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.

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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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