The Voice of Song and the Noise of Bombs Vietnam, America, and the War of the Worlds Author(s):

Neal Rosenau Source: Chicago Review, Vol. 24, No. 2, Voices, Faces: The War, the Rest: A Context (1972), pp. 36-55 Published by: Chicago Review Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25294675 . Accessed: 22/08/2011 00:42
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NEAL ROSENAU

THE VOICE OF SONG AND THE NOISE OF BOMBS VIETNAM, AMERICA, AND THE WAR OF THE WORLDS I. THE VOICE OF LIBERATION
The short, dark-eyed man sat, legs crossed, in a large house in the outskirts of Paris. "Our struggle
one," said the quiet voice, "but we are sure of victory."

in an easy chair is a very difficult

like that. Le Mai A person would expect him to say something Govern is amember of the delegation of the Provisional Revolutionary to Talks. Peace Paris the ment of Vietnam South (PRG) Safely out the entrance to his delegation's of range of the bombing, headquarters Le Mai could talk under the constant watch of a French gendarme,
with ease to these anti-war Americans about confidence and victory.

the most difficult Then a surprise: "We have already overcome was March 1972; Le Mai had just finished part of our struggle." This that the us that the bombing had been stepped up fiercely, telling 24 hours a day, that bombs were falling in northern South Vietnam were being racked by indiscriminate the Vietnamese killing people from the skies, targeted by remote control. delivered and maiming, Now he would have us believe that, despite the pervasive technological was all the PRG and North Vietnamese U.S. war machine, struggle downhill. "We began with bamboo sticks and patriotism. Now we have is nothing not only patriotism but also the unity of our people. There
that can stop our march."

So he wasn't talking about weaponry; the U.S. of abilities government. war-making to overcome strength of united human spirit "There are babies American military might.
in shelters underground," he said. "There are

the he wasn't denying He was asserting the even the full force of now being born right
areas where three or

children can only breathe the clear air above ground four-year-old But we are optimistic." He pointed to a soft pastel picture at midnight. in one framed on the wall behind us, a painting by a Vietnamese adults, old of the liberated zones of the South: there were children, folks dancing and singing. "We have a saying in the liberated areas: Let the voice of song over the noise of bombs." prevail is the story of the in that popular proverb of Vietnam, There, one hand, some war a the On the worlds. of It is War: Indochina of the and scientific knowledge of the most advanced technological 36

in the world, turned in the service of capital into a richest nation vast array of weapons, most of which were mere fantasies two decades and with consistently ago. On the other, a unified people working see to build a society of humane socialism; people who high spirit as just one obstacle to overcome?like American weapons floods, fires, and happi their struggle for "freedom, independence, and typhoons?in
ness."

II.WHY THE WAR WON'T GO AWAY

The American World-View that the Vietnamese have been taught to believe Americans are we shown that are "gooks" and slant-eyed killers. Nowhere people are human beings with a long and rich history, people the Vietnamese a new who are working society for themselves. They together to build names: and their institutions are assigned demeaning or dehumanizing are as not "reds" of under the the sway persons lumped Saigon regime
and "communists," North Vietnamese are "the enemy," and the

Front and Provisional Liberation National (NLF) Revolutionary of the South are called "Viet Cong." Government back in the sixties were surprised that U.S. Many Americans were and unable to defeat these faceless Asians. For troops firepower their the first time there was an extended colonial war that challenged is that they peopled great success myth. This myth of white Americans
an entire continent are built a great nation through determination,

that and "American know-how"; pragmatism, years (they tend to forget their history before or at least before the Mayflower); pendence to a task, they "get the job done" themselves
Imbued with this junior achiever vision

they did this in just 200 the Declaration of Inde and that when they set and do it quickly.
of themselves, and the

view that any job that can't be done quickly concomitant isn't worth to over with war most Americans the decided the U.S. get ought doing, or by into submission the Vietnamese by bombing quickly?either war as a from tired mistake. the bad withdrawing They quickly not counts of seeing American and did like the television-and body and chil Life-magazine pictures of American boys murdering women
dren. Many joined the anti-war movement or refused to serve in the

and they became a vocal opposition that finally did force military, the withdrawal of American from Vietnam. By and ground troops want to seemed to decide that, if the Vietnamese large, Americans it's their business; can't win, the there's the U.S. fight each other,
nothing to win there anyway, so let's get out.

as President elected Richard Nixon because he said he They could end the war and that he could do it without defeat. His plan of "Vietnamization" seemed to fill the bill: it got American ground turned the fighting over to the troops out of battle and, ostensibly, 37

army. If it had gone according to the announced Saigon government's plan, Vietnamization might have satisfied the press and public opinion; the Nixon would have gained the reputation of peacemaker; while U.S. would have "maintained overseas" by providing its commitments aid and support to the Saigon regime, America's part in the war would
have been over.

was not just a failure; it was a cruel hoax But Vietnamization on the American U.S. True, troops did come out, but they people. a whole were range of new replaced by more planes and ships and to continue it for that made Washington technological weapons possible
its anti-guerrilla war from a safely-impersonal distance, by remote con

trol and from the skies. For the better part of four years, Nixon kept announce this transfiguration of the war under wraps. His well-timed ments of American that he gave the impression troop withdrawals
was

as for President his Nixon, Unfortunately reputation the and his for Vietnamese re-election, peacemaker, perhaps hopes did not cooperate with the ruse. When the NLF and North Vietnamese combined forces with full-scale popular insurrection throughout South Vietnam in April 1972, the U.S.-trained Saigon army fell apart. Faced with the prospect of total defeat, Nixon quickly labelled the insurrection as an "invasion his previously from the North," and escalated clandestine air war. In desperation he blockaded the ports and ordered air raids across North Vietnam. He embarked on a program of bombing to flood the rice fields the dikes and making rain in a plan designed of the North into submission. and to starve the Vietnamese
This massive escalation?the large and visible committment of

