VIETNAM - WHY DID WE GO ? by Avro Manhattan is the only book I know of which deliberately focuses on the Roman Catholic aspects of the war in Vietnam. Other 'mainstream' books confirm the facts presented by Mr. Manhattan's book.

VIETNAM - WHY DID WE GO ? is out of print and hard to find.

Was available from OZARK BOOKS, Box 3703 Springfield, MO 65808

Possibly available from-

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From ............... 'VIETNAM - WHY DID WE GO ?'

By Avro Manhattan ........... Published by Chick

ISBN 0-937958-19-0

pages 71-72

Cardinal Spellman, one of the ablest of the American cardinals. He was a skillful financial operator and a vigorous politician. He became one of the main inspirers of the Cold War because of his belief that Bolshevism, as incarnated in Soviet Russia, was intrinsically evil and must be contained and if possible, destroyed. He was a personal friend of Pius XII since the days when Pius was Papal Nuncio in Germany and helped the nazis form a legal government in January, 1933.

Pius XII used Spellman as the spokesman for the Vatican in America to influence politicians, businessmen, military leaders, and the Catholic lobby.

He was active in persuading the U.S. to select Diem and support him as president of South Vietnam.

He was made Vicar General of the U.S. Armed Forces and called the GI's the "Soldiers of Christ" in his frequent visits to the Vietnam war front. He was convinced that the war was a just war to save Christian civilization.

The U.S. taxpayer supported the Catholics for more than two years. In addition to pouring out millions of dollars, it sent millions of tons of food, surplus agricultural instruments, vehicles and uncountable goods of kinds, everything covered and paid for by the U.S. "Relief Program." This American never-ending abundance was distributed and therefore controlled by the "Catholic Relief Services," a branch of the Diem machinery. The government and the Catholic hierarchy worked hand in hand.

State officials consulted the Catholic priests, as to where the U.S. relief or money should go, or to whom it should he given. The result was that the Catholics got everything, whereas those who were not Catholic were lucky if they got a mean or a few cents.

Cardinal Spellman and Pope Pius XII.

Pius had always had deep affection for Cardinal Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York, whom he raised to Cardinal in February, 1946.

These two consistently promoted the Cold War, never condemning the U.S. plans to use the atom bomb, even after President Truman's declaration that "it looks like World War III is near."

Pius XII continued to support the U.S. lobby advocating "an atomic preventive war."

When in 1954 the U.S. Army planned a nuclear attack on the Vietnamese, besieging the French at Dien Bien Phu, the same Vatican supported lobby gave their approval of the proposal. During the Eisenhower Administration, when the Dulles brothers, Spellman and thus Pius XII helped formulate U.S. policies, the U.S. military considered dropping from one to six 31-kiloton bombs on the Vietnamese forces. The weapons were three times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. This scheme to use nuclear weapons against Vietnam was disclosed in declassified material in the first volume of a 17-volume official history of the Vietnam War published in 1984 by the Army's historical office. - [caption under picture of Cardinal Spellman kneeling and kissing ring of Pope Pius XII]

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