STATEMENT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOUTH VIETNAM NATIONAL FRONT FOR LIBERATION

(March 22, 1965) 

For more than ten years, the U.S. imperialists have continuously interfered in and committed aggression against South Vietnam. Of late, they brought into South Vietnam many more units of U.S. combat troops com­posed of missile units, marines, B-57 strategic bombers together with mercenary troops from south Korea, Tai­wan, the Philippines, Australia, Malaya, etc. 

They even frenziedly ordered air forces of the U.S. and its henchmen to conduct repeated air raids against North Vietnam and Laos. At present, not only are they stubbornly prosecuting their criminal aggressive war in South Vietnam but also attempting to fan up the flames of war throughout Indo-China and Southeast Asia. 

The puppet administration, hangers-on of the U.S., in South Vietnam is daily committing more heinous crimes against the country. The impudent traitors are bending their knees before the aggressors and are bringing in snakes to kill chickens of the home coop, inviting troops of the United States and many of its satellite countries to come to South Vietnam to massacre our people, occupy and trample upon the territory of our sacred fatherland and oppress and exploit our people most harshly. 

The Vietnamese people and the people throughout Inda-China and Southeast Asia and all people of the world who love peace and justice are highly indignant at and strongly protesting against the criminal war­mongering and aggressive acts of the U.S. imperialists. 

Facing the present situation of utmost gravity, the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation deems it necessary to reaffirm once again its iron-like and unswerving stand to carry through the war of resistance against the U.S. imperialists. 

1. THE U.S. IMPERIALISTS ARE THE SABOTEUR OF THE GENEVA AGREEMENTS, THE MOST BRAZEN WAR­ MONGER AND AGGRESSOR AND THE SWORN  ENEMY OF THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE 

As is known to everyone, the extremely glorious war of resistance of the Vietnamese people defeated the aggressive war of the French colonialists with the inter­vention and assistance of the U.S. imperialists. In fact, during the past war of resistance of the Vietnamese peo­ple, the U.S. imperialists supplied to the French colonial­ists 2,600 million dollars, hundreds of thousands of tons of armaments and 200 military advisers to strangle the aspiration for independence and freedom of the Viet­namese people. However, with their indomitableness and determination to die rather than be enslaved, their courage and their staunch resolve to fight and with the wholehearted support of the people throughout the world, the heroic Vietnamese people won great victories, liberated half of their beloved country from the clutches of the enemy, leading to the conclusion of an interna­tional agreement in Geneva in 1954 which solemnly rec­ognized the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, restored peace in this area and laid the basis for the reunification of Vietnam by peaceful means. 

The Vietnamese people deeply understand the value of these agreements. Now as in the past they are cor­rectly implementing these agreements and are resolved to see these agreements implemented in accordance with the spirit and letter of an international agreement of full legality. On the contrary, the U.S. imperialists and their henchmen in South Vietnam have step by step and daily more brazenly trampled on the Geneva agreements and have in fact scrapped them. They have brazenly conducted an atrocious war of aggression in South Viet­nam during the past 11 years in an attempt to enslave and oppress the South Vietnamese people, turn South Vietnam into one of their colonies and military bases and perpetuate the division of Vietnam. 

Before the ink had dried on the Geneva agreements, the U.S. imperialists hastily dragged their henchmen satellites into setting up the SEATO military bloc and brazenly put South Vietnam under the protective um­brella of this bloc, which amounted in reality to placing South Vietnam under the command of the United States. Since then, the U.S. has undertaken ever deeper and more brazen intervention in South Vietnam. From the end of 1954 to 1959 the U.S. imperialists and the puppet Ngo Dinh Diem Administration carried out repeated bar­barous raiding and persecution campaigns such as the Truong Tan Buu, Thoai Ngoc Hau Campaigns, frenziedly massacring patriotic peace-loving people of all walks of life and former resistance members and exterminating the religious sects and all others who did not side with them. 

