Over E124 million worth of military supplies have been sent to the Thieu regime in South Vietnam by the US since the signing of the Paris peace accords fifteen months ago.
Now the Detence Department is pressing for a further emergency "loan" of no less than £200 million to boister up Thieu's crumbling position. In answer to Congressional mutterings, Henry Kissinger issued a public statement on 31 March emphasising the Government's commitment to continued military and economic support for the regime. And in Vietnam itself there are more than 7,000 US 'advisers" to prove it.
As well as being directed at the US Senate, Kissinger's statement was obviously also intended as a warning to North Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRG). Coming shortly after the 'leaked" news that the US is offering £1,000 million in aid to the North, it clearly shows that the Us is trying a carrot and stick' tactic to try to prevent a further erosion of Thieu's position.
RECONSTRUCTION
US hopes have been raised in this direction by the low level of aid given to the Vietnamese by their 'allies in Chimn and the USSR. Purthermore, the devastation caused during the war coupled with their relative tolation has forced the Vietnamese leadership to put conWOUNDED: siderable emphasis recently on the tasks of reconstruction in the North.
But speculation that this would lead the North to wind down its support for the insurgents of the NLF in the South received a sharp blow less than a week after news about the proposed deal had been "teaked", In a series of stunning raids, NLF gunners bombarded South Vietnamese (ARVN) bases in the Central Highlands and along the Cambodian border; while in a previously quiet sector of N.E. Kantum the biggest confrontation sance the signing of the accords took place when NLF units attacked another ARVN base. At the end of March an ARVN base only 30 miles trom saigon was captured, and since then a big push has been launched all over the South to force back Thie's troops.
The proposed deal has also been denounced repeatedly by Hanoi radio and the official newspaper Nhan Dan, and to complete the picture the PRG put forward a new set of concrete propusals on 29 March for implementing the Paris ACCOLES THIRD FORCE These proposals were not aimed or Nixon, but rather at the Third Force the urban opposition in the South-where they have found a ready response.
The opposition in the cities is now a growing threat to the hold of the Thieu regime. Only a few weeks ago the students held their first organised demonstration for three years, and felt strong enough to make their point with smoke bombs. Trade union activity is increasing. and recently a number of pickets and demonstrations, as well as the distribution of leaflets, have been organised by a united front calling itself the "Organisation for the Implementation of the Paris Agreements'.
from bad to worse. Corruption and repression is tile, and thousands of peopie-including tiny childrenwander the streets as homeless beggars. Food costs are soaring as the economy plummets (the piastre was recently devalued for the fourth time this yeur), and there is massive unemployment.
strength of the NLF and the high standard of living in the liberated areas, the urban workers and intellectuals are now becoming increasingly vocal in cheir opposition. Known Joosely as the Third. Force, they are undoubtedly the key to the present situation in Viotnam.
Of course this movement in no sense offers a 'third way', despite be statements of some of its spokes persons, and despite the hopes of some representatives of world imperialism. There is no ntiddle way between an econorny hased on private ownership and one based on collective ownership and planning: and the whole history of Indochins is living proof that any vision of a capitalist economy independent of imperialism is utopian, important, because no matter how liberal the statements of those such as Mme Ngo Thanh, it is doing part of the NF's job for it by isolating Thiel, Moreover, the mass base of the Third Force the students and workers-have strong historical links with the liberation movement which are being directly reforged at the moment that the Third Force is incapable of city strongholds.
Conditions in the cities are going toppling Thieu without the backing of the NLF-and the opposite is also true, Without the organised activity of the urban masses, and the demoralisation of the army and the police - processes which are being hastened by the Third Force-the Thieu regime could not be smashed in its Conditions are thus rapidly ripening for the final push, but preparatSons are being held back bath by the continued US aid to Thieu and by the lack of aid from the USSR and China for the insurgents.
Of course the successes of the The following communique was Laotian Patriotic Front and the Cambodian Red Khiners are doing much to keep the overall balance of forces still very much in favour of the revolutionary movements Nevertheless, the continued solidanty of militants in the imperialist countries will be vital, too-In breaking the isclation of the Vietnamese insurgents, in providing the support needed to balt any tendency to concede pains won in the struggle, in limiting Imperialism's room for manoeuvre, and finally in forcing the US to stop its aid to the puppet regimes.