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Tes YEARS ago, following their defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the French imperial- wis Were forced to end their dirty war” in Vietnam and Sign the Geneva Agreements,

The 1964. Geneva Agreements Stipulated the cessation of hos- “ities between the belligerents, €cognized Vietnam’s indepen- Pcs, sovereignty, unity and *rritorial integrity, drew a pro- Visional military demarcation i between the two zones at © 17th parallel, and at the Me time laid down specific fasures for the reunification the country.

r

caitte success of the Geneva pretence struck a blow not fd at the French colonialists;

also upset the plans of the ane imperialists to extend and "48 out the colonial war.

hi The Geneva Agreements pro- ited’ “the introduction into ‘tnam of any troop reinforce- Ments in the form of all types . arms, munitions and other ar materials.”

hate Agreements also stated ‘ at “no military base under the entrol of a foreign state may »~ @Stablished in the. regroup- Z0ne of either party, and

at the two parties shall ensure

Ry the zones assigned to them all Not adhere to any military the wee and are not used for tog. semption of hostilities or Urther an aggressive policy.”

Bs also proclaimed that “gen- Ju elections shall be held in Y 1956, under the supervision 5 @N international commission the POsed of representatives of Member states of the Inter-

Natio = ¥ wa. Sing. 1 Supervisory Commis

ee United States did not thre the Geneva Agreements, but Cae its representative’s de- i fation made on July 21, 1954 Cj ee oshized the aforesaid prin- a €s and provisions, and sol- fr nly undertook “to refrain

the threat or the use of

force to disturb them.”

All the 30 million people in Vietnam, and people all over the world, hoped for the reuni- fication of Vietnam on the basis of the Geneva Agreements.

In North Vietnam (the Demo- cratic Republic of Vietnam) the people implemented the provi- sions of the Agreements. They took the initiative in unilateral- ly reducing military strength: 80,000 armymen were demobil- ized in 1956-57; defense appro- priations were cut down from 22 percent of the total budget in 1956 to 17.5 percent in 1959,

Over a period of many years North Vietnam sent many notes to the South Vietnam adminis- tration proposing the holding of the consultative conference on the general election to reunify the country; it also repeatedly put forward proposals for re- establishing normal relations be- tween the two zones, including exchanges of mail, possibility of visits across’ the demarcation line, exchanges of cultural, Scientific, sport delegations, eco- nomic exchanges, etc., pending reunification.

But the American imperialists harbored different plans. Wash- ington helped reactionary ele- ments set up the dictatorial re- gime of Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon and gave its puppet hundreds of millions of dollars to “fight communism.” Brutal police laws were introduced and all democratic freedoms were denied. i

Making use of the Diem clique, the U.S. concentrated ef- forts on taking the place of the defeated French colonialists and turning South Vietnam into its military base and a colony of a new type.

The United States assigned the South Vietnam bridgehead an important place in its plans for’ aggression against North Vietnam and other socialist

countries and also for suppres-

VIETNAM

Background fo the crisis

sion of the national-liberation movement in Southeast Asia.

In the past few years the U.S. has built 169 airfields in South Vietnam, of which seven have long runways capable of handling heavy aircraft and jets. In 1954, it is worth recall- ing, there were only six military airfields in South Vietnam.

In addition, Washington has built or repaired and extended 11 military ports; built a net- work of strategic roads linking various towns and airbases to military ports; set up a com- plete network of telecommuni- cations; strengthened the South Vietnam puppet army to half a million men (including civilian guards and armed police).

The number of U.S. personnel in South Vietnam has been rais- ed from 200 (strength of the Military Aid Advisory Group set up in 1950 and illegally maintained in existence after the signing of the Geneva Agreements) to 3,500 at the end of 1961 and then to 25,000 at the end of 1963. Some 5,000 are military advisors while 20,000 have been organized into separ- ate units belonging to various services, which engage in both combat and logistics duties, and combat and logistics duties.

Since May 1961, after the signing of the Johnson-Diem bi- lateral military treaty, the U.S. imperialists have formally un- leashed a “special war” in South Vietnam; in the period from July 1961 to May 1964 they launched more than 90,000 “mopping up” operations.

The South Vietnam people fought back. All patriotic forces united in the National Libera- tion Front, organized on Dec. 20, 1960. Its proclaimed aim is to liberate the country from the rule of the U.S. imperialists and their henchmen, to estab- lish a coalition government cap- able of pursuing an independent peace policy, maintaining neut-

rality and ensuring a rapproch- ment and the unification with North Vietnam.

The Front has grown into a powerful liberation movement backed by the population. It has its own Voice of Liberation radio, news agency and publica- tions. It has pitted its armed

_ forces against the imperialist

and reactionary forces, and achieved great successes on the military as well as the political front. Large areas have been liberated: some eight million of South Vietnam’s 14 million peo- ple live in these areas con- trolled by the Front.

The U.S. “special war” went from bad to worse. Trying to solve its military and political crisis, the U.S. engineered two coups d’etat in succession with- in three months. In overthrow- ing Ngo Dinh Diem on Nov. 1, 1963 by the hands of Duong Van. Minch and _his military junta, they hoped to stabilize the situation. But when it grew worse they arranged to have “Big Minch” toppled by the Nguyen Khanh clique.

Since then the U.S. position

has further detriorated. Senti- ments in favor of ending the war and neutralizing the coun- try are gaining in popularity,

With the smell of defeat ‘in

the air, instability everywhere, General Khanh afraid of new putsches, and a November elec- tion in the offing, the U.S. lead- ers decided on a new gambit— air strikes against the North.

Patrolling in waters off North Vietnam on Aug. 2, the USS. destroyer Maddox sighted three North Vietnamese PT boats ap- proaching (according to Adlai Stevenson) in attack formation, The Maddox opened fire, the PT boats launched torpedoes, scor- ing no hits.

This incident touched off the crisis, which resulted in U.S, planes attacking four North Vietnam bases at Hon Kay near the mouth of the Red River, and farther south, at Loc Chag,. Phuc Loi and Quang Khe. The town of Vinh was also bombed.

Key to the U.S. aggression is contained in the words of a Hanoi spokesman: “Their main purpose is to save a situation in South Vietnam, which is in a Critical phase right now.”

U.S. aggression and interference is the toot cause of the world crisis over Vietnam. Photo on left shows two American soldiers carrying away the body of their captain follow- ing a raid on a people's guerilla unit. On the right President Ho Chi Minh is seen ad- dressing a mammoth protest rally in Hanot which denounced U.S. armed aggression in South Vietnam and demanded strict observance of the Geneva Agreements.

August 21, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5