"winding

down

the war."

made American air power to fighting the Vietnamese people?has as are it Americans well uncomfortable should. uneasy They again, about the war even though the press does not tell them about the the with of civilian populations weapons, anti-personnel bombing or to of North the determina kill the rice the attempt crop by flooding, to continue their fight despite even these obsta tion of the Vietnamese cles. Uninformed secrecy by media silence and misled by governmental now seem to wish the whole war would and deceit, many Americans
just go away.

The Vision of the Vietnamese But it will not just go away. Not, at least, so long as American so as the administration forces remain in Vietnam, inWashington long to support a corrupt and in continues repressive military dictatorship so long as the Vietnamese and the of in their believe justice Saigon, and have the strength to resist. struggle for independence is less likely than that the Vietnamese will accept defeat Nothing or to with the U.S. which government, compromise they consider be an invader in their land. The reason that the U.S. will not win 38

has led this war and that the war will not just fade away (as Nixon sense us to believe in the Vietnamese it might) is found primarily of themselves, their history, and how the current struggle fits into in the future. their vision of their own development Their efforts to develop their country and to drive out American influence is but the latest stage in "the double struggle against nature and invasions," a struggle they have carried on for over 4000 years, those in the deltas and in the mountains, "the people and in which in the North and in the South, have joined their efforts." (Vietnam: A Sketch, p. 35). maintain The cooperative tradition that the Vietnamese today over centuries out of their need to protect themselves has developed against the ravages of floods, typhoons, and draught. This is particularly a fifth of the a true on the coastal region that comprises but plains, land area of Vietnam but supports at least 85 per cent of the population. of the These alluvial plains, flat and low, are the great breadbasket nation, the land of rice fields. But they stand sometimes only slightly above sea level, extremely susceptible to flooding from the rivers?par summer monsoons?and to the tides or high waves ticularly during the of the sea. Long before the Dutch their dikes, the began building Vietnamese used earthworks to claim and protect land from the Tonkin Gulf waters. The dike system along the Red River and its tributaries was not only to control the rivers' flooding developed during the months of monsoon for rice fields during the but also to provide irrigation the cooperative manual labor of 4000 years, dry seasons. Through the Vietnamese have built and maintained 2500 miles of earthen dikes and have transformed a 6000 square-mile plain into a rich rice-growing
land.

The collective impetus of their battle against natural disaster has been amplified by the Vietnamese' repeated struggle against foreign
invasion. down Their through earliest the conscious generations, for three The Chinese heroes, are the whose Trung their sisters; reputations these were times Lady of have two passed women

led an uprising
nam by superior resistance

against

the Chinese
years succeeding domination.

in 40 A.D.,
before centuries For

and maintained
armies were

Viet

independent numbers. against

overcome repeated an Trieu,

instance,

warrior, fought against the invaders in 248. In the elephant-riding in and in conquest 13th century, Kubilai Khan, undefeated Europe was three the Vietnamese. times Asia, repulsed by Vietnam in the early 900's after gained effective independence a and the final defeat of the Chinese protracted insurrectionist movement navy on the Bach Dang River in 938. For 400 years, a series of dynasties withstood and efforts for feudal attempts at reconquest from without from In within. this the Vietnamese system of dikes parcellings period, and irrigation canals was expanded and improved. The indigenous culture was solidified; ceramic and cloth-making were perfected, and 39

a script derived from Chinese literary works began to appear in nom, to lan the Vietnamese until transcribe and the used 1800's ideograms
guage.

From the early 1400's until the French invasion in the 1850's, the succession of feudal regimes had to cope with rivals for power and intermittent peasant insurrections. The peasant uprisings gained occasional reforms, such as the abolition of serfdom in 1427, but the the perpetual of the feudal monarchies, increased bureaucratization landlords of lands and growing wars, brought by appropriation 1771 and to the peasant masses. between increased misery Finally, and aspirations 1792, the Tay Son brothers catalyzed the complaints that ousted the into a popular movement of peasants and merchants invasion. The and repulsed another major Chinese feudal dynasties the most brilliant of the Hue, premature death in 1792 of Nguyen leaderless and paved the way left the movement Tay Son brothers, for the restoration of feudal rule in 1802?a monarchy corrupt at the to the peasantry and tradition-bound top, oppressive throughout,
below.

