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63. The war in Vietnam has seriously complicated the
 positions of the ruling circles of the United States and of
 President Johnson personally within the country and abroad.
 Economic difficulties, caused by a war which is already
 costing Americans 30 billion dollars a year, are imminent.
 The gold reserve of the United States has diminished to a
 critical level. The Johnson Administration is attempting
 to transfer its economic burdens to the shoulders of its
 allies. The financial crisis which is developing at the
 present time in the capitalist world, the currency devaluation
 in a number of countries and the threatened position
 in which the American dollar has found itself - all
 this is connected in large degree with the consequences of
 the American war in Vietnam.

64. The governments not only of such neutral countries
 as Sweden and Finland, but also those of Italy,
 Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, i. e., countries allied
 with the United States in NATO, came out with an appeal
 to terminate the bombing of the Democratic Republic of
 Vietnam. The Government of France declared frankly that
 American troops should leave Vietnam. Only the governments
 of West Germany and Britain, perhaps, come out with
 definite support for the American line in Vietnam at
 present, while the Government of Japan renders practical
 assistance. But this evokes growing opposition from the
 popular masses of these countries.

65. All of this has created a quite unfavorable situation
 for Johnson on the eve of the presidential election
 and has forced him to maneuver in an attempt to get out of
 the dead end that has been created.

66. President Johnson's address on American television
 on the evening of 31 March was such a maneuver -
 and it must be said, a shrewdly calculated maneuver. In
 his talk, the President, as is known, announced in dramatic
 form that as of that date he had ordered the Air Force and
 naval vessels of the United States "to cease bombing North
 Vietnam, with the exception of the region north of the
 demilitarized zone", where troops of the Vietnamese patriots
 "pose an immediate threat" to the positions of American
 troops. The region included in the bombing pause, according
 to Johnson, comprises almost 90 percent of the
 population of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the
 greater part of its territory.

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