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A QUAKER ACTION GROUP 20 South 12th Street Philadelphia, Penna. 19107

NON-VIOLENT PROGRAM TO STOP NAPALM PRODUCTION
Submitted, by the Stop Napalm Production Sub-committee  January 7, 196?
You sit down to write a nice, dispassionate report on what napalm is. The paper is there, the pencils, all the facts you need to demonstrate the horror of this weapon,,
"It comes pre-mixed and packaged in thin-skinned aluminium tankso There are three sizes of which the largest, a tank of 120 gallons weighing 800 pounds, and ten feet long and about three feet in diameter at its thickest point is most frequently used0
e.oabout 1,500 tons of napalm are dropped in ail average month in South VietnamD * o
Unlike conventional bombs most tanks of napalm are not provided with fins. Instead of spinning-, they tumble, spreading the flaming fuel over an area in open country of about 1^0 feet along the path of the plane and about fifty feet wide„" (Mew York Times, Dec-10, 1967)
It's an easy bomb to make; one part benzine, one part gasoline, two parts polysty~ rene, mix it up and put it in a can with a firecracker at one end to ignite the stuff in the can. Drop it from a plane„ On people„
"Napalm's fatal effects come not only-from burns. Suffocation can be caused by.the sudden exhaustion of oxygen, and heat up to 2,000 degrees can claim victims not touched by the jellyc" (New York Post, Aug, 26, 1966)
"In every surgical facility we visited in I corps we saw napalm burns identified as such by the physician in attendanceo We were also told by more than one MILPHAP physician that most napalm burn victims die before they
-'	-" reach the hospitals" (Dr0 Herbert Needleman, in testimony
before the Subcommittee on Refugees, Octc 9,  1967)
"There were sometimes two in a bed; now and then, three. They were peasants of all ages, badly battered*.0'Those you see here are those who were able to come' a Vietnamese hospital doctor told ne„ 'For everyone who can reach a town, there are ten who die in the village or the fields or wherever they arc struck,, This is true cbove all of the badly burned'.." (Le Monde, March 12, 1966)
So you stare at these nice, dispassionate facts that are going to go in your nice, dispassionate report and you keep picking up the pencil to write but you can't. You smoke a lot of cigarettes and get up from your chair and wander around the room and sit down again and then do it all over0 You shuffle clippings and reports. But you can't write because you hurt too much* Your mind is kind of numb and you think that crying might help but your hurt is beyond tears. There's an empty ache that runs from gullet to crotch„
There's a meeting tomorrow that's going to decide on action. What the hell kind of action can meet the sickness that creates the horror of napalm and all the rest of the things in the militarist's attache case? So you read the outline of the proposed