III. THE FRENCH DISCONNECTION

in Colonial Rule Contradictions in arrived in Vietnam When European imperial entrepreneurs the 1850's in the form of invading French forces, they found a weak and repression by the and flabby monarchy, hated for its exploitation an effective defense. Da Nang was attacked in the in 1859. After a series of capitulations, 1858, Saigon occupied Court submitted in 1884 and accepted the French protectorate. Against and the French colonialists recurrent resistance from the populace, manda needed administration "the colonial the monarchy joined forces; to collect taxes and hound patriots down to the rins and headmen and landlords needed French headmen the mandarins, level, village to maintain their privileges" (Vietnam: A Sketch, p. 31). This bayonets to exploit the tradeable allowed the French arrangement symbiotic their traditional wealth of the colony, the feudal overlords to maintain and both together to leech the populace while giving power and wealth, in return. nothing The French brought with them the seeds of their own eventual defeat. First, the bourgeois democratic ideology led traders, intellectu national to agitate for a Vietnamese als, and industrialists industry or at least a constitutional and trade under a parliamentary republic and unable to mount
monarchy. Various peasantry, at odds with tradesmen who were seeking greater freedom,

Yen in the unsuccessful goals during the early 1900's, culminating ferment had the effect of unsett in 1930. Continued Bai insurrection It was administration. the French it failed to defeat, ling, though 40

parties,

associations,

and

groups

worked

for

these

testimony promised democracy outside oppression,

investors far away.

constant

to the hypocrisy colonialism which of European while it gave the opposite: and self-determination control, and the extraction of colonial wealth by

from the other seed of destruction came, inadvertantly, French policy of conscripting Vietnamese colonials for her wars and of using Vietnamese menials on her ships. One such colonial, Nguyen became a cook on a French ship and eventually Ai Quoc, spent time in Paris where he worked and studied. An ardent nationalist, he pleaded the Union of Viet the cause of Vietnamese established independence, namese in France, and sought support for Vietnamese freedom at In from 1930 on, Vietnam international Communist Party congresses. that he applied his Marxist-Leninist study to build the movement of Vietnam. On September the Democratic established 2, Republic read the 1945, this man, who had taken the name Ho Chi Minh, at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi. of Independence Proclamation The Liberation Struggle and Its Enemies The Proclamation, after the American Declaration patterned of Independence, followed years of peasants' demonstrations, strikes, workers' marches, and declamations all intellectuals, by Vietnamese increasingly guided and coordinated by the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh. French power in Indochina was shattered during World War in Europe, then by invading Japanese forces in II, first by defeat Indochina. At the time the Japanese finally overthrew the French in in 1945, a Vietnamese Vietnam of People's Representatives Congress called for general insurrection against the invaders and proclaimed their People's
nation's independence.

The Viet Minh and the Provisional Government rapidly became the only viable government of all of Vietnam. The Viet Minh, a coalition
of resistance forces, of the was

an
as

clearly

independent
the leader

Vietnam

after World
powers

ready

to

assume

the

government anxious

of

War
in

II. But
the West,

the United
was

States,
that

victorious

as dependents the old pre-war colonial areas be maintained of the "free world"; U.S. leaders saw Ho Chi Minh as amere tool of monolithic international Communism, directed by Moscow. President Franklin
Roosevelt war proposed conferences a eventually four-power settled trusteeship on a over plan Vietnam, France and whereby post should

p. 95; policy Pentagon Papers, I, 20). after the end of the War, the young government Immediately was faced with the dual threat that the Vietnamese of the DRVN an had faced for four millenia: invading army, this time the French in the form of floods that forces, and natural disaster expeditionary a rice and caused million deaths in the famine of 1945. crops destroyed as the Vietnamese had done dozens of times over united, Again they (Kolko, 41

return to control. The desires of the Vietnamese a serious consideration in American post-war

themselves

were

never

the centuries,
Viet Minh

to defend

their land. And

new government's

popular
reform

committment
programs

to the
spread:

increased

as the

they abolished real estate taxes, reduced and decreed an eight-hour working day.

land rent and rice field

taxes,

The struggle against the French was a guerrilla war carried out as well across all of Vietnam. It was economic and political warfare or destroy the communi as to The Vietnamese military. sought disrupt at the same cations and economic systems of the French colonialists within time building up new institutions and lines of communication the liberated areas. A peasant army, poorly armed, transporting equip ment on bicycles, it was supplied by the carried out the fighting; from rice fields and the newly-organized increased production light being pushed industry of the liberated areas, all means of production to capacity to the and to mount supply tne needs of the population final major offensive against the French that lasted from 1950-1954. their By 1950 it was clear that the French, who had committed best troops to Indochina, could never win amilitary or political victory 1947, against the popularly supported Viet Minh forces. After October the French were foiled in a large-scale attack against the Viet when the Viet Minh held the occupation Bac headquarters of the Resistance, After September armies in check everywhere. 1950, the Resistance to the offensive. moved States began to take the United This was the point at which an active hand inVietnam. Fearful that the French would be weakened as aNATO in Europe and that Vietnam ally in containing communism would be the first domino to fall in Southeast Asia, Washington began in 1950, running up to $1,063 to supply aid, beginning with $10 million to 78 per cent of the French war million by 1954, a sum equivalent costs. But even this aid failed to stave off defeat, and the French, set to work on a negotiated settlement opposition, despite U.S. The French finally sued for peace after Dien Bien Phu fell to describe their victory: the Viet Minh. The Vietnamese In 1953, the popular campaign for land reform instilled new and the army, 90 per cent of enthusiasm into the peasantry which being peasants. the winter of 1953, General Navarre, Commander During in-Chief of the French expeditionary corps, tried to regain the 112 battalions in Bac Bo [the northern initiative by concentrating six areas of Vietnam]. On November 20, 1953, he dropped into Dien Bien Phu, which was to serve as a big battalions trap into which to lure our forces. Dien Bien Phu was turned into a powerful entrenched camp 42

