Is peace
possible
in Vietnam?

CONT'D FROM PAGE 1

Agreement which was not to their
liking, They want a new settle-
ment which would give them di-
rect or indirect control of South
Vietnam,

These leaders pointed out that
if the U.S, is allowed to get away
with this imperialistpolicyit will
shatter the whole structure for
peace in South East Asia built
at the Geneva conference and
pose a grave threat to world
peace,

“How Will it advance the cause

of world peace if one great power’

is allowed to use military force
to tear up arinternational agree-
ment arrived at by most of the
world’s leading powers at Gen-
eva? And how much will it help
the cause of world peace if this
aggression is rewarded by so-
called ‘negotiations’ which grant
this aggressor in whole or inpart
what he wants?” asked one of the
leading Vietnamese who accomp-
anied us during our stay in Hanoi,

In reply to our questions about
negotiations, Le Duan summed up
the situation as follows:

“The issue now is not whether
to negotiate or not, The question
is whether the U.S, will cease
invading our country, The ques-
tion is whether the U.S, respects
our independence, Americans
claim they want negotiations, but
their real aim is to cover up
their aggression,

“Why doesn’t the U.S. imple-
ment the Geneva Agreement? The
question of peace was settled in
the Geneva Agreement, It was
America who sabotaged the
agreement,

“The Americans refuse to re-
turn to the Geneva Agreement be-
cause they believe with their
great military strength that they
will be able to realize their aim,
But the Vietnamese people are
strong and they will overcome the
American aggressors,”

Many Vietnamese leaders with
whom I spoke made these points:

The U.S, has rapidly escalated
the war in Vietnam and built upa
large military force in order to
gain a military position of

strength, and then to seek nego-
tiations while a large U.S. occu-
pation army holds parts of South
Vietnam,

In this way they hope to gain
their objective of establishing
an American “presence’’ in South
Vietnam,

But the war is going badly for
them in South Vietnam because
they underestimated the resist-
ance of the patriotic forces of
the people, Instead, what they
have done with their large scale
military intervention is to unite
the whole people against the new
invaders and turned what was a
civil war into a national struggle
for freedom,

The U.S, cannot win this war
and they know it, Butrather than
admit failure they are seeking
to escalate the war further, to
lay waste to Vietnam in frenzied
military adventures reminiscent
of the Nazis in a desperate hope
that they will be able to somehow
turn the tide and emerge from
their criminal aggression with
some sort of victory, :

In pursuing this policy the U.S,
is running into opposition from its
own people, the world socialist
camp and world public opinion,

The Vietnamese people take a
dim view of President Johnson’s
‘*peace offensive” and offers to
hold “unconditional talks” as long
as the U.S, aggression in Viet-
nam — both North and South —
continues,

From bitter experience these
people have come to see the two
faces of President Johnson in
the Vietnam crisis, They point
out that every time the U.S, has
launched a “peace offensive” it
was accompanied by a continued
build-up of American armed for-
ces and then followed by a new
escalation of war.

One of them saidto me: “Every
time President Johnson turns one
face to the world and poses as
a man of peace, the face our
people see is the face of the
aggressor pouring in more
troops, burning, destroying and
killing — and more escalation of
the war,’’

The Vietnamese have almost

CP wires

After hearing the report of
its delegation to Vietnam, the
National Committee of the
Communist Party, meeting in
Toronto last week, sent the
following telegram to Presi-
dent Johnson of the United
States,

*fYour reckless escalation
of the war in Vietnam and wan=-
ton destruction of property
with mass murder of civilian
population, with its growing
threat of general war, en-
dangers the security of Cana-
da which is a signatory to the
Geneva Agreement and a
member of the International
| Truce Commission, National
Committee Communist Party
I of Canada assembled in Cana-

Johnson

da-wide conference calls.upon
you in the name of humanity
to stop United States military
intervention in Vietnam,

“We demand that you accept
the Geneva Agreement and that
you honour the United States
pledge to the other fourteen
participating governments
that your government would
not attempt to frustrate their
solemn joint agreement by
force of arms, Communist
Party of Canada calls upon you
to pledge compliance with the
provisions of Geneva Agree-
ment and on that basis nego-
tiate honourable peace with the
authorities who represent the
people in North andSouth Viet-
nam.” | .

