Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International on U.S. actions in Vietnam 21/2/1965

[p006] STATEMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL ON U.S. ACTIONS IN VIETNAM ‘HE International Com- mittee of the Fourth International condemns the large-scale bombing attacks in North Vietnam by the U.S, imperialists in early February, 1965. These actions are counter- revolutionary reprisals against the rapidly approaching com- plete victory of the revolution in South Vietnam. The International Committee is in complete solidarity with the workers and peasants in Vietnam and the Viet Cong (liberation army) in their revolution against the corrupt capitalist regime in Saigon and its imperialist sup- porters. The interests of the working people in South-east Asia cannot be realised until the last vestige of imperialist intervention is removed. The International Committee calis for the unrelenting support of the workers of all countries for the liberation army and for the actions of the Vietnamese workers, whose aim is to expel the American forces from South Vietnam and all imperialist forces from South-east Asia. In this struggle for national liberation, the workers will find the road to their own power in these countries. Their struggles are part of the world socialist revolution. The successful conclusion of the civil war in South Vietnam will complete the revolutionary victory at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, That victory demolished French im- perialist rule over Indo-China, but the victory was cynically betrayed by the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Geneva Agreement of July 1954 which partitioned Vietnam. The pretext for this ‘compromise’ was that only this type of settlement could avoid nuclear war in the atomic age. Subsequently the Geneva pro- visions for ‘free elections’ and national unification have been ignored by the South Vietnamese dictatorship which has received the support of U.S. imperialism: the American forces in Vietnam are now 24,000 troops, together with a large naval and air striking force. Meanwhile, the British Con- servative and Labour governments alike have built up imperialist forces in Malaysia. Even this, however, has failed to prevent the present situation, where Saigon governments fall every few days and the Viet Cong controls 80 per cent of South Vietnam. The counter-revolutionary re- prisals of the Pentagon aim to intimidate the peoples of South- east Asia and particularly the workers and peasants of Vietnam and of the Chinese Peoples’ Republic. Threatening ‘escalation’ into a world nuclear conflict, Johnson and the U.S. ruling class hope to ensure the collaboration of Mos- cow and even Peking for a sell-out in Vietnam, to save whatever can be saved for imperialism. The workers of the world and the people of Vietnam can have no confidence in any wing of the Stalinist bureaucracy. There must be no settlement through secret diplomacy. The revolution in Vietnam will be victorious through the struggles of the Vietnamese workers and peasants backed by the solidarity actions of workers all over the world. Those ‘socialists’ who demand recall of the Geneva Conference or ‘new diplomatic initiatives’, particularly the Communist parties of Western Europe and the left wing of the British Labour Party, are advocating a new sell-out like Geneva in 1954. The present situation and its

[p007] INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL 3 dangers, the large-scale blood- letting over the last 11 years, are the results precisely of the sub- servience of these opportunists to imperialism and to the Stalinist bureaucracy in 1954, Now, as then, there is no way out except through the internsa- tional working-class struggle. In every country and particularly in Britain and the USA, the workers must demand: HANDS OFF THE VIETNAM REVOLUTION! WITHDRAW ALL U.S. AND BRITISH TROOPS, WARSHIPS AND MILITARY AIRCRAFT FROM SOUTH-EAST ASIA IMMEDIATELY! STOP THE BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM! END THE BRITISH LABOUR GOVERNMENT'S SUPPORT FOR U.S. IMPERIALISM! NO SECRET DIPLOMACY! ALL SUPPORT TO THE REVOLUTION IN SOUTH VIETNAM! 21/2/1965