10 km long and over 5 km wide, held 49 strong points, 16,000 crack French troops equipped with U.S. weapons. to win Our armed forces were determined victory. Hundreds of thousands of volunteer carriers supplied the front with food and munitions. Day and night they helped the army build roads across the to enable it to bring in artillery. By launching jungle com inmany widely distant regions the Vietnamese offensives to disperse his forces over the whole mand compelled Navarre in the enemy's of Indochina while guerrilla warfare developed rear area. The French command had lost all strategic initiative. Dien Bien Phu fell into our hands on May 7, 1954, after 56 days of fighting. 16,000 enemy troops had been put out of action, 62 planes all weapons and equipment downed, captured by our forces. The entire command and staff was captured: one general, 360 16 colonels, and 1,396 non-commissioned officers, including officers. (Vietnam: A Sketch, p. 37). with by of 1954 ended French The Geneva Accords involvement and in seemed, for a short time, to spell an end of colonial domination of Vietnam. These the Vietnam, agreements setting unity recognized as the line." The the 17th demarcation "provisional military parallel armies were to draw apart across this temporary line, the opposing to the south on their way to the north and the French Viet Minh home. Nationwide elections were to be held under supervision of an no later than international control commission July 1956. The Vietnamese that these elections would be fully expected held. They had achieved nearly total military victory over the French in all areas of Vietnam; elec they had proposed the self-determination confident that the Ho Chi Minh govern tions at the Geneva Conference,
ment, not the corrupt French-supported Bao Dai monarchy, would

win resounding approval at the polls. Even American President Dwight Eisenhower admitted in his m?moires that, had the elections been held as planned, Ho Chi Minh would have received 80 per cent of the votes of the people of Vietnam.

IV. AMERICAN ADVENT

Transition Rather than marking the end of outside domination in Vietnam, the period from 1954-59 was a time of transition. It saw France replaced by the United States as the predominant outside influence inVietnamese affairs. Ngo Dinh Diem became President of the new Saigon govern an American-educated in a Buddhist Catholic ment, land, supported as a the United States "nationalist alternative," but without popular by the DRVN support. In the North, began the policies of consolidation, 43

that are still being carried out today, and transformation reconstruction, in 1959, the insurgent movement even under American bombs. And, the long Vietnamese of in south the Vietnam, continuing began again States and its dic this time against the United tradition of resistance, tatorial puppet regime in Saigon. Once the French recognized the futility of fighting the Vietnam leaders had the choice ese liberation movement, American government involved directly of either accepting the French decision or becoming and they imposed the Diem inVietnam. Their choice was involvement, were the Geneva Agreements signed, regime in South Vietnam. When States has not it clear that "the United made President Eisenhower itself been a party to or bound by the decisions taken by the Conference." insistence. as head of state had been made at U.S. Diem's appointment documents were signed, American military Even before the Geneva the French. From aid was going directly to the Diem regime, bypassing in economic 1955 to 1959, the U.S. funnelled $2.92 billion into Vietnam and military aid for the Diem government. The Pentagon Papers, the dispassionate Defense Department his on Vietnam, makes the U.S. role quite clear: tory of decision-making . . . South Vietnam, in (unlike any of the other countries Southeast Asia) was essentially the creation of the United States. Without U.S. support Diem almost certainly could not have consolidated his hold on the South during 1955 and 1956. Without could the threat of U. S. intervention, South Vietnam not have refused to even discuss the elections called for in 1956
under the Geneva settlement without being immediately overrun

by the Viet Minh The

Diem's

armies

(Vol.

II., p. 22). and the American involvement.

on pre

peasants

resented

Diem

"agrarian

reforms,"

though

they

were

an

improvement

Viet Minh policies, re-imposed taxes and rents that the liberation forces had abolished. Even in theory, they represented less than the Viet Minh had accomplished in fact. "As of 1960," the Pentagon Papers relate, in the hands of 2% of the land "45% of the land remained concentrated owners, and 15% of the landlords owned 75% of all the land" (I, 254). as a "living wall" Diem's program of relocating peasant populations between his lowland strongholds and the mountain and jungle areas that unsettled controlled by Resistance 500,000 program fighters?a persons by 1961?met with intense resentment. There was reason for have lived for centuries in villages where peasant anger: the Vietnamese each new generation carries on the traditions of its forebears; houses near the are passed from parent to child; and the dead are buried rice fields so that even their bones may help to feed present and future to follow, like the U.S. Diem's program, "Pacification" generations. nor concern for such tradition; in fact, it had neither consideration 44

sought

to

destroy

the peasants'

ties to their land and their past.

Rationale: The Strategy of Cold War

selves, into a committment of money,

It was not the economic value of Vietnam alone that drew U.S. them the of the Vietnamese well-known wishes policymakers, against
arms, and eventually troops

and air and naval power it was the strategic in Indochina. Rather, to more of in and Vietnam Southeast Asia significance importantly as a in whole. American world economic and political the strategy First, American planners wanted to contain the spread of Communism, to the famous domino theory, influence. According particularly Chinese if Vietnam Laos and Cambodia would be next, then Thailand, fell, and Indonesia. In 1953, Vice President Nixon Pakistan, India, Malaya, said that "if this whole part of Southeast Asia goes under Communist domination or Communist influence, Japan, who trades and must trade with this area in order to exist, must inevitably be oriented towards in the Communist (Quoted Kolko, p. 100.) regime." The United States entered Vietnam in order to contain Com to as a showplace of munist and establish Vietnam South expansion as Berlin had been established as Western wealth and power?much the showplace in Europe. Once the American government engaged, put on the line its reputation aspreserver of its client states against insurrection in the world. It was the first time that the U.S. anywhere attempted to act a and of national liberation; directly militarily against movement if it failed?if the "most powerful country in the world" were shown to be vulnerable to the movement popularly-supported revolutionary of this tiny land?its reputation as guarantor would suffer an incapacitat around the globe would redouble ing setback. Revolutionary movements their efforts, confident that they, too, could win. This and government business leaders was analysis by U.S.
based on a clear and accurate

interests?though
American

hardly
The

on any basic
War

understanding was?and

of

their

own

economic

concern
is?a

for the good

very of real

of the
war, an

economic
extend its

war

people.

