NOTES 75 during this period was 11.5 per cent and the highest was as high as 19 per cent.8 The vast network of American defence establishments throughout the world is thus meant to protect the rule of U S business interests over 60 per cent of the world's resources. That is, 60 per cent of the ownership of the world's resources is protected, and thereby controlled, by six per cent of the world's population. The GIA is the silent army that enforces this rule. The fiasco in the Bay of Pigs was one of its major failures. On the other hand, there have been a number of successes where it has tumbled governments unfriendly to the US, for example in the Dominican Republic in 1965. The budget of the CIA is 15 times larger than that of all the^diplomatic activity of the U S. ^" American policy thus serves a vast industrial-military complex which is primarily interested in advancing the cause of U S business interests throughout the world. This necessarily includes a perpetuation of the arms race. When we consider the facts in this light, and the manner in which events have actually developed, without clouding the issue with so-called theories, a truer picture emerges of what American national interests' are. It is totally different from that which has been portrayed for years by American ideologists and certainly in no way resembles the syndrome, domino or equilibrium theories a la Pike. In the past there have been many rapacious empires built on an exploitative system, what Roosevelt euphemistically called commerce. fiut none has had the destructive power as is at the disposal of the United States today. Yet, the small Asian country of Vietnam has not only stood up against the 'might* of this colossus but has achieved surprising successes in defeating the enemy in most strategic areas. CHITTARANJAN ALVA 1 Douglas Pike is a career Foreign Service officer with the United States Information Agency, currently assigned to Taipeh. He is familiar with the whole of South-East Asia and, apparently, his beat includes India. 2 Dougal Pike, "Vietnam : The American point of view". The Illustrated Weekly of India, Bombay, June 11, 1972. ' "Vietnam : Dead-end of American Brinkmanship/' published by the Solidarity with Vietnam Committee, Mahim, Bombay, 16, 1970, p 49. 4 Far Eastern Review,. XIX, August, 1923, pp 50-3, reprinted in Bertrand RusselPs, War Crimes in Vietnam, p 13. 5 Repiinted in Bertrand Russell, War Crimes in Vienam, p 25. 6 Bertrand, Russell, War Crimes in Vietnam, Alien and Unwin, London, 1967, pp 94-100. 7 H D Malaviya, "U.S. Economy and War", Forum, the monthly Indian newsmagazine, Bombay, July, 1972» » Ibid.