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STOP NAPALM
action and say "Maybe, just maybe." And you sort out some quotes and start writing. But the hurt stays, and the anger grows. It becomes a very personal thing. In your mind you divide up the action program into talk, walk and act. You will talk and walk but you know what you really have to do is act. People are being murdered and you're walking around enjoying the same air as the murderers. Jail isapretty cheap price to pay for concern. A peasant in Viet Nam got killed this very second for his concern0
What about napalm? Why direct an action against its production and use? T"hy not simply continue to attack the whole war system? Vie want an action against napalm because napalm is a good focus. In our jaded and brutal society it takes a lot of gore to move Joe citizen off his ass to concern. Bullets kill people just as dead as napalm,, It isn't as grizzly. High explosives blow off an arm just as effectively as napalm burns it off. But it doesn't leave a scarred and charred stump. Bomb fragments wound just as horribly as napalm. But they don't cover the body with reddish, shrivelled scar tissue. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese moved to"relocation camps." (called "concentration camps" when the Germans "relocated" the Poles and the Jews) after all their possessions had been destroyed is just as effective as burning the village with napalm, while the people are still in it. But it's hard for government P.R. men to say that the villagers were incinerated for their own good. Yes, napalm is a good focus.
However, we need to have a more specific focus; a manufacturer of napalm. The U0S, Army lists about ten primary and secondary suppliers of "Napalm B": the type used on peasants in Viet Nam. The New York Times (Dec. 11, 1967) states that Dow Chemical is the only supplier of "Napalm-B". 1-hile this doesn't agree with our research it does coincide with indications that Dow is the major supplier of napalm0 Because of this Dow has been the target of demonstrations on campuses and a so-far ineffective boycott of saran wrap, another Dow product. We believe our action should also be directed against ""ow.
Dow is already smarting public-relations-wise from its production of napalm. "Napalm Protests 1'orry Dow, Though Company Is Unhurt" ran a headline in the New York Times, (Dec 11, 1967)o Our action is aimed at making Dow hurt. Before launching our activity the sub-committee plans a full sca.il.? rpsf?arch prnjqft into Dow Chemicals. We vrant to know where the weakest point is in Dow's corporate structure. V7e want to know where Dow's weakest consumer product is so that an effective boycott can be mounted. Vrhile it takes only one. ninth as much labor to produce a dollar of profit from napalm as it does to produce a dollar of profit from other Dow products - making napalm a high profit item - it represents only one half of one percent {0*5%)  of the company's total sales and earnings. Dow is not about to sacrifice its corporate image ("Dow makes Saran lirap and Burned Babies") for one half of one percent. It is not about to sacrifice the best chemical brains on campuses because those brains won't work for a company manufacturing napalm. And, if we can mount an effective boycott against a eak Dow consumer product, they will not sacrifice 1%  of their profits to keep 0.5#« In spite of Dow's campaign to show napalm manufacturing is their "patriotic duty" they will stop the minute they think it costs them money, Dow is' run by capitalists and for once we can use capitalist greed to an advantage.
People will not buy things from "bad" companies. Corporations have public relations men because they want to be a "good" company. Our civil disobedience will be directed at Dow to show the public that Dow is a "bad" company. Groups of people will say "Dow must put me in jail if they want to continue the production of napalm." Others (including this writer) will say "You must put me in jail one time, then twice, five times, ten times, a hundred times. In fact you'll have to keep me in jail indefinitely

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if you want to manufacture your horror weapons." 1'Jei think the outlined program for action will drive Dow out of the napalm business. At least the program will educate . more people to the horrors of war.
llhat have we accomplished if we drive Dovj out of the napalm business? He've shown the rock and bottle throwers that dignified non-violent action works, while their way accomplished nothing. Ue've given'the Movement a victory which it badly needs. But most important we've inconvienced the government and shown them that we can get corporations out of war manufacturing. i:e've set a precedent by breaking a corporate giant and the next company will fall a little easier because it will be less concerned with saving face. You have to work on the militarist beast from the outer edges. Stop the draft and you cut off the beast's arms. Stop the merchants of death and you cut out the beast's guts.
This project is going to take time. Lots of it. It's going to take money. Lot's of it. It must be well planned and carefully thought out. The sub-committee has committed itself to a long term project. The foundation will be built through careful research. The framework constructed through extensive nationwide contact of individuals. Then dates can be set and action begun. This project has too much potential to be ruined by inadequate preparation. This project has too much potential to be ruined by jumping into it without sufficient ground work. This project must not be destroyed by making it a    weak  effort by people who lack the dedication to see it succeed.
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"Dovj accepted this contract (for napalm) because we feel that simple good citizenship requires that we supply our government and our military with those goods they need when we have the technology and capability and have been chosen by the government as --..-& supplier,," (Dow Chemicals Co. statement, Aug. 3, 1966)
A man was arrested in Argentina by the Jews. They took him to Israel, put him in a glass booth in a court room and charged him with murdering, directly or indirectly, six million Jews. His defense was that he had only follovred orders and done what his government wanted. The Jews didn't think that was a good enough reason for six million murders so they hanged him.