Cold

in which

American
over the

capital has sought

and resources

to preserve
the

and

hegemony

markets

world.

small nations and former colonies The in Africa, Asia, and South is known as the Third World?are America?what sources of raw materials and cheap labor essential for the continued expansion of the consumer Western is rich in rubber, (Vietnam tin, oil economy. and?until the U.S. defoliation campaign?rice. Its cities, teeming with displaced farmers, are boundless sources of cheap labor for the American
and American-owned Japanese electronics companies that are establish

since World War ing manufacturing plants there.) Every administration and Democrat II, Republican alike, has actively pursued a policy of keeping these developing areas dependent on western (i.e., U. S.) capital. There is nothing in this. Consider the alternative: surprising 45

In

every

country

where

has succeeded, has sought to build an integrated the new government to use the its self-sufficient for economy, people's basic needs, able to further improve the country's economy, full production education, health, and standard of living. In order to do this, these countries have nationalized industries so that (usually American) foreign-owned the cream of profits can be returned to the people who produced them rather than being skimmed off for the good of a few absentee investors. Each of these nations has sought to improve and diversify its production into areas that will serve a developing tied to the needs of economy the people. Such rational, self-sufficient, and integrated development is incompatible with consumer the demand of the large capitalist a demand that these countries on outside economy of the West, rely investors to determine what part of their economy to develop. Confronted with this alternative, the men of wealth and power in the most powerful in the world have sought to nation capitalist In maintain and extend this nation's power theoughout the world. most out of economic its has carried instances, Washington policies states. To deal with uprisings imperialism indirectly, through agent
in

revolutionary

national

socialist

movement

as it battles and advice has gone to Portugal liberation movements from Greece in each of its African In every case possible, colonies. to Cambodia, to Ghana, from Colombia in order to maintain the U.S., or its pose as champion of self-determination, has either established to massive aid will that nationalist support governments ostensibly given its policies and suppress revolt.
Thus entered by all accounts, escalated the the main war, and reason now that the United to drop States two Vietnam, continues

Mozambique,

Angola

and

Guinea-Bissau,

American

arms,

money,

tons of bombs
its reputation?to

every minute
save face.

on Indochina
John

is, quite

simply,

to preserve
of

defense under not withdrawn

our reputation

the Johnson administration, said in 1966: "Why we have from Vietnam is, by all odds one reason: To preserve
as guarantor and thus to preserve our effectiveness in

McNaughton,

undersecretary

re the rest of the world;" (Pentagon Papers, IV, 43). President Nixon vealed the same reasoning in his May 8, 1972, speech in which he an of North and increased bombing of Haiphong the mining nounced "An American defeat in Vietnam would encourage this kind Vietnam: of aggression all over the world." know What American government leaders know, the Vietnamese to determine how as well; the set will fundamentally example they help to direct and control peoples throughout long U.S. capital will be able in a speech to the National Assembly the world. President Ho Chi Minh, in 1966, said: We have the responsibility front line of the world people's 46 and great honor to stand in the imperialist struggle against U.S.

aggression.

. . .

The people of the fraternal socialist countries and the progres sive people of the world are daily following our great Resistance War with love and admiration and are giving us increasing sup port and assistance to help us fight and win. In response to this our lofty internationalism, people should enhance their revolutio and march forward to win complete nary spirit enthusiastically victory (Ho Chi Minh, p. 340). in a Free Vietnam Accomplishments its influence Once itself to maintain the U.S. had committed in the south of Vietnam, it was clear that the struggle of resistance was not over. The Vietnamese in the south kept up political opposition was combined to the Diem 1959 until when political pressure regime with In the north, the DRVN armed insurrection. government, a began period of consoli guaranteed control by the Geneva Conference,
dation and reconstruction.

some sectors of the Vietnamese French domination, Under as such and mines, had been tied to world economy, ports, plantations, at the direc markets and were subject to disproportionate development
tion of Western investors. Other areas, such as rice production and

local manufacturing industries were left under traditional and feudal and unproductive. investors chose to French control, undeveloped labor invest in modern industrial the rather than exploit cheap supply was an unbalanced economy which the Vietnam The result techniques.
ese set about restructuring.

Land reform programs and revamped agricultural techniques have turned the land over to peasant control, and rice and other agricul tural production has increased every year, even under American bom
bardment after was 1964. Lines of communication, railroads, summer and roads

were
labor,

constructed.
improved

The
and

dike

system,

product
so that

of 4000 years of peasant

monsoons have

caused floods only once, and that in 1971, probably under the influence a view of U.S. Air Force rainmaking. Industry was developed with
to current and future needs of the Vietnamese rather than to the demands

strengthened

of foreign markets;
tion for and manufacture instance).

emphasis was placed on developing

of consumer goods (bicycles,

means

of produc
and shoes,

clothing,

Between 1945 and 1970, in terms of education, health care, and culture, the north of Vietnam was, quite literally, transformed. Under French rule, all of Indochina had but one university with 700 students enrolled. Today, in North Vietnam alone, there are over 35 institutions of higher learning enrolling 700,000 students. Prior to
1945, women were considered unfit for education, and women as a

class were education,

almost totally illiterate. Today, guaranteed equality in work, women and leisure by the DRVN constitution, comprise 47