Right in the first days of peace the blood of the South Vietnamese people was already shed in Duy Xuyen, Huong Dien, Cho Duoc, Vinh Trinh and many other places, and even in the streets of Saigon. In order to step up their large-scale and barbarous raiding operations, the U.S. imperialists and their henchmen enacted the fascist law 10 /59 outlawing the South Vietnamese people and all other political groupings and individuals who opposed them and whom they called "Communists". At the same time they set up guillotines all over South Viet­nam. In this period, according to incomplete figures, the U.S. hangmen and their henchmen massacred or detained hundreds of thousands of patriots in South Vietnam for the only reason that they struggled for peace and demanded the execution of the provisions of the Geneva agreements, demanded consultation on general elections to reunite the country or simply because they refused to submit to them. 

The criminal acts of the U.S. imperialists and their henchmen naturally fanned up the flames of anger throughout Vietnam and aroused a wave of seething anger throughout the world. 

Public opinion in Vietnam and Asia and the just public opinion all over the five continents severely condemned the tyrannical acts of the U.S. imperialists and their henchmen and voiced their demand that they stop their war-seeking and aggressive acts against the South Vietnamese people and correctly implement the 1954 Geneva agreements. 

However, in defiance of the protest of the people of the world who love peace and justice, the U.S. impe­rialists stubbornly continued to push forward their piratical war in South Vietnam. 

During the past 11 years, by carrying out a policy of aggressive colonialism in South Vietnam, the U.S. impe­rialists have poured 4,000 million dollars disguised under the signboard of "aid", more than 80 per cent of which are direct military expenditures. The aggressive war in South Vietnam was given special attention by the U.S. ruling circles. The late U.S. President Kennedy and the present U.S. President Johnson, the U.S. National Security Council, the Defence Department, State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have daily been follow­ing all developments in South Vietnam. Honolulu has become the site for regular monthly meetings of the ring­leaders of the White House, Pentagon and the U.S. generals in the Pacific area to discuss plans of invading South Vietnam. 

To grasp firmly and command directly the war of aggression against South Vietnam, besides the military mission M.A.G., the U.S. imperialists set up the U.S. military command in Saigon headed by Paul D. Harkins and recently they rigged up the so-called "U.S.-Vietnam joint command" which is in reality a military organ of the U.S. vested with the highest power in South Vietnam and placed under the direct command of the U.S. President and Defence Department to prosecute the war of aggression against South Vietnam. Nearly all the high officials of the U.S. including department secretaries and generals have come to South Vietnam to supervise and draw up plans of aggression. To direct their predatory war on the spot, the U.S. Government has sent to Saigon a series of well-known generals of the U.S. like O'Daniel, James Collins, McGarr, Williams, P. D. Harkins, etc. More recently it sent there Maxwell Taylor, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces, with a group of generals and colonels such as W. C. Westmoreland, John L. Throckmorton, etc. The U.S. imperialists and their henchmen have used all their modern weapons and war means except atomic bombs, to terrorize and massacre the South Vietnamese people with the hope of achieving their only goal that is to im­pose their domination on the South Vietnamese people and turn South Vietnam into their colony and military base.

For nearly 11 years now they have conducted over 160,000 raids big or small, killed nearly 170,000 persons, wounded or disabled by tortures nearly 800,000 others, detained over 400,000 persons in more than 1,000 jails, raped tens of thousands of women including old women, children and religious believers, disembowelled, plucked out livers and biles of the victims and buried alive over 5,000 persons, razed to the ground a large number of villages, herded over 5 million persons into 8,000 con­centration camps disguised as "prosperity zones", "re­settlement centres", "strategic hamlets" and the like, sprayed toxic chemicals on many areas, destroying hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops and fruit trees and affecting tens of thousands of persons. They have also demolished thousands of pagodas, churches, holy sees or temples, killing tens of thousands of religious believers. Under the iron heels of the cruel American aggressors and their lackeys, the beautiful and fertile land of South Vietnam has been turned into a land of ruins and desolation. The barbarous fascist regime of the U.S. imperialists and their flunkeys in South Vietnam is even more cruel than the Hitlerite fascist regime or the dark regime in medieval times. 

