[Militant No. 136, 29 December 1972, p. 1 and 2]
By Lynn Walsh (Ardwick Labour Party)
The vast armoury of mighty American imperialism has once more been unleashed in full force upon the people of North Vietnam. 600 B52 bombers have been pounding the cities. Since the war began, no less than seven million tons of bombs have been dropped on to this small country.
On the 26th October, just before the American elections, Kissinger, (Nixon’s special adviser) announced that “Peace was at hand.” Nixon did not repudiate the peace terms broadcast by Hanoi; in fact, he said that they were ‘almost agreed’. Now he has been safely returned, Nixon is again desperately trying to turn an ignominious defeat for US Imperialism into “victory’’.
While using diplomatic manoeuvres and intensified bombing to try to get further concessions from Hanoi, he is trying to place the blame on them, accusing them of changing their position and delaying peace. But he has cynically reneged on his promise of a quick peace settlement and is attempting to back-track on the terms he previously agreed to.
As the champion of Big Business he is still frantically refusing to accept the implications of inescapable defeat for the US and is making a deluded attempt to appear to be ensuring the survival of the Thieu regime and avoid the stigma of being the first American president to lead his country to a defeat.
The US bombing, which continued even during the peace talks, has now been resumed over the whole of North Vietnam, and the ports have again been mined. A recent report in the Observer Colour Supplement (17/12/72), which showed horrifying pictures of the damage, pointed out that “America has devastated Vietnam with a greater tonnage of bombs than it used against Germany and Japan in the Second World War“. A French journalist reported that:–
“Nam Dinh (the fourth largest city) was four-fifths destroyed … shops, schools, flats and most of the 300 bed hospital were flattened in repeated raids. It seemed that in the end the American pilots were intent on pulverising the ruins.” In spite of laser and TV guided bombs, civilian targets, such as hospitals, have been indiscriminately, even deliberately, bombed, together with industrial sites.
All reports testify, however, that in spite of the inevitable war weariness the people of North Vietnam continue fighting, working and reconstructing with incredible tenacity, skilful, improvisation and great heroism The North Vietnamese leadership has shown no sign of retreating under the new US onslaught.
Thieu Extremely Weak
They insist that the US should stick to the clauses of the 26th October agreement that said „the US “respects the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Vietnam“ and provided for “the re-unification of Vietnam step by step”. Hanoi want cast-iron guarantees that they will not be fooled again as they were after the 1954 Geneva Agreement when the US moved in to support the General Diem dictatorship and the permanent division of the country.
The North Vietnamese leadership’s own position would be threatened if they capitulated to the US demands, as reports of the rising of “hard liners” in the North Vietnamese Army and the NLF opposing peace negotiations and calling for a “war to the death” indicated. And given the successes of the NLF in the South, due to the fact that it bases itself on a progressive social movement for the land and national unification, and the rottenness of Thieu’s regime on the other hand, there is no reason why they should give up now.
Nixon is now apparently attempting to force the North Vietnamese to withdraw their troops from the positions he alleges they hold in the South and to recognise the “sovereignty” of Thieu’s regime in the areas he controls after the ceasefire. But despite the attempts of the US State Department and the capitalist press to prove otherwise. Thieu’s Position is obviously extremely weak.
A ceasefire, one extremely informative report said, would “open the floodgates of pent-up frustration amongst the people. Lacking the solid basis of a party and a popular following, Thieu would be ill-equipped to stem the tide’. (Times, 7/12/72). The effects of maintaining a large demoralised army and the vicious, corrupt police force, together with the withdrawal of US forces has speeded up the rampant Inflation and pushed it up to astronomical levels.
Thieu claims great military successes against the NLF. But the three main provincial capitals Thieu has defended “stand as blasted oases in a hostile desert. An Loo and Quang Tri are piles of rubble, Kontum half destroyed …“ (Observer).
Security is badly improvised in the countryside … while the bulk of the South Vietnamese army was caught up in three main battlegrounds, the local NLF cadre took advantage of the resulting gaps in the countryside to move back into many of the populated areas from which they “had been driven by the pacification programme“ (Times 7/12/72). Thieu would not last five minutes without massive US military aid, but even that cannot sustain him indefinitely, as the Guardian (18/12/72) commented. “If Nixon is determined to push the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong into his concept of a lasting and honourable peace then there will [be] no ending of the fighting.”
Nixon, however, will not be able backtrack on a peace settlement for very long, because of the repercussions in America itself. The anti-war movement lost some of its momentum because of the apparent likelihood of a rapid settlement. But it will inevitably arise again, on an even broader scale if Nixon renegues too far.
Bitter Anger
Before the election, Nixon emphatically promised „the quick return of the Prisoners of War” and any delay now will provoke bitter anger. A profound movement against continuing the war, involving the American workers is made all the more certain by the continuation of vast defence spending ($75,000 million a year) with the cutting back of even the Johnson Administration’s limited programmes to solve the burning social problems that afflict America.
Nixon has created a budget deficit of a staggering $30,000 million at the same time as a balance of payments deficit of nearly $10,000 million dollars. These figures will have serious consequences for the living standards of the American workers. Reflecting these pressures, the Democratic majority in Congress will increasingly oppose Nixon’s policies. Already Democrats are planning to attempt again in January to cut off funds for the war.
Any long-term attempts to prop up Thieu in South Vietnam, the only way the US could turn defeat into limited victory, would necessitate the re-involvement of US forces. This is now an Impossibility. Such was the demoralisation of the US troops with disgust at the war leading to open revolt in the ranks, that the US had no alternative but to withdraw them. The ruling class is already resigned to the fact that it will have to completely disband the conscript army and attempt to build an entirely new professional army out of the ruins. The recent mutiny of black seamen in the US Navy is a further symptom of the internal military crisis facing the the US.
Even the hardened indifference of the US pilots, used to pulverising Vietnam from the air, isolated on the carriers, has begun to be undermined. The experiences of returning POWs, printed in the world press will have an effect.. One Story (Sunday Times 10/12/72) indicated this “in training you expect the worst, you expect to be hit and beaten up” One pilot related, Indicating the ideas about the “fiendish enemy” on the ground that are drummed into them. But “none of this happened to me“’. He was asked if he needed anything. „That really blew my mind.“ The POWs read anti-war books and experience the bombing: “We will never forget … it is a shocking experience that everybody needs to go through to find what it Is really like.” They were obviously amazed by their treatment. “There was no hatred or animosity towards us from the people. Very few POWs who have been through this would be prepared to bomb again, and their stories will make it more difficult to find others to do it.“
Face Saving Formula
The latest breakdown In negotiations is a blow to the workers and peasants of both North and South Vietnam. It will mean more months of intense suffering, injury and death. It cannot however reverse the victory that they have already won over the the world’s mightiest imperialist power. Nixon’s desperate attempts to patch together a face saving formula to cover his retreat cannot for long delay a victory.
But It will not be a complete victory for the mass of the people. That will only be achieved when the workers and peasants throw off the bureaucratic elite who hold power today In North Vietnam and the NLF and establish democratic workers’ management of their society.
The Labour movement In Britain must extend the fullest solidarity to the struggle of the Vietnamese workers and peasants, and campaign for an immediate and total withdrawal of American Imperialism and for the victory of the Vietnamese workers and peasants.
Schreibe einen Kommentar