50 per cent of the students in elementary schools, 36 per cent inmiddle cent and 30 in education. When American schools, per higher planes started bombing schools in the 1960's, the Vietnamese simply moved their classes to shelters in the jungles, transporting small groups of students into town to do necessary laboratory work. In health care, the changes wrought under Vietnamese control are were mater In but 47 9 and there 1945, equally stunning. hospitals one nity centers for all of Vietnam, physician for every 180,000 inhabi tants. American 150 hospitals in the planes this year have bombed
North alone. Malaria, venereal disease, tuberculosis, trachoma, and

leprosy were rampant under French rule. But by 1964, these diseases had been either eradicated or brought under control in the DRVN. Public health and hygiene programs were set up. Concentrated training programs for health cadres and nurses were established; by 1964 all the villages on the plains and 80 per cent in the highlands had medical centers where none had existed in 1945. Modern methods of health care are dovetailed with of traditional practitioners, the knowledge are operating to determine the medici and today laboratories inDRVN nal qualities of native Vietnamese plants and herbs and to make the information available to the population. The toll of injuries from the war has been massive, particularly since Richard Nixon became President and launched a full-scale prog ram of bombardment. The medical facilities of the North anti-personnel to provide their service. have been severely taxed but have continued In the south, where is subject any liberation front medical facility to American air attack, the Vietnamese have for years used caves and
underground shelters as operating rooms, lighting the areas and running

medical machinery from bicycle-powered generators. The National school to Liberation Front in the south has a mobile jungle medical to care rural train medical for soldiers and the personnel population alike. NLF medical cadres have been able even to steal in and out
of U.S.-Saigon and disease concentration treat the wounded camps who to innoculate no aid the from inmates their against captors. receive

In terms of culture, has encouraged the study of the DRVN Vietnamese art, and handicrafts. Much of the history, dance, music, for this article comes from books and newspapers material produced or in the liberated areas of the south. Vietnamese records in the DRVN art are available even in the shops and reproductions of Vietnamese of Europe. American and European visitors who have sat in air raid shelters through U.S. raids report that the people sing and bombing are over, then go about their dance and sometimes till the raids study
business as usual.

to uncover new the war itself has helped the Vietnamese A about their and culture. Vietnamese archeologist knowledge history showed Jane Fonda, who visited Hanoi this summer, some arrowheads that had been dug up from below bomb craters near the 17th parallel. Even 48

us advocated bombing "When the American general Curtis LeMay told Fonda, "he could hardly back to the stone age," the Vietnamese showed he said proudly, this." The stone-age weapons, have meant that the Vietnamese had been a nation of fighters since time immemorial; the American bombs had turned up one more reason for his people
to continue their resistance.

in the South Renewed Resistance The Vietnamese of the south have been less fortunate than their northern country people in being able to reconstruct their land. Diem's
relocation centers, and the strategic hamlet, pacification, and urbaniza

tion programs of the U.S. military have unsettled hundreds of thousands of persons from their lands. Land reform goes on in the liberated are carried out, education is fostered?but zones, medical programs to 1959, opposition to the Diem regime in the south was characterized and agi demonstrations, by mainly political, propaganda, severe tation. But the programs of all opposition parties meet with out and advice with American carried ordered by Diem, repression, advisers. By material and by army and police forces trained by U.S. 275,000 jailed, 1960, 80,000 people had been killed, 23,000 wounded, and 500,000 herded into concentration camps that the Saigon regime Prior
called relocation centers. It was clear that no national elections would always under the threat of American air attack.

in Vietnam, that those in the south were open only to persons to the Saigon regime, and that the U.S. had committed acceptable a in South its power and prestige to maintaining military dictatorship Vietnam. Armed struggle broke out again, and on December 20, 1960, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam was formed to guide the political and armed struggle against the United States and its Saigon be held
puppet regime.

mese more

in Paris said the South Vietnan Le Mai of the delegation was using struggle began "with bamboo sticks and patriotism," he insurrection began one moonlit than a figure of speech. The in 1959 in a small village of the south, a movement led by midnight a peasant woman who had no formal education. Mme. Nguyen Thi the men of her village to act against the Saigon army Dinh mobilized post nearby. "We had no guns at all," Le Mai said, but Mme. Dinh had her fellow villagers cut bamboo sticks and banana stalks and carry around the army post in the half-light. They them as they marched did this for three successive nights, and each intervening day the women of the village spread the rumor that "the liberation forces have come to our village; they have big guns and everything." The soldiers of the post were well aware of the rumors by the fourth night, when the villagers returned not only with their bamboo stick "rifles" and banana stalk "big guns," but also with firecrackers that they set off to the tune of much yelling. A small delegation of When 49

the post to tell the soldiers: "Now you have to villagers approached surrender or you will be arrested and your lives will be wasted." The post surrendered to the villagers, turning over their entire Le arsenal of three guns. "We call these three the Mother Guns," Mai said, "because they have given birth to so many more." Mme Dinh is now the commander in chief of the liberation forces of South and is in charge of military Vietnam training for the NLF. And still for the Resistance today, the major source of arms and ammunition are armies. supplies captured from retreating Saigon and American Renewed in the south meant resistance that the DRVN, too, would be engaged in fresh struggle. The north became the "great rear area" of the revolution while the south was "the great front." The so that they could not North Vietnamese their regeared production continue the massive had programs they only begun when the French left and provide for their own needs, but also so they could aid and support the struggle in the south.