The above facts suffice to expose forcefully the crimes of the U.S. imperialists and their quislings and their bellicose, aggressive and traitorous nature. The U.S. im­perialists and their lackeys have not only violated the provisions of ceasefire agreement and the final declara­tion of the 1954 Geneva Conference, but also blatantly and entirely scrapped all these international agreements. The Washington authorities and the Vietnamese traitors have not only flouted the Geneva agreements but also grossly trampled upon the spirit and letter of inter­national law and the resolution of the Bandung Con­ference. These are undeniable realities. To cover up their piratical nature, the U.S. imperialists have resorted to deceitful signboards which nevertheless cannot fool the world's people. It is necessary to recall that the so­ called "White Paper" recently issued by Washington is completely null and void. This clumsy thief-crying­stop-thief trick has thrown more light on their intention to intensify and expand their aggressive war. At pres­ent, reality in South Vietnam is that the U.S. impe­rialists are waging a criminal aggressive war, that the U.S. imperialists are the most impudent saboteur of the Geneva agreements, the most dangerous war provocateur and aggressor and the sworn enemy of the peoples of Vietnam, Indo-China and the rest of the world. 

2. THE HEROIC SOUTH VIETNAMESE PEOPLE ARE RE• SOLVED TO DRIVE OUT THE U.S. IMPERIALISTS IN ORDER TO LIBERATE SOUTH VIETNAM, ACHIEVE  AN INDEPENDENT, DEMOCRATIC, PEACEFUL  AND NEUTRAL SOUTH VIETNAM, WITH  A VIEW TO NATIONAL REUNIFICATION 

The South Vietnamese people have always cherished peace, but are determined not to sit with folded arms and let the U.S. aggressors and their henchmen do what they like in trampling upon their homeland and ride on their backs. They would rather die than be enslaved. The 14 million valiant South Vietnamese people have stood up like one man in undaunted struggle to defeat the U.S. aggressors and the traitors so as to liberate South Vietnam, achieve independence, democracy, peace and neutrality in South Vietnam, in contribution to the maintenance of peace in Indo-China and Southeast Asia. The patriotic war of the South Vietnamese people fully conforms to the most elementary and basic principles of international law concerning the peoples' right to self­determination and to wage a patriotic and self-defence war against foreign aggression. In their sacred liberation war, the South Vietnamese people have used all kinds of weapons to fight against the enemy. The chief and biggest arms supplier for the South Vietnamese people's armed forces is nobody else than the U.S. imperialists themselves who have sustained heavy and repeated set­backs over the past years. 

Starting with bare hands at the beginning, the South Vietnamese people have immense achievements to their credit and recorded extremely glorious military exploits. They are firmly convinced that with their own strength and the wholehearted support of the people throughout the world, they will certainly win complete victory. The U.S. imperialists and their lackeys are at the end of their rope and are in ever greater despair. They are being knocked down in the powerful storm of the South Vietnamese people's revolution and they are still floundering desperately before dying. To retrieve that serious situation, the U.S. imperialists are blindly taking the risk of plunging headlong into extremely dangerous military adventures. 

The fact that the U.S. imperialists dispatched to South Vietnam more weapons and combat troops of the U.S. navy, army and air force, more mercenary troops of south Korea and other U.S. satellites, used air force to raid the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Kingdom of Laos, etc., is no indication of their strength but instead, is only the frenzied action of a truculent enemy who has lost his senses. It can intimidate nobody. The present intensification and expansion by the U.S. imperialists of their aggressive war is in itself one of their pitiful failures and proves that the colonialist and aggressive policy carried out in South Vietnam over the past 11 years and their so-called "special war" have gone bank­rupt. 

If in their "special war", they are being so seriously bogged down, the U.S. imperialists will be tied up still more closely if they launch a local war. If they are rash enough to extend the war to North Vietnam, In do-China or farther, they will surely meet with still more shameful and quicker defeat. 

