Fallacy of 'De-Americanizatiori
U.S. Leaning on Reed in Vietnam
U.S. misadventure in Vietnam is tragic and no doubt about its bankruptcy is entertained by world and American public opinion. Withdrawal of the expeditionary corps has become an unpleasant necessity forced on Washington by the Vietnamese on the one hand and by the Americans on the other.
Not resigning himself to giving up the imperialist objectives pursued thus far, the perfidious hawk Nixon thinks he has found a magic formula for a victory at cheaper price in "de-Americanization" or "Vietnamization" of the war.
It consists of beefing up the puppet army by drafting as many youths as possible, thrusting into their hands a quantity of weapons and equipment as modern as U.S. military security can allow, training them in the use of this armory in the shortest time possible, and then matching them against their compatriots in the name of the latter's freedom and self-determination.
It is a miracle of simplicity. However, this puppet army must stand its ground in face of an adversary that has, within a quarter of a century, defeated the Japanese and the French armies, and successfully confronted the Americans.
INGLORIOUS PAST
Born in the wagons of the French expeditionary corps during the dirty 1945-1954 Indochina war, the puppet army is handicapped irremediably by quite an inglorious past.
Its first nuclei consisted of units of auxiliary troops recruited from among the riff-raff in occupied areas and armed by the French colonialists.
Nguyen Van Thieu, the present puppet president and commander in chief, is one of these veterans because in 1946 he wore the stripes of a sergeant. The same is true of virtually all other senior officers.
During the different offensives of the Vietnamese People's Army, especially in the period of Dien Bien Phu, these outfits virtually disintegrated. Of their remnants regrouped in the south after the Geneva agreements were signed in 1954 and patched up with the help of dollars, weapons, and advisers, dictator Ngo Din)i Diem made a "republican army" whose primary task it was to "fill up Ben Hai river" which serves as the demarcation
line between the two zones. North and South Vietnam.
However, faced with the upsurge of the revolutionary movement in the South, this army had to wheel towards internal repression.
In 1959-60, even with its 300,-000 men under arms, it was powerless in face of the "simultaneous popular uprisings," with the result that Washington had to start the special war in the years 1961-1965.
Despite its 500,000 men, a 20-1 troop ratio according to U.S. estimates, its losses kept rising year after year.
WEAKNESS PLAIN
Impotence of the puppet army forced the Pentagon into a massive U.S. troop buildup in South Vietnam.
At first, the Gls replaced the puppet troops in guarding the bases and the rear to enable the latter to do the fighting, in which they soon proved inept. General Westmoreland then chose to commit his own forces to action beside the puppet troops. It did not take the Americans long to find out that this cooperation was fruitless and even dangerous to themselves.
Next, it was a further step in the "Americanization" of thp war: the Gls now shouldered the combat load alone while the puppets were moved behind the line to take up pacification task. This modest job was still so heavy for them that U.S. troops had to assume a major share.
Since the 1968 Tet offensives, the weaknesses of the puppet army have been even more evident.
In 1965 when the puppet army
George Legeb<<koff photo
® Here Huynh Van Ba {extreme left) and Le Psuong (extreme right), representatives of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front, are seen (left to right) with Dr. Benjamin Spock, world renowned U.S. pediatrician; Rev. A. R. T. Dixon, minister at Vancouver Heights United Church; and Vancouver Alderman Harry Rankin. The two South Vietnamese shared the platform with Dr. Spock at a meeting held November 5 in Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
was in charge of all operations on the battlefield its losses amounted to 40 battalions destroyed or decimated. These figures doubled to 79 battalions in 1958, while it enjoyed maximum U.S. support.
MORALE LACKING
Nixon and his military advisers are well aware of the great defects of this army on to which
Out by Year 2263
Official Pentagon figures for the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam from August 31 to October 2 show: August 31 509,800 September 4 509,600 September 11 508,000 September 18 510,200 September 25 511,500 October 2 509,600 Net Withdrawal in six weeks 200 At this rate, points out I. F. Stone's Weekly, from which these figures are taken, the United States would withdraw 1,732 men every 12 months and be out of Vietnam in 294 years.
they intend to shift the heavy combat tasks of the war.
In the limited areas under control of the puppet regime, the troop levy has become a real scourge of the people and a source of constant anxiety for all families. The husband or the adolescent boy, at home, at work, at school or in the street, by day or by night, risks being taken and thrown without previous notice in a military truck to be driven, often tied up, to a recruiting centre.
While this fans the hatred of the people against the puppets, it still fails to swell the ranks sensibly because battle losses and desertions cut big gaps in the Saigon army: close to 185,000 deserters in the first half of 1969 alone.
In the officer corps, political connections and bribes, not military talent, determine promotion. A colonel's stripes can be bought in Saigon for a few hundred thousand dollars, which are rapidly paid off once the rank is obtained.
Widespread corruption is revealed by such scandals as the theft of U.S. material by officers
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THE FISHERMAN — NOVEMBER 14, 1969
of the puppet marine under the baton of Nguyen Van Thieu, and the opium traffic conducted by air pilots under the control of Nguyen Cao Ky.
Following his inspection tour of South Vietnam last March, U.S. defence secretary Melvin Laird proposed a $256 million budget for modernization of the puppet troops.
Hundreds of thousands of M.16 automatic rifies still not available to any other armies in the U.S. camp, except the American, several squadrons of A37 attack jet planes, river flotillas with modern units, sufficient artillery to equip four battalions have been handed over to the puppet troops.
But the weakness of the puppet troops is not lack of hardware, but morale.
BIG BLUFF
Great efforts have been made to give the puppet troops intensive training which will put them in a position to fulfil the task Washington wants to assign to them.
But the main difficulty is to determine what to teach the puppet troops and what combat methods to be adopted.
In fact, all U.S. tactics, classic or modern, have been tried on the battlefield, and all have proved ineffective in face of the extraordinary "Charlie" (the Gls' nickname for People's Liberation Army fighters): heliborne operations, armored personnel carriers, overhead encirclement (thanks to paratroops and helicopters!, fire support bases, floating bases, river assaults.
The Pentagon reportedly has estimated that it will cost $6.2 billion and take five years or even longer to equip, train and modernize the puppet army. But in five years, who knows if this army will still exist to serve the Pentagon!
If the whole war load that has crushed both the expeditionary corps and the puppet army is shifted on to the puppet regime's shoulders, no prophet is needed to predict its total collapse.
Persistence in this "de-Americanization" by the Nixon administration to gain at lower cost its imperialist ends is a dangerous game which will bring on it even more humiliating setbacks. "Vietnamization" is in reality a big bluff designed to appease public opinion which is growing impatient of Washington's continued aggression in Vienam.
In laying down unrealistic conditions, Nixon hopes to create pretexts for continuation of the war and put the blame on the Vietnamese people.
Whatever its motivation, "de-Americanization" of the U.S. war of aggression can by no means constitute a sheet anchor for its criminal adventure.
• Condensed from the Vietnam Courier, information weekly published in Hanoi.
