et ME ee Hh sa

In 30 months of power, with his
“Vietnamization of the war” aimed at
implementing the “Nixon doctrine” in
this part of the world, President Nixon
not only obstinately continued and pro-
longed the war of aggression in South
Vietnam, but also embarked on new
military adventures against the Demo-
cratic Republic of Vietnam, overtly ex-
tended the U.S. war of aggression into
Cambodia and Laos, whose undertak-
ings were accompanied by innumerable
crimes against the peoples of the three
Indochinese countries, and seriously
jeopardized peace in Southeast Asia.

I. In carrying out “Vietnamization,”
the Nixon administration prolongs the
U.S. war of aggression with countless
concomitant fresh crimes against the
South Vietnamese people.

i

1) THE SAIGON ARMY FEVERISH-
LY. BEEFED UP AND AN IMPORTANT
CONTINGENT OF U.S. TROOPS
MAINTAINED IN SOUTH VIETNAM.

Under the U.S. plan, the Saigon
junta feverishly drafted troops from 15-
year-old adolescents to 50-year-olds to
raise the strength of their army from
half a million to a million-odd men.
Besides, it reorganized the police into
an armed force with 20 men per vil-
lage, 300 per district, 3,000 per prov-
ince, and tens of thousands at the
central echelon to lay an iron grip
upon the population and repress them.
Over a million people, mostly aged,
women and children were forced into
“civil defense” units.

With a great sense of urgency, the
U.S. equipped the Saigon army with
all types of weapons and war means.
Since the beginning of the ‘‘Vietnam-
ization” program alone, it has supplied
640,000 M16 rifles, 20,000 machine-
guns, 34,000 grenade-throwers, 870
guns, 10,000 81 mm mortars, 210 M41
tanks, 1,000 armored vehicles, 44,000
military lorries and 40,000. trans-
céivers . 3.

As regards the Saigon air force, the
U.S. provided-it with some 850 planes
of various types and has intended to
bring this figure to 1,200 by 1972. To
the Saigon navy, the U.S. turned over
an estimated 1,600 ships and craft of
different kinds. The annual credit al-
located by the Nixon administration to
the Saigon junta for general expenses
was brought to $2 billion.

Up to June 30, the Nixon adminis-
tration still kept in South Vietnam

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1971—PAGE 6 4

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about 240,000 U.S. troops, not includ-
ing nearly 20,000 men in the 7th Fleet
and coast-guard units and 32,000 others
in the USAF stationed at American
airbases in Thailand.

2) RELENTLESS FURTHERANCE
OF “PACIFICATION” WORK—BACK-
BONE OF THE NIXON ADMINISTRA-
TIONS “VIETNAMIZATION” —
ALONG WITH INTENSIFIED BOMB-
ARDMENTS AND SWEEPS AGAINST
CIVILIANS.

The U.S. government has just ear-
marked an additional $1 billion and
entrusted the U.S. Defense Department
and the CIA with the direct conduct
of a new “pacification” effort called
“rural defense and local development”
program, beginning May 1, 1971. Ac-
cording to an assigned quota, within a
year, the Saigon agents have to liqui-
date 14,000 patriots and force four

’ million more people into the “civil de-

fense” organization.

Following were the principal meas-
ures taken to implement the Nixon ad-
ministration’s “‘pacification” program.

In 30 months under Nixon, the U.S.
used in South Vietnam an amount of
explosive equal to the total of U.S.
bombs expended in both 4 years’ World
War II and two years’ Korean War
(Bomb tonnage used in the Europe and
Pacific theatres: 2,682,244 tons; that
use in Korea: 635,000 tons).

Under Johnson, the yearly average
of U.S. bombs used in both South and
North Vietnam ran to 800,000 tons.
Under Nixon, the quantity of bombs
dropped on South Vietnam alone year-
ly average 1,377,000 tons. According to
the U.S. Defense Department’s data
from the beginning of 1969 to August
1970, the U.S, rained 2,131,334 tons of
bombs and fired 2,292,125 tons of
shells in the Indochina theatre, mostly
in South Vietnam.

The French newspaper Le Monde on
July 29, 1970 stated: in 1970, on an
average, the U.S. discharged on the
Indochina theatre a quantity of ex-
plosive equivalent to 11 20-kiloton A-
bombs, the sort released by the U.S.
on Hiroshima in 1945.

The U.S. command in Saigon unila-
terally delineated “free fire zones,”
making of entire large populated areas
its targets... B-25 strategic bombers,
in particular distinction of targets. In
March 1969, right after taking office,
U.S. Defense Secretary M. Laird decided
to ask for an additional credit of $52
million in 1969-70 to increase B-52 activ-

ites from 1,600 to 1,800 missions a
month ... .

Over 2,500 artillery pieces of all
calibers . . , positioned everywhere on
the mainland and based on warships
. . . Everyday, tens of thousands of
shells of different calibers were pump-
ed into villages and hamlets. Quang
Tri alone, in a single day, received
over 20,000 shells .. .

SWEEPS AGAINST CIVILIANS,
VILLAGES AND HAMLETS

In the period under review (January
1969-Jun 1971) U.S.-Saigon and satel-
lite troops mounted over 50,000 mop-
ping-up operations: of battalion size
upwards throughout South Vietnam,
blotted out more than one-fourth of
the total of hamlets in the South, and
perpetrated hundreds of new Son My-
type massacres, many of which had
been disclosed by GI’s themselves.