The South Vietnam National Front for Liberation once again asserts that the U.S. scheme to send to South Viet­nam more combat troops of the navy, ground and air forces of the U.S. and its satellites, to conduct air strikes against North Vietnam and the Kingdom of Laos in an attempt to gain a "position of strength" and compel the South Vietnam National Liberation Front and the South Vietnamese people to sell out their fatherland in some negotiation with the U.S., is definitely only a daydream of men politically crazy and militarily adventurist. The South Vietnamese people would like to tell the U.S. impe­rialists and their agents: At present, the only way out for the U.S. imperialists are to get out of South Vietnam. If you stubbornly continue plunging headlong into the war you will sustain the biggest and most shameful failures. On behalf of the 14 million valiant Sou.th Viet­namese people, the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation solemnly declares: The South Vietnamese people and their armed forces are resolved never to relax their hold on their arms so long as they have not reached their goals: independence, democracy, peace and neutral­ity. The South Vietnamese people are determined to continue dealing hammering blows at the U.S. aggressors and their lackeys, and they will surely win the final victory. All negotiations with the U.S. imperialists at this moment are utterly useless if they still refuse to withdraw from South Vietnam all their troops and all kinds of war materials and means and those of their satellite countries, if they still refuse to dismantle all their military bases in South Vietnam, if the traitors still surrender South Viet­namese people's sacred rights to independence and de­mocracy to the U.S. imperialists and if the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation -the only genuine repre­sentative of the fourteen million South Vietnamese people - does not have its decisive voice. 

3.THE VALIANT SOUTH VIETNAMESE PEOPLE AND THE SOUTH VIETNAM LIBERATION ARMY ARE RESOLVED TO ACCOMPLISH TO THE FULL THEIR SACRED DUTY TO DRIVE OUT THE U.S. IMPERIALISTS SO AS TO  LIBERATE SOUTH VIETNAM AND DEFEND  NORTH VIETNAM 

Vietnam is one, the Vietnamese people are one. North and South Vietnam are of the same family. This senti­ment is higher than mountains and deeper than the sea. This truth is like the sun rising in the east and cannot be shaken by any force whatsoever. In the present state of blood and fire, in a life-and-death struggle against the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys, the heart cannot but suffer when the hand is cut. That the people in North Vietnam should be resolved to fulfil their duty towards their kith-and-kin in South Vietnam fully conforms to sentiment and reason. 

On behalf of the 14 million South Vietnamese people, the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation conveys to their 17 million relatives in the north their steel-like confidence and unswerving commitment: "The heroic South Vietnamese people and the South Vietnam Libera­tion Army are determined to accomplish to the full their sacred duty to drive out the U.S. imperialists, liberate South Vietnam and defend the north, with a view to the reunification of their fatherland." 

Recently, to save their critical situation and their in­evitable collapse in South Vietnam, the U.S. imperialists and their flunkeys recklessly sent aircraft and warships to bomb, strafe and shell North Vietnam, but they have received due punishment. Over 50 American Jet planes have been shot down. The South Vietnam army and peo­ple greatly rejoice at and warmly hail those brilliant military exploits of the North Vietnam army and people.

 The heart suffers when the hand is cut! To defend the beloved north, the army and people of the south have given vent to their flames of anger at the U.S. aggressors and their agents. If the U.S. imperialists attack the north of our fatherland once, the army and people of the south are resolved to strike twice or thrice as hard at them. 

In February, while the aggressors and traitors attacked the north, in the south the Liberation Army launched stormy attacks on important military bases and main forces of the enemy, putting out of action 20,706 enemy troops (among them nearly 600 U.S. aggressors killed, wounded or captured), seizing 4,144 guns of various kinds and shooting down, damaging or destroying 111 aircraft of various types. 

The South Vietnam National Liberation Front warns the U.S. imperialists and the Vietnamese traitors: You have not been able to vanquish the 14 million people of South Vietnam, don't entertain any hope of defeating all the 30 million people of Vietnam. Your acts of military adventure and war expansion definitely cannot help you out of the quagmile, instead, these will lead you more quickly to suicide. 

Also to extricate themselves from their predicament in South Vietnam, the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys have repeatedly sent aircraft to bomb and strafe the liberated areas in Laos, repeatedly violated the border and territory of Cambodia, sprayed toxic chemicals and dropped bombs to massacre the Cambodian people. But the U.S. aggressors and their hirelings also received well-deserved counter-blows from the armies and peoples of Laos and Cambodia. 