V. THE VICTORY OF THE VIETNAMESE

The Course of the American War It would be unproductive in an overview such as this to detail the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. But some patterns are clear. In each instance when the regime in Saigon appeared threatened, the U.S. involved itself more heavily than before. It took control of the Saigon army in 1961, assuming direct planning of the war; it commit ted ground troops in 1964 and launched air strikes against the North; and finally it replaced American ground troops (because of intense at home) with a massive buildup of air and pressure from Americans naval forces armed with ever more sophisticated technological weapons, air delivered, and aimed at destroying targeted by remote control, civilian populations. the administrations of Truman, Eisenhower, Through Kennedy, and has remained steadfast in its support Nixon, Washington Johnson, of the Saigon regime, no matter what the political, economic, or human cost. If a particular Saigon ruler becomes unpallatable, Washington removes him, as it did with Diem in 1963. If the regime must appear to be democratically turns its head as neutralist elected, Washington or communist candidates are excluded from the ballot and summarily the current dictator, Nguyen assigned to hard labor in prison. When Van Thieu, ordered public executions of minor offenders, closed down all the newspapers except those that support him and receive government subsidies, abolished elections in the hamlets, and said that "our govern
ment ha^s allowed us too much democracy too soon," the American

government and bombs. 50

unflinchingly

continued

to pour inmoney

and arms, advice

In order

to

save

face,

to

"preserve

our

reputation

as

guarantor,"

of South the American military has destroyed half the rice production forest lands the size of the state of Connecticut, obliterated Vietnam, or maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians, committed slaughtered 45,000 American men to battlefield death, displaced and made homeless created millions of people, spread plague and malaria in South Vietnam, 27 million bomb craters on land that may never be reclaimed, dropped are who that produce deformed children from mothers defoliants to control that vomit crowd make death, gasses people sprayed, dropped the number of prisons in South Vietnam, aided the captors multiplied to to develop more effective means of interrogation, and continues war. a day just on air operations in the million $25 spend Nixon's War to get the U.S. out who promised President Richard Nixon, and who claims to be winding down the war, is more of Vietnam than ever to "preserving American honor" by any means, committed no matter how dishonorable. Since he took office on January 20, 1969, or driven over six million persons have been killed, wounded, captured, war. In order to preserve a pro from their lands by the American war into Cambodia American regime in Saigon, Nixon has expanded the it an all-Indochina war in which U.S. policies and and Laos, making or made refugees 4.5 million civilians; operations have killed, wounded over 3.7 million 1.5 million killed or wounded combatants; dropped tons of bombs; executed 40,000 civilians without trial under the Phoenix program; created 13million bomb craters; bulldozed over 750,000 acres of crop and forest land; killed 20,000 Americans and wounded 110,000; and spent $59 billion, all as of June 30, 1972. Nixon has withdrawn but has sent 500,000 American ground troops from South Vietnam in 200,000 Air Force and Navy personnel outside of South Vietnam; and 1,400 fixed-wing 35,000 advisers in South Vietnam; aircraft, 700 and 50 U.S. warships in the surrounding area. helicopters, The President who says this is not his war but one he inherited
has overseen the deployment of the most pervasive

ical battleplan
motion, human

in the history
odor, sound,

electronic/technolog

of the world,
and heat;

with

sensors

that detect
systems

computer

for planes; and an air armada that from 2000-pound drops everything bombs that destroy dikes and villages to large concentrations of gravel mines each of which is just powerful enough to destroy one human
foot.

guidance

at home the war has To Americans brought police riots against anti-war demonstrators, and; the shooting of civilians by National It has brought government Guardsmen. surveillance of those who speak out against the war, of those, like Daniel and prosecution Ellsburg Anthony Russo with the Pentagon Papers, who reveal the truth. It has left hundreds brought tens of thousands of men home in body-bags, 51

more as leaves the prisoners until the bombs stop falling and America action. It has brought inflated prices, controls on wages, international And it has brought government crisis, and unemployment. monetary lies, deceit, and half-truths that continue to mislead public opinion into war supporting policies that can only bring more of the same. are to use some of the They policies that allow the Pentagon nation's most advanced science and technology to perfect weapons never before dreamed of: high energy light beams that guide bombs to pinpoint targets, napalm that cannot be washed off and that burns to the bone, programs for use of chemicals that burst clouds on com computerized mand to produce floods that wash out villages and trails and destroy funds and the crops, and chemical agents that soften the soil. Given of the American acquiescence people, such a war could go on forever; theNew York Times of August 15 quoted South Vietnamese commanders who "foresee an indefinite military conflict with Hanoi that could last
years or decades."

