OMINOUS U.S. MOVES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
_ [The United Secretariat of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution founded by: Leon Trotsky in 1938, issued the following statement May 21.] |
* *
The present stage of the imperialist aggression against the Vietnamese revolution has clearly reached a blind alley. The growing resistance of the South Vietnamese masses against the corrupt Ky regime has completely exposed the lie with which Amer-~ ican imperialism justified its intervention in the Vietnamese civil war; their fraudulent claim of acting in conformity with the wishes of the people of south Vietnan.
The decomposition of the south Vietnam puppet armies now | puts on the imperialist troops the main burden of the war against the south Vietnamese National Liberation Front. The heroic resistance of these freedom fighters has destroyed any hope of military victory for the Pentagon in _the present form of war which it conducts against then.
The barbarous bombing of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam has in no way broken the fighting spirit of the people of north Vietnam, who-more than ever are determined to participate in the common struggle of the Vietnamese people for a free and united socialist Vietnam. . e.
Under these conditions the ruling circles of American imperialism, unwilling to recognize the defeat of their attempt to stop the tide of the Vietnamese Revolution by military repression, seriously consider opening up a higher stage in the escalation towards global war.
_ They have started to participate in the military repression against the rising masses of north Thailand and are busy planning interventions against the liberated territories of Laos and the neutral regime of Cambodia. These new acts of aggression will spread the flames of war over a large part of the Southeast Asian peninsula.
A blockade of the harbor of Haiphong and direct air attacks against the cities of Haiphong and Hanoi are now openly projected as a new stage of the imperialist aggression. These new outrages would directly endanger the military security of the People's Republic of China. These have been clearly and repeatedly defined as the signals which would bring down large-scale intervention of Chinese volunteers to the side of their embattled ally.
The maddest circles in the Pentagon not only are not frightened by such an eventuality but actually welcome it. For them the whole purpose of the military intervention against the
Vietnamese Revolution :is to provoke as early as possible a military -showdown with. the People ' s. Republic of China and to destroy by atomic bombing the main ; industrial centers. which make China. the third nuclear power.
“An ‘ominous sign of what is in the making is the “eynieal ; warning by the Pentagon against the use of the latest.type air-..° 7 craft by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the further announcement that south Chinese airfields would not be "recognized as privileged sanctuaries." This warning was promptly underscored by the violation of Chinese territory by American aircraft and the downing of a Chinese plane ovér the province of Yunan.
In this preparatory phase of a new.stage of American . imperialism's escalation towards global war the one voice :which-. has been silent on a decisive point has been the voice of the leaders of the Soviet Union. They have the power to stop any project of American aggression against China by making a clear and unequivocal declaration..that the government of the Soviet Union would consider such an-attack as an attack against its own a territory to be answered with all appropriate means at. its. disposal.
‘Such a declaration is not only:an elementary duty from ce the point of view of the defense of the Soviet Union; it is the ..-. main-contribution which could be made today-to stop: the escalation. toward. global nuclear war. For it is certain.that the crisis of American imperialism and the world. imperialist system has not yet reached the point where Washington is ready to risk. nuclear death. as against retreating from Vietnam. s:
A declaration of basic solidarity with the People's Republic of China would also be the main prerequisite for estab-. lishing the necessary united front of all the workers states in. the defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It would help. dissipate the suspicions of the Chinese leaders that.the Kremlin. . plans to stay on the sidelines in the event of an American ne aggression against China. It should be underlined. that notwith- 9. standing their incorrect talk about "capitalist restoration" in |. the Soviet..Union, the Chinese leaders have solemnly reconfirmed . their resolution to come to the assistance of the Soviet Union. in the event of an American military aggression; this as late as. April 1966. -
The silence of the leaders of the Soviet Union on the. preparation of war against China is a blow against the interests. 7 of defense of the Soviet Union and all the: workers states, a crime. against the interests of peace. ce -
The United: Secretariat of the Fourth International calls upon all communists, working-class and anti-imperialist militants and movements throughout the world to.demand from the Soviet _ leaders an immediate declaration of solidarity with People’ S China in face of the growing threat. .
It calls upon them to step up their actions for solidarity with the Vietnamese Revolution, their actions of. struggle against the counterrevolutionary wars of United States imperialism, their actions to extend the revolution to new countries and thereby force imperialism to disperse its forces more and more over the globe and to weaken its pressure upon the revolutionary masses of Southeast Asia. ~