CHE GUEVARA
Breaks His Silence
“Vietnam and the World Struggle for Freedom’
FULL TEXT
CONTENTS -- See back page.
New York, N. Y. 10010. SSP
VIETNAM AND THE WORLD STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
By Ernesto "Che" Guevara
[The text of an article sent by Comandante Ernesto "Che" Guevara from "somewhere in the world" to the Executive Secretariat of the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America was made public by that body and carried by Prensa Latina in its bulletin of April 17.
{Prensa Latina reports that it is to appear in the first issue of a new magazine called Tricontinental which will begin publication in Havana in June.
(The translation below is by World Outlook. ]
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The slogan is to create two, three ...-many Vietnams.
"It is the time of the furnaces, and it is only necessary to see the glow." (José Marti.)
It is not twenty-one years since the end of the last world conflagration and various publications, in an infinity of tongues, are celebrating the event symbolizing the defeat of Japan. There is an atmosphere of apparent optimism in many sectors of the different camps into which the world is divided.
Twenty-one years without a world war, in these days of maximum confrontations, of violent encounters and abrupt turns, appears to be a very high number. But, without analyzing the practical results of this peace for which all of us are prepared to struggle (misery, degradation, constantly increasing exploitation of enormous sectors of the world), it is appropriate to ask whether it is real.
It is not my intention in these notes to give an account of the various conflicts of a local character that have occurred since Japan surrendered. Neither is it our task to cite the numerous and growing civil struggles that have broken out in these years of so-called peace. It is sufficient to offer as examples countering the excessive optimism, the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
In the first, after years of ferocious struggle, the north part of the country was left with the most terrible devastation in the annals of modern war; riddled with bombs, without factories, schools or hospitals -- without any kind of housing to shelter ten million inhabitants.
In this war, under the deceptive banner of the United Nations, dozens of countries intervened under the military leadership of the United States, with the massive participation of troops of that country and utilization of the conscripted south Korean population as cannon fodder.
On the other side, the army and people of Korea and the volunteers from the People's Republic of China were supplied and assisted by the Soviet military apparatus.
The North Americans tried out every kind of means of destruction, excluding thermonuclear weapons but including bacteriological and chemical arms on a limited scale.
in Vietnam fighting has been carried on almost uninterruptedly by the patriots of that country against three imperialist powers: Japan, whose power collapsed with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; France, which recovered its Indochinese colonies from this defeated power, disregarding the promises made in a time of duress; and the United States, in the latest phase of the conflict.
There have been limited confrontations in all continents, even when in the Americas, for a long time, all that occurred was attempts at freedom struggles and barracks overturns until the Cuban revolution sounded its trumpet call, showing the importance of this region and drawing the rage of the imperialists upon it, compelling it to defend itself on the beaches at Playa Girén first and later during the October crisis.
The latter incident could have touched off a war of incalculable proportions by bringing on a clash over Cuba between the North Americans and the Soviets.
But obviously, at the present moment the contradictions are centered in the territory of the Indochinese peninsula and the neighboring countries.
Laos and Vietnam were shaken by civil wars until they passed beyond that after North American imperialism intervened with all its power and the whole zone became converted into a dangerous, sputtering fuse leading to a powder keg.
In Vietnam the confrontation has acquired extreme sharpness. It is not my intention to go into the hi