The South Vietnamese people warmly hail the in­domitable and heroic fighting spirit of the peoples of the two neighboring countries. The South Vietnamese people are resolved to stand firmly by the side of the peoples of Laos and Cambodia in the struggle against the common enemy-U.S. imperialism and its flunkeys. The people and Liberation Army of South Vietnam are determined to defeat the U.S. aggressors and their agents in South Vietnam -the starting point of the acts of war and piracy of the U.S. and its agents against the King­doms of Laos and Cambodia. 

The South Vietnamese people once again greet the glorious successes of the recent Inda-Chinese Peoples' Conference. 

The National Liberation Front and people of South Vietnam warn the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys that should they dare expand the aggressive war to the whole of Vietnam and fan up the flames of war to the whole of Indo-China, the invincible strength of the 30 million people of Vietnam and the strength of hundreds of millions of people in Indo-China and Asia, able to move mountain and fill up sea, will wipe them out and bury them. 

4.THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE PEOPLE EXPRESS THEIR PROFOUND GRATITUDE TO THE WHOLEHEARTED SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD WHO CHERISH PEACE AND JUSTICE AND DECLARE THEIR READINESS TO RECEIVE ALL ASSIST-ANCE INCLUDING WEAPONS AND ALL OTHER WAR MATERIALS FROM THEIR FRIENDS IN THE FIVE CONTINENTS 

The just and patriotic struggle of the South Viet­namese people have enjoyed the sympathy, support and encouragement of the people of the whole world who love peace and justice. Not only have the world's people supported the South Vietnamese people morally but have also assisted and are assisting them materially. Of course the South Vietnamese people and their representative - the National Liberation Front-are fully entitled to ac­cepting and warmly welcoming this valuable assistance.

The South Vietnam National Liberation Front has always relied mainly on its own strength and capability, but it is ready to accept all assistance both moral and material, including weapons and all other war materials from all the socialist countries, the nationalist countries as well as all the international organizations and peace­loving people the world over. Besides, the Front reserves for itself the right to buy weapons and war materials from other countries to strengthen the potentials of its self­defence war.

The International Conference for Solidarity with the People of Vietnam Against U.S. Imperialist Aggression and for the Defence of Peace which was held late last year and attended by representatives from over fifty countries and sixteen international organizations gave a positive response to these urgent and quite legitimate demands of ours. If the U.S. imperialists continue to commit U.S. combat troops and those of their satellites to South Viet­nam and continue to extend the war to North Vietnam and Laos, the South Vietnam National Liberation Front will call on the peoples of various countries to send youth and army men to South Vietnam to side with the South Vietnamese people in annihilating the common enemy.

While the U.S. imperialists are constantly sowing sufferings and death in South Vietnam, the South Viet­nam National Liberation Front, if need be, cannot but call back the sons and daughters of South Vietnam, who have regrouped to the north in observance of the cease­fire agreement and who had to live far from South Vietnam during ten long years, to take arms to annihilate the enemy to save their country and families. A Viet­namese proverb runs: "To peel the thick skin of a tan­gerine there must be a sharp finger-nail." The invincible fingernail of the Vietnamese people and the peace-loving people all over the world decidedly will not spare the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys, who will have to bear all the extremely serious consequences arising from their aggressive and war-seeking acts. Once again, on behalf of the 14 million people of South Vietnam, the Central Committee of the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation expresses deep gratitude to the peoples of the socialist countries, the nationalist countries the international organizations and the peace-and ju􀀹tice­loving people throughout the world who have whole­heartedly supported the just patriotic war of resistance of the South Vietnamese people. More than ever we con­sider it our glorious internationalist duty to devote all our energy and make all sacrifices to contribute a worthy share to the very great common cause of struggle of all nations to defend independence, democracy, peace, and social progress in Indo-China, Southeast Asia and all over the world and to defeat the international gendarme -the warlike and aggressive U.S. imperialists.

5.TO UNITE THE WHOLE PEOPLE, TO ARM THE WHOLE PEOPLE, CONTINUE TO MARCH FORWARD HEROI­CALLY AND BE RESOLVED TO FIGHT AND TO DEFEAT THE U.S. AGGRESSORS AND THE VIETNAMESE TRAITORS 

The armed struggle waged by the South Vietnamese people against the U.S. aggressors and their henchmen have won very great victories.