In the name of peace, the military under Richard Nixon's mand has turned heaven and earth into weapons of destruction. the President has become a demigod in a war without end.

com And

Vietnam Will Win

In Indochina,
is more cruel for us."

as one Vietnamese
But as every visitor

in Paris
to Hanoi

told us,
has

"the war
seen, the

more
can

repressive
attack, who

the Saigon

regime becomes,
resolve

the more
to win

brutal the Ameri

their independence

the more

the Vietnamese

and freedom. Against

cans merely think

the massive
about

U.S.

arsenal that overwhelms

the Vietnamese have lost

Ameri
neither

its scope,

determination a confidential Department

forces "as a

on nor confidence in their eventual success. In fight done the Rand for the Defense study by Corporation in 1970, the principal conclusion was that the liberation to
group, as man for man, seems unlikely to yield, let alone

under the type of pressure the United States can apply disintegrate in the pursuit of current objectives." Rand drew its conclusions from war. "If what these interviews with 22 North Vietnamese prisoners of 22men have said," the study stated, "corresponds to what large numbers of soldiers, or perhaps even the majority of Vietnam's 30million people revolu similarly feel, then the chances of rooting out (the Communist) tion by military or political devices is dim indeed and emerges as an inmore ways than one" (from Jack Anderson undertaking questionable to North Vietnam 6, 1972). Visitors column, September syndicated true. have reported time and time again that this is precisely to win And the Vietnamese have demonstrated the capacity on the battlefield, blockades, bombs, chemicals, artillery, and despite the threat of floods and starvation. Since April 1, popular uprisings attacks by the NLF and DRVN throughout the south and coordinated have decimated the troops Saigon army. The two crack divisions of 52

to retake the citadel at Quang Tri; Thieu's troops were committed even if they succeed in this token goal, they have been virtually areas in the south, previously as a destroyed fighting force. Liberated now are linked together. separated by territory controlled from Saigon, to weaken the will of the Viet rain of terror, designed The American to resist, has instead strengthened their resolve and namese people can stop. turned them into a fighting force that only total annihilation A Message for America in a strange and alien world that they have been Deposited soon discover that to North Vietnam to fear, American visitors taught the persons of this new world are possessed of greater beauty, wisdom, It is the distor and spiritual strength than they had believed possible. tions of their own world that they come to fear; and from the persons to of that other world they begin to learn how struggle against the forces of their own. destructive
It is not that the Vietnamese are

as a stroll as Americans, are fully as corruptible in any way. They streets of Saigon would prove. But here is a society that, the through in simplest terms, places people above profits, the general good above for the capital gains of a few, and in which power is no substitute of all the people in the land. the genuine advancement who have been there come back with the message Americans bear no ill will against the American that the Vietnamese people, that a few. "We know the are of the bellicose they policies fighting only
American

superhuman

or

alien

creatures

visitors. "We know we have many friends too, that if we ever begin to hate, if we
for our friends, then our cause is lost."

people

are

not

our

enemies,"

is

a common

expression

to

in America. And we know, ever lose the love we have But their voice,
prevails

The
of reason

Vietnamese
and honor

people
that bears

speak softly.
the song of

a voice
over

freedom,

If Americans would but listen the noise of even the largest bombs. to that voice, we too would know that we have in ourselves the strength to new world the "power in a land where begin to build toward a of the people" is not just a slogan but a living fact. is shorter, but the ideals of our traditions are no Our history than those of the Vietnamese. If we but look around less glorious us to see how the realities of our lives are at odds with our ideals, we would to band together to stop the megalomania of our govern begin ment and corporate leaders, taking power back to its source in ourselves. our first act And listening to that voice of love from Vietnam, will be to end this war.

53

ABOUT THE SOURCES FOR THIS ARTICLE

Several sources are mentioned in the body of the article, only are: Gabriel Kolko's Roots I quoted them directly. They because of American Foreign Policy: An Analysis ofPower and Purpose (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969); The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United on Vietnam, 4 vols. States Decisionmaking Senator Gravel Edition, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971); Vietnam: A Sketch (Hanoi: Foreign 1971); and Ho Chi Minh on Revolution: Languages Publishing House, Bernard B. Fall, ed. (New York: Signet, Selected Writings, 1920-66, 1967). My main inspiration and most of the sense I have of Vietnamese most comes from history and culture people who have been there, from the also and Val Dick Levins slides, Woodward; particularly movies and discussions of Ethan Signer, Jane Fonda, Bill Zimmerman, Tom Hay den, and from articles by Pete Seeger, Anthony Lewis, Joseph Kraft, and Ramsey Clark. Iwas not a little impressed by the Vietnamese I spoke with in Paris inMarch.
Vietnamese books,

graphs,
struggle

and movies
and the war.

are

magazines,

newspapers,

postcards, Vietnamese Studies

photo series

indispensable

to understanding
is the

the Vietnamese and South

Particularly

useful

published Vietnam in Struggle. Both Kolko's book and the Pentagon Papers have been crucial to understanding called A Pentagon Papers U.S. policy. A pamphlet a Digest, published by the Indochina Information Project, is very useful of pertinent information. Beyond these, a careful reading condensation
of newspapers, other books about the war, and research into government

in Hanoi,

and the newspapers

Vietnam Courier

documents
ness. For

have served to clarify U.S.

statistics about the war

policy
and

and to gauge
on

its ineffective
the nature of

information

its application and intent, the American the American weaponry, on the Military Industrial Complex Friends' National Action/Research Air War and its publica valuable. has been too, So, (NARMIC) Project 1972) and the tions, Air War: The Third Indochina War (Washington, recent pamphlet "6Million Victims: The Human Cost of the Indochina And the richest resource, for me, has War under President Nixon." been the research that my comrades and I have done in the Chicago of Science for Viet Nam. Collective Much of this material can be had by mail: 54

Science for Viet Nam 1103 East 57th Street Illinois 60637 Chicago,

Project Air War 1322 18th Street, N.W. D.C. 20036 Washington,

Indochina Peace Campaign 156 Fifth Ave., Room 527 New York, N.Y. 10010 or Box 24C51 Los Angeles, Ca. 90024

55