Gs
os at

A scene: of the Canadian delegation holding discussions with the Central Committee of the Vietnam Workers
Party, headed by Le Duan (seated in the centre on the left).

come to the point of being able
to measure the scope of new
aggressions to come by the ex-
tent of the “peace offensives”
launched from Washington,

There is one other factor which
looms very large in the thinking
of the leaders of North Vietnam
about any future peace negotia-
tions: that is the part of the
National Liberation Front of
South Vietnam, They point out
that a peace settlement in South
Vietnam can only be meaningful
if the NLF is recognized and
takes a direct part in negotia-
tions,

The fiction spread by the U.S,
that the NLF is a tool of the
North Vietnamese or Chinese will
not help bring about peace in Viet-
nam, During our talks in Hanoi,
the Canadian delegation was very
strongly impressed by the fact
that the NLF is the only repre-
sentative body of the South Viet-
namese people,

They are the effective govern-
ment in 4/5ths of the country
and have the support of 90 per-
cent of the people of South Viet-
nam, Nobody else is able to
speak for them or agree to any
peace settlement on their behalf,

We were also impressed by the
fact that the North Vietnamese
leaders speak of the NLF as if it
were the legitimate government
of South Vietnam, Rather than
relationships of control they have
established what amounts to
inter-government relationships,

We found out that the reason for
this was that the NLF represents
many diverse and broad ele-
ments, some of whom atone time
were even opposed to the North
Vietnamese regime,.

The two governments in sep-
’ arate communiques have adopted

a common stand on the Geneva
Agreement and U.S, intervention,
They see eye to eye on the need
for the eventual and gradual uni-
fication of the country after they
have driven out the foreign in-
vader, But to repeat again: No
one will be able to negotiate for
the people of South Vietnam other

than the NLF.

Our trip to North Vietnam has"

also served to explode the myth
spread by Washington that the
North Vietnamese government is
a puppet of China and that Peking
is really running the show,

The North Vietnamese leaders
speak with gratitude about the
assistance every socialist gov-
ernment in the world has given
them, not only in terms of mili-

tary supplies but also other forms
of aid to help them build their
economy.

But one cannot hold talks with
the leaders of North Vietnam and
come away with any other im-
pression than that they are run-
ning the show; that the policy
they are pursuing was adopted by
the Vietnamese and that these
leaders guard the independence of
their country jealously,

We learned that they have even
refused certain aid from other
socialist countries which would
have involved using non-Viet-
namese personnel and decided to
forego such badly needed aid until
they could train Vietnamese to
handle the job.

There are no foreign troops in
North Vietnam, The only uni-
formed people I saw were Viet-
namese men and women except
for one European dressed in a
uniform, who my interpreter told
me was an officer withthe Polish
mission of the International Con-
trol Commission and some Al-
banian army entertainers who
were in Hanoi to stage a con-
cert marking their national day,

The conclusion with which I
came away from Vietnam was that
peace is possible — and possible
quickly — but not at the expense
of the national independence and
freedom of these people,

The Vietnamese would grasp

peace eagerly but it must be 2
‘peace which would see the ulti-
mate removal of all foreign
troops from their territory and
guarantee their independence and
territorial integrity as well as
fulfill their aspirations for na-
tional unity. This is what they
thought they had won in the Gen-
eva Agreement, |

It lies within the power of
Washington to end this war by
recognizing these rights of the
Vietnamese people which were
guaranteed them in the Geneva
Agreement by the world’s major
powers, including Canada,

The Vietnamese know it will

take world-wide support for their —

rights and massive pressure on
Washington to bring about peace
in Vietnam, That is why they
count so heavily on the con-
science of the world to stay the
hand of U.S, aggression in Viet-
nam,

The night before we left Hanoi
the Canadian delegation were the
guests of the Central Committee
of the Vietnam Workers’ Party
at a farewell dinner, Just before
we left I asked Ho Chi Minh if
he had any message he would like
to convey to the Canadian people,

“Yes,’? he said, “tell your peo-
ple that a small country of thirty
million is being attacked by the
U.S. colossus with itsarmy, navy
and air force because we cherish
our freedom,”

In Hanoi—with five heroes of the NLF.

Peeaeis AgkIaO

MALE MVOC TYA YG.

vary, 21, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE--Page.2

Kowonmnst nat

Tot

ote pend Geto eat oP OS