editorial indochina: The exact hour of the liberation of Phnom Penh has not yet been fixed. But the fall of the Lon Nol regime is inevitable given the present course of the struggles in Cambodia. New military defeats for the puppet army are in the offing. More important, the certainty that the Cambodian people will soon be victorious in their struggle against U.S. imperialism has now spread beyond revolutionary circles. That certainty is now felt throughout all world public opinion. The latest debates in the American Senate and House of Representatives on "aid" to Indochina have reaffirmed this conviction: Washington is incapable of preventing the debacle. Consequently, even before the actual liberation of Phnom Penh, the situation in Cambodia is weighing heavily on the relationship of forces throughout Indochina. It is underlining once again the deep interdependence of the components of the Indochinese revolution. Yesterday Hanoi was warning the Thai, Saigon, and American regimes against the establishment of aerial bridges linking the Utapao U.S. base in Thailand to Saigon and the Cambodian capital. Today the Provisional Revolutionary Govemment and the National Liberation Front are inflicting a genuine rout on Thie's forces in the Central Highlands and in the northern provinces of South Vietnam. The importance of the latest events in South Vietnam should not be underestimated. Saigon is speaking of a "redeployment of effective forces." But that
, toward liberation decision demonstrates its defensive position. In reality, what we are witnessing is the initial brusk collapse of a decisive element in the system of American imperialist domination of South Vietnam. To be convinced of this it is sufficient merely to consider the implications of Saigon's so-called tactical retreat. Militarily, it is one of the most decisive regions -perhaps even the most important of all - that is coming under the total control of the liberation forces, for the Central Highlands dominate both the Saigon region and the narrow coastal plain in the center of South Vietnam. At the same time, hard fighting is going on east and northwest of Saigon, and the "decay" of the puppet positions in the Mekong Delta is being aggravated. Politically, the implications of the present situation are even more serious for the Thieu regime. This is true for three reasons. First of all because of the weak forces that have actually been committed to these battles by the NLF. In fact, it was a force of only 1,000 men that invaded Ban Me Thuot, the first city liberated in the Central Highlands, In a significant irony of history, these 1,000 men were Montagnards of a movement called Furlo, which had been created by the Americans to engage the ethnic minorities in the anticommunist struggle. It was for revealing that fact that Paul Leandri, the French journalist of Agence France-Presse, was murdered by the offices of the Saigon security services.
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editorial The NLF and PRG have waged their offensive essentially with regional forces and not with regular divisions. Second, because the cities that Thieu has abandoned are among the most important in the country: Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Kontum, probably Dalat and Quang Tri, and perhaps even Hue. Six new provincial capitals, some of them symbolic and prestigious: Quang Tri, temporarily liberated in 1972 and retaken by U.S. troops ofter heavy losses; Hue, the second city of South Vietnam, former imperial capital, in which U.S. marines had also engaged in hard battles when they retook the city after the Tet offensive in 1968. Finally, because we are seeing a sudden and vast extension of the liberated zones. The gain is not only geographical; it is also military, economic, political, and human - in spite of the attempts of the puppet army to empty the abandoned regions of their population. Cambodia and Vietnam. The current force of the Indochinese revolution is asserting itself with brilliance. The gradual shift in the situation in favor of the revolutionary forces that has been going on since the signing of the Paris accords two years ago is now leading to an outright overturn in the relationship of forces. The fears of a Ford or a Kissinger are understandable. The imperialist imposse in Indochina today is finding an echo in Thailand, where communist guerrillas 4 the victory of the indochinese toilers will be our victory as well are scoring successes and where the presence of the U.S. bases is for the first time becoming a real political problem in Bangkok. Above all, it is the first time that U.S. imperialism, the most powerful imperialism in the world, has been defeated by a people in arms, even though it had engaged in a total war against that people; this is what is happening today, at least in Cambodia. In spite of the B-52s, the expeditionary force, the terrorist groups and the Phoenix Project, the pacification and the Vietnamization, the psychological warfare and the policy of socially and economically corrupting the population. It is a part of the world where every day brings closer the final victory of a revolutionary battle against imperialism. It is Indochina. This final victory is not yet won, and we must expect new American maneuvers, especially in Saigon, aimed at maintaining the neocolonial presence, at least in Vietnam. The international revolutionary movement must remain prepared to respond to these maneuvers with all means af its command. But for thirty years the struggle of the Indochinese peoples has highlighted an essential battle for us; it is a road for the struggles of the workers of the world that is an alternative to the reformist sidetrack. It is the alternative of revolutionary combat. The victory of the Indochinese toilers will be our victory as well. March 20, 1975
after the March 11 attempted coup:
MASS ACTION "A Foolish Coup, " read the headline of the re