Published: New Left Notes, Vol. 4, No. 8, February 28, 1969.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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There are some within the movement who, at a time when the Vietnamese are facing their toughest attacks from the imperialists, are purposefully trying to distort and misrepresent the position of the NLF and DRV. These lies are an attempt to destroy the faith and respect which the revolutionary leadership of Vietnam has earned from the people during the past quarter of a century of heroic struggle against the French and U.S. imperialist invaders.
Ho Chi Minh has been called a “traitor” and a “revisionist” by some who call themselves Marxists and Leninists. The NLF has been accused of “selling out” the people of Vietnam. These conclusions come from lies about the leadership’s position in Paris, saying that they have retreated from their “Five Points.” To perpetrate such lies in an attempt to divide the struggle is counter-revolutionary at best, and can only serve the interests of world imperialism.
It should be obvious that the United States government hopes to win at the conference table what they have lost on the battlefield and lost in the minds of the people. The stated U.S. intention to negotiate for “peace” to insure the interests of the Vietnamese people and their right to self-determination is a hoax. SDS demands immediate withdrawal of all U.S. presence and attacks the imperialist interest of the U.S. government in Paris as well as in Vietnam.
At the same time as the Vietnamese are talking on the basis of the original five points, the willingness of the Vietnamese people to fight and defend the revolution has been made clear by the recent offensives. The charges of revisionism are unfounded.
Therefore to now accuse the Vietnamese leadership of being sell-outs is racist and paternalistic–the very attitudes of the oppressor. To imply that the Vietnamese do not understand or are unable to fight in their own interests at the conference table is to reinforce the propaganda of the colonizer. This position assumes that the great Asian hordes do all right in the field, but can’t defeat the tricky maneuvers of diplomats in conversation. The Vietnamese people are waging the vanguard struggle in the world today against U.S. imperialism.
In the past few months, the Vietnamese have carried the political aspect of the war to the Paris Conference in order to rally world-wide support, consolidate their countless victories, and lay out their demands for immediate withdrawal of all troops from the country. The position of the Front and the DRV was again clarified last Friday at the fifth plenary session of the Paris Talks–clearly refuting the lies about their “deals.”
Both the NLF and the DRV restated their demands: the United States must “end its war of aggression against Vietnam, definitively cease all infringements upon the sovereignty and security of the DRV, completely and unconditionally withdraw U.S. and satellite troops from South Vietnam, dismantle all U.S. military bases in South Vietnam, and let the internal affairs of South Vietnam be settled by the South Vietnamese people themselves in accordance with the Political Programme of the NLF, without foreign interference.” The DRV said, “We fully support the position of the delegation of the NLF and the way it sets the problem on the basis of its five points. We underline that all U.S. and satellite troops must be withdrawn from South Vietnam without any conditions whatsoever.”
It is the job of revolutionaries to know, to publicize, and to support these positions. To be intimidated by a counter-revolutionary position which poses as “super-left” is cowardice.