. .. In the two provinces of Quang
Tri and Thua Thien, out of 870 ham-
lets, nearly 500 were levelled...

In Quang Da province, till late 1970,
out of 441 hamlets, 351 were erased.
Bien Ban district had 20 of its 27 vil-
lages flattened. Go Noi area, composed
of 6 villages with 40,000 inhabitants,
was razed to the ground. The sur-
roundings of Da Nag, 25 miles long by
10-5 miles wide, were turned into no-
man’s land. In Ben Tre province, in
1969-70 alone, the U.S.-Saigon troops
launched 6,000 sweeps, slaying 4,300
people, maiming 3,500, imprisoning
over 4,000, burning nearly 4,000 hous-
es and levelling hundreds of hamlets.

The periphery of Saigon, stretching
60 miles from Saigon to Tay Ninh,
was cleared off. Twenty villages along
the Van Co Dong river, Long An prov-
ince, were changed into deserts.

Many an operation lasted for months
on end, such as the raid beginning De-
cember, 1968, and ending late in April,
1969, on numerous areas in My Tho

and Ben Tre provinces, during which.

the soldiery killed and wounded almost
3,000 people, burnt 1,000 dwellings,
blotted out dozens of hamlets and
herded tens of thousands of villagers
into concentration camps.

. .. The “U Minh campaign” from Dec.
1, 1970 to late April 1971 in Ca Mau
and Rach Gia, supported by hundreds
of U.S. aircraft and artillery pieces,
during which the troops, according to
their own profession, murdered 2,411
civilians, injured hundreds of others,

abducted hundreds of people, impound-°

ed tens of thousands in concentration

camps and set on fire tens of Squat
miles of forests . . . In Ca Mau a
from April 1970 to April 197],

- raiders raped or killed 575 people 9

female sex, including children i
wounded 334 others... ad.

Data from the U.S. Senate ee
(though still below the reality) % )
the U.S.-Saigon forces in 1970 killed
or injured 125,000 people, one
being children under 13 years of 98°,

Colby, the man in charge of a
“pacification” program in South tb i
nam, admitted on: April 21, 1971, rif
from the beginning of the war to Ap! fa
1971, 5,800,000 civilians (one-thitd %
the South Vietnamese population) ¥°%)
killed, injured or made homeless:

3) STEPPING UP POPULATIS
CONCENTRATION TO CONTRTA
AND EXPLOIT THEM a
SQUEEZE MANPOWER AND US
TERIAL SOURCES FOR ei
WAR OF AGGRESSION. at

The U.S.-Saigon forces carried of
indiscriminate bombing and strafing®,
chemical sprays and sweeps a ull
the civilians, used series of hug? (i
dozers of over 20 tons with SP¥°
“Rome plow blades” against en
gardens and hamlets, thereby levé
whole villages into no-man’s lands * &

Once the people were cooper iy
there, “purification” programs s l
and “Vietcong” or “Vietcong” suspes
were executed. ci b

A network of spies, scouts, tion!
guards, policemen and “pacifical™ fj
men was set up in such campS toe nh
trol and supervise the detaineeS “sa,
spot, arrest and assassinate thos
did not submit to the enemy, want?
‘the so-called “Phoenix” or s
campaigns. : Ht

About the “Phonix” campalg™ 97
Baltimore Sun wrote on May 26, okt
the campaign dragged on for 4 opft
years and an average of 1,900 Pf
were killed or jailed in a month,
passing the plan by 1,200. In
monthly average of 1,850 people
disposed of .. . ari Bul

Early in 1971, some 10,000 mine
people in 60 hamlets on the High iam
teaux were forced into concet
camps in the lowland. . . is

Those who demanded to retul ¢
their villages and refused t0 4
such harsh conditions were Pe
ted. A case in point was the all Ri
ing of 350 detainees in Kong-HO. @
concentration camp in Kontum pro QZ
on Feb. 22, 1969. y

REPRESSION AND PERSECUTY
IN URBAN CENTRES —

The U.S.-Saigon rulers also cart
out the “pacification” plan in ¥
areas... 970

In operation “Thach Loc” in 1#0
Hue, Quang Tri provincial cap!
Dong Ha township, the enemy
ed, tortured or threw in jail ove! “7
people and forcibly enlisted ”
young people... ace

All repressive measures wer
against students movements, Sl th
closing down schools and forciné
to take military training or go 1” th
army, encircling or brutalizing
meetings, demonstrations or sit'™™.

The crackdown of the press wenied
more- blatant. In 1969, the
papers were confiscated 40 times’ 7
In 1970, 230 times, and in the fil® gq
months of 1971, 250 times. Thé rf
Sang (Morning News) has been P
127 times since March 13, 1970: 4

Higher taxes were impos?
townspeople. Be

Living costs rose in proportio?
cording to official statistics,
the living costs shot up 60 pere
compared with 1968. In 1970
again soared by 70 percent. } wy
(220 Ibs.) of rice of the best quali
1969 cost 500 piastres but this “
10,000 piastres, the price of an oi
grew from one piastre to 22 pia®

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