The U.S. imperialists and their lackeys are formidable in appearance but are inwardly very weak and very confused and more isolated than ever. The South Viet­namese people bearing in mind their vow "rather to die than to be enslaved" will definitely smash the barbarous and predatory enemy. 

The South Vietnam National Liberation Front and peo­ple not only have justice but have also developed and are developing rapidly their material and organizational strength, they have been and are the glorious victors, the more they fight the stronger they become and the more and greater their victories. 

We are worthy successors to and have carried to a high point the tradition of Dien Bien Phu and the heroic tradition of the Vietnamese nation with 4,000 years of history against the invaders. Moreover, the South Viet­nam National Liberation Front and the South Vietnamese people are fighting heroically in extremely favorable conditions of the present era when the oppressed nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America have risen up like storms. The socialist countries and the forces of de­mocracy and peace all over the world are an important factor stimulating the advance of mankind, overwhelm­ing and annihilating imperialism and colonialism under all guises. If the U.S. imperialists and their henchmen are rash enough to fan up the flames of war and spread them all over Indo-China, the people of this area and Southeast Asia as a whole are resolved to stand up and sweep them out into the ocean. 

The South Vietnamese people and their only genuine representative-the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation -will undoubtedly win final victory. 

The South Vietnam National Liberation Front Central Committee calls on the fourteen million heroic South Vietna­mese people and the people's armed forces who are de­termined to fight and to win on all battlefronts, to hold their guns more firmly than ever, develop vigorously their indomitable and undaunted fighting spirit and resolutely fulfil the following tasks: 

- Unite the whole people in a monolithic bloc.

- Arm the whole people and let the whole people stand up like one man to chase away the American aggressors and the Vietnamese traitors. 

-The Liberation Army and the people's armed forces courageously march forward, fight continuously, vig­orously and hit accurately, fight without giving a minute of respite to the U.S. aggressors and their lackeys, and resolutely annihilate as many enemy forces as possible. 

-The rural people continue to rise up and destroy the remaining "strategic hamlets", smash all control of the enemy, widen the liberated areas to link up the liberated hamlets, villages and districts into a single stretch, transform the liberated areas into steady strong­holds, fight the enemy whenever they come and fight victoriously with the resolve to hold firmly to and defend their native places and fields. 

-The people of Saigon, Hue, Da Nang and other cities of South Vietnam urgently develop their revolutionary organizations, continue to turn out for demonstrations and step up their struggle in all fields vigorously and resolutely in order to demand that the U.S. imperialists and their quislings stop their aggressive war in South Vietnam, and to expose the Vietnamese traitors who are lending a hand to the aggressors and selling out their fatherland and people to them. 

All the people, cadres and armymen march heroically forward under the liberation banner, resolutely fight to drive out the U.S. aggressors and their quislings to save the country. 

Even if we are to carry out the struggle for 10, 20 years or longer, and have to suffer greater difficulties and hard­ships, we are prepared and resolved to fight and fight to the end until not a single U.S. soldier is seen in our country. 

The Vietnamese people have thousands of years of history. That is the heroic history of a heroic nation. During the past ten years of fighting against the U.S. imperialist aggressors and their quislings, the people and liberation armed forces of South Viet_nam have written a golden page in the glorious history of their people. 

We have won and we are winning, the U.S. imperialists and their agents have lost and are losing the war. This proves that our strength is invincible, that the U.S. ag­gressors and their agents are weak. If we have triumphed over the U.S. during the past ten years or more, we are now provided with all the favourable conditions to de­feat them. If the U.S. aggressors and their lackeys have been defeated during the past ten years or more, they are now all the weaker and will suffer heavier defeats. The imperialists will surely meet with shameful defeat especially if they extend the war to the north. We are absolutely confident that victory will belong to us. We are determined to fight, hit vigorously and ac­curately at the U.S. aggressors and their quislings to liberate the south, defend the north and reunify our fatherland.