First Published: People’s Tribune, Vol. 4, No. 5, June 1972.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
Within the last 5 weeks the U.S. government and the Saigon puppets have suffered tremendous military defeats at the hands of the South Vietnam People’s Liberation Armed Forces. The puppet troops suffered over 10,000 casualties in their defeat at Quang Tri. The puppet army’s 3rd Infantry Division was wiped out, including its armored regiments and Ranger Multi-Battalion Units. They shot down 150 aircraft and destroyed 1,000 military vehicles and 200 artillery pieces. The province of Quang Tri and Thua Thieu have been liberated in the North. At present the reactionary elements only hold Kontum in the Central Highlands. In Saigon itself there is much fear shown by the puppet government who knows its end is near. These smashing military victories clearly show the bankruptcy of Nixon’s Vietnamization and Pacification programs. Further, these victories show the steadfastness of the Vietnamese to surmount every difficulty in liberating and unifying Vietnam.
The U.S. imperialists reeling from the blows of the people of Vietnam, have now turned to the U.S.S.R., their “super power” partner, in an attempt to crush the Vietnamese people. The Soviet Union in a series of secret talks with U.S. officials, mainly Henry Kissinger’s visit to Moscow from April 20-24, have agreed 1) to pressure the Vietnamese to halt the armed struggle, 2) to continue relationships and planning with the U.S. how to crush the revolutionary anti-imperialist struggles being waged around the world and 3) the Soviet Union agreed to stand by and do nothing while the U.S. government brazenly bombed the dikes in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, mined Haiphong and other major harbors, threatened the use of nuclear weapons and continued the most vicious bombing known in history. We ask how come the Soviet Union sat by while at least 2 of its ships were attacked by U.S. air power?
The U.S. imperialists and the Soviet social-imperialists have formed the most savage, reactionary alliance in history. Brezhnev and Nixon make Hitler and Tojo look like children. While the U.S. stabs the people of the world in the stomach, the Soviet Union stabs them in the back. In the Congo, it was Krushchev and the Kennedy’s behind the murder of Lumumba. And what about the Cuban missile crisis? Again, in tight knit unity the Soviet Union and the U.S. produced a sham battle. The real loser was the Cuban people. More recently we see the U.S., U.S.S.R., Israel and the reactionary Hashemite regime in Jordan all uniting to attempt to crush the Palestine People’s Liberation Movement. Thus, the dialectic of the situation is that when the revolutionary movement is on the rise the thieves band together, but when it ebbs they fall out. The revolutionary movement is definitely on the rise. The role of the CPUSA (Communist Party of the U.S.A.) although not as significant internationally, certainly exposes itself on this question. They attempt to rally the masses behind the leadership of the Soviet Union. This particularly treacherous role of the revisionists is nothing but getting the proletariat to fight not its enemies, but the enemies of it enemies.
Concerning the events in Vietnam, there has developed in the “left” movement both a right and left deviation. The left deviation condemns the leadership of the Vietnam Workers Party and the Communist Party of China for “selling out the revolution”. This petty bourgeois and Trotskyite motion pushes the defeatist line that there is “no hope” for the Vietnamese revolution because of its leadership. The practical result is no support for the valiant struggle. The right deviation is much more widespread, and is expressed in two ways: The first endorses the CPUSA’s and especially the CPSU’s efforts to make a deal favoring the imperialists, in other words, it advocates an unprincipled peace that would continue the imperialists’ foothold in Vietnam. The other expression of the right deviation is the line that pays lip service to giving active support. It is expressed in the idea that since the Vietnamese have been successful in defeating the imperialists for so long, there is no need to worry about “setbacks” or reversals and therefore, no need to heighten our active support of the Vietnamese people’s struggle. While we know that the strategic victory of the national liberation struggle is inevitable, the denial of the possibility of tactical losses is in reality an aid to the U.S. imperialists and undermines proletarian internationalism.
Comrades and friends, the Vietnamese revolution has been attacked by the most vicious alliance of the world’s two most industrially powerful capitalist states. The steadfastness of the Vietnam workers Party and Vietnamese people and the reliable reserve of the Chinese Communist Party and people present solid revolutionary steadfastness in the face of this counter-revolutionary collusion. It is the duty of revolutionaries to give full and fierce support to the Vietnamese revolution and condemn the U.S. and Soviet social-imperialists for their aggression. Hold back not one bit; mobilize the masses; spread the conscious internationalist support of the Vietnamese revolution! The Vietnamese revolution represents the apex of the struggles of oppressed nations against imperialism. The set back of the Vietnamese revolution will mean world-wide setbacks, especially for the Puerto Rican, Negro and Mexican national minority peoples.
LONG LIVE THE HEROIC VIETNAMESE PEOPLE!
U.S. AND U.S.S.R. OUT OF VIETNAM!