Carrying blessings of 'democracy' abroad
This article by Vince Copeland appeared 41 years ago in
Workers World, on Jan. 29, 1962, when few people in the United
States had even heard of Vietnam.
United States planes are being used to spray poison on the
crops of poor farmers in Asia.
Exaggeration?
Here are the details from the New York Times of Jan. 19,
1962:
"United States planes have sprayed jungle growth ... to
remove foliage hiding Communist guerrillas ...
"The chemical mixture is supposed to kill all trees and
brush, but the withering and dropping of leaves may take five
days to three weeks ...
"A South Vietnamese official said today that defoliant
chemicals would also be sprayed on Viet Cong plantations of
manioc and sweet potatoes in the highlands.
"Tests have shown, he said, that manioc and sweet potatoes
die four days after having been sprayed."
The average income of a Vietnamese is less than $80 per
year. But the U.S. is spending several millions just to destroy
the sweet potato crop (only in the rebellious areas, of
course!).
This is not all. Most Vietnamese do not have shoes. But the
U.S. is planning to supply 500,000 radios by 1965.
Reason? So the U.S. bosses' propaganda can be heard by more
people. The U.S. Agency for International Development has
already provided $1,500,000 for a seven-station radio network.
And American military "advisers" trained in psychological
warfare are teaching Vietnamese officers new propaganda
techniques.
The U.S. is sending thousands of soldiers to Vietnam to help
Vietnam's U.S. puppet army shoot down the long-suffering
Vietnamese people. The U.S. has sent hundreds of millions in
"aid"--civilian as well as military. But the civilian part of
the aid never touches the shoeless peasants or the tribal hill
people--not to mention the unemployed city dwellers. It is
given mostly to the already wealthy Diem clique (of President
Ngo Dinh Diem, who only keeps his job by virtue of U.S.
support).
What kind of regime do the U.S. bankers and bosses intend to
foist upon the suffering Vietnamese if they succeed in
throttling this heroic people with their poison, planes and
propaganda?
A small clue was provided by the Jan. 1 New York Times:
"Reports of a 'dictatorship' by President Ngo Dinh Diem are
misleading, officials insist, because no basis for democracy
exists yet. Attempts to hold village 'elections' would only
favor a legal Communist takeover in many places."
Obviously, the kind of "democracy" the U.S. Army is bringing
to Vietnam can only be established if the present majority of
Vietnamese who would vote "the wrong way" in any election are
either slaughtered into the silence of the grave or terrorized
into submission.
Frederick E. Nolting Jr., U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam,
is optimistic about a successful slaughter, but he hinted to
the press recently that the struggle should be viewed "more in
the pattern of the fight against the Communist insurgents in
Malaya, that lasted about 10 years."
Life and the revolution will prove the ambassador to be
wrong--even if he gets his 10-year timetable.
The U.S. brass hats have only made what gains they have in
South Vietnam because the Soviet Union and China have not
responded to the aggressive moves of U.S. imperialism there in
a military way--so far.
For China in particular, Vietnam represents a vital area to
her own national self-defense (with virtually a common border)
as well as a revolutionary obligation.
For the United States, Vietnam will be a "dirty war" and an
international disgrace. Whatever temporary victories Nolting
and Kennedy may gain from plant poisons and fire bombs, United
States capitalism will inevitably lose in Vietnam--politically,
morally and militarily as well.
Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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