THE AMERICANS CAN'T STOP

The "Third Indo-China struggle against the Japanese, War' they call it in Ho proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Washington, as the looked to the United States troops of General Vo for assistance. He entered into Nguyen Giap smash negotiation with the French government with the aim of through the defences of securing autonomous status one Vietnamese town within the French Union. after another and the However, the French did not honour their agreements and shattered divisions of war broke out while comSaigon flee south in munist ministers were sitting disorder. in the government in Paris.

The French expected to be The anti-imperialist struggle able to restore their colonial of the Vietnamese peasants rule with little trouble, but and workers has a long history. it soon turned out that they There has been continuous war had found a redoubtable foe. in Vietnam since the struggle The Vietnamese masses did against the Japanese at the end not want to live under their of World War II. old colonial exploiters, disWhen the Japanese invaded credited by their humble collaVietnam in 1941 the French boration with the Japanese, colonial administration put up and their corrupt local hangersno resistance and co-operated on and accomplices. A prowith the invader. At the same longed guerrilla war began time a national front of resist- which soon pinned down a ance organizations was formed substantial part of the French under the leadership of Ho Chi army and killed off officers Minh, leader of the Com- faster than they could be munist Party, called the Viet turned out by the prestigious Minh. officer school of St Cyr. After. carrying on a guerrilla The Democratic Republic of Vietnam built up a highlytrained army with a strong morale. It was able to defeat the French army, despite its modern American-supplied weapons, in one battle after another. The final blow came with the collapse of the French garrison of Dien Bien Phu in one of the most decisive battles since World War II.

By this time the American Administration had become seriously concerned about the situation in South East Asia following the victory of the Chinese Revolution in 1949 and the Korean War. Eisenhower offered to intervene with massive force before the French defeat. The use of atomic weapons was considered.

The war against the French was formally brought to an end by the Geneva Agreement of 1954 which temporarily divided the country at the 17th parallel into North and South Vietnam. Free elections were to be held by June 1956. These were never held and meanwhile, with the support of the US, the old ruling class consolidated its position in the sóuth, of which Saigon was the capital.

The former Emperor Bao Dai was deposed and a puppet government set up under Ngo Dinh Diem. By this time the USA had superseded France as the dominant power in IndoChina. Diem's army was equipped and . trained by the Americans while the Central Intelligence Agency organized sabotage in the North. A large part of the south was effectively under the control of the National Liberation Front set up in 1960 and backed by the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam. Supported by peasants and workers, guerrilla units established firm bases in the countryside.

In an effort to stop the whole of Vietnam 'going communist, the American commitment to Saigon steadily grew. Under President J. F. Kennedy the number of miliwould not have lasted six weeks.

Finally the State Department decided to kick out the corrupt and hated Diem in November 1963 before his regime was swept away by a popular uprising. Before long a military junta had taken over.

American troops and their puppets, were increasing their commando-type raids and infiltration of North Vietnam during the first part of 1964. When an attack was made on US ships operating on the Gulf of Tonkin in connection with these operations, President Johnson ordered massive air strikes on well-selected targets in the north.

When these raids failed to bring about the capitulation enemy.

With an enormous array of military force, the US tried to crush a revolution which had its roots in the peasants and workers fighting for their basic rights against imperialism and its local agents. Despite the most barbarous weapons and a weight of bombs many times greater than that dropped in World War II (3m tons by the end of 1970) it was the morale of the US forces which broke. Drug-addiction, desertion and finally open disobedience to orders showed that the GIs had no stomach for a war which seemed to have no end and no purpose. The main aim of a large part of the US army became survival. continued and in A VUIL 4 A talks began in Pari: representatives of tl States and the gover the North and the Sc Richard Nixon's p reduce American .co in Vietnam played i in his election to dency in November first outcome was reduction in the n US troops in Viet the policy of 'Vietna whereby a larger a share of the fighting . pril 1968. "PLA s between he United nments of outh. promise to immitment a big part the presislow lumber of tnam and amization', and larger would be their purdose. Thev could onlv have been carried forward at CARNAL the price of a further big commitment of US forces for an indefinite period.

Neither the US army, now increasingly demoralized, nor public opinion were prepared to tolerate what was required to conquer and hold all of Indo-China. There remained only the 'Vietnamization' policy as US troops continued to be withdrawn. Nixon has placea his bets, it has shown itself to be even more demoralized and lacking in fight than the GIs it has replaced. Officers in the high command who hold their posts by political influence have shown themselves not only to be incompetent, but have thought more about saving their own skins than winning At the lower levels of command, the South Vietnamese officers have proved unable to up by the United States, is now faced with defeat and revolution. Always a puppet, it is now more than ever clear that it has no independent initiative. 'Vietnamization' or not, the great decisions will have to be made in Washington where the Administration itself is clearly divided as it sees the policy ol the last four years tall into ruin.

US imperialism, threatened