exposed: Excuse For Aggression

By VVAW

On October 5, the General Accounting Office (GAO), a congressional agency which does investigations into the functioning of the executive branch, released a secret report which exposes the carefully fabricated lies about the Mayaguez incident of May 12, 1975.

The Mayaguez was the name of a US container ship. Just after the US had been run out of Vietnam and Cambodia, the ship was seized by the new revolutionary Cambodian government for sailing in their territorial waters. The ship was 60 miles for mainland Cambodia but within 8 miles of some islands owned by Cambodia. The Cambodians suspected the ship of spying, not surprising considering the long history of US aggression against the people of Cambodia.

Almost immediately the US government reacted. President Ford declared the "National honor" was at stake. All the leading politicians, from Ted Kennedy to Barry Goldwater quickly forgot their "differences" on "who lost Indochina" and joined the war cries. The Navy hurried in an aircraft carrier and several destroyers to the scene and resized the ship and crew. At the same time, Marines were mobilized from Okinawa and moved to Thailand to launch an air assault invasion of the Cambodian island of Tang. And the Air Force bombed the Cambodian mainland destroying oil storage tanks, and strafing Cambodian boats, sinking several.

The whole affair was front page news worldwide. A political point was being made both to the people of the US and to the people around the world. "We may have lost in Vietnam and Cambodia," the US rulers said, "but we're still militarily strong and we won't be pushed around by anyone, anywhere." (As Barry Goldwater put it, "No half-ass nation can push us around.") It was also a big attempt by the US rulers to win back some support among the American people for their military adventures, support which had greatly eroded during the Indochina War.

At the time of the incident the US government did all it could to distort the truth and keep the facts of the incident from becoming known. Initially it was claimed that only "light casualties" were taken by the Marines in attacking the island; a couple of days later the figures were 17 killed and a total of 40 casualties. But eventually the facts became known: out of elements of two infantry companies which took part in the attack, 41 men were killed and 70 more were wounded. This means that more men were killed than the entire crew of the Mayaguez ship and that there were enough casualties so that one of the companies was completely wiped out as a combat force. But the government told us it was a "necessary sacrifice" in order to prevent "piracy" on the open seas.

This new GAO report reveals the extend our blood-soaked rulers will go in order to prop up their international political image. The report tells how the US government paid no attention to the fact that the Cambodian government had indicated its willingness to settle the question by diplomatic means and that several neutral governments were already in the process of securing the release of the ship and its crew. The report goes on to tell how the Mayaguez crew had actually been release through these diplomatic efforts hours before the Marine attack was launched, and that the crew had been spotted on their way back to the ship by Air Force pilots. Despite this information, it was decided to launch this "rescue" attempt. This left the Marines to attack the island even though top Washington officials knew the Mayaguez crew was not there, and in fact the crew itself was fired on and almost shot out of the water by the US Air Force.

All of this is even more outrageous because the information which has now come out has been known in the inner circles of government since the Mayaguez incident took place. The only reason for the facts to be made public now is the political infighting surrounding the Ford-Carter presidential debates. The day after the GAO report was released, Ford and Carter had their nationally televised debate on foreign policy.

The Mayaguez incident was not saying about the saving lives of the Mayaguez sailors--they were almost killed by our own government. The Mayaguez incident is another example of how the lives of the common GI's "don't mean nothin" to the various rulers of this country who will go to any extremes in pursuit of their imperialist interest.