WAR AND ATROCITY IN VIETNAM
The war in Vietnam is eighteen years oldo It began as a broad movement
of resistance to the French under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, a Communisto
It was fought with ferocity against an unarmed peasantry, using guerilla
tactics. The French were driven out of the North of Vietnam and the conflict
was halted during negotiations at Geneva, leading to the establishment of an
international Commission, intended to stabilise peace and watch over any
attempt at foreign intervention.
Before developing what I wish to say about this subject, I should like
to make clear that the facts in this article are taken from the daily paperso
Many are taken from bulletins of committees concerned with Vietnamo Some are
from reports of the South Vietnam Liberation Red Cross and others from a very
interesting book by Wilfred Go Burchett called "The Furtive War." Many of the
fasts have passed unscathed through the crucible of American denial. Many of
them have been accepted even-by the American authorities. All of them, I have
good reason to believe, are incontrovertible.
It is important to realise that, since the French were defeated finally
at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the war had been conducted surreptitiously under
American direction. A substantial number of American forces began to be com-
mitted there after the French withdrawal and the Geneva talks. One of the
most important aspects of this war has been that the United States pretended
for many years that no such war was taking place and that the war which was
not taking place was not being conducted by Americans. I have experienced
some frustration in attempting to bring to light the fact that the war has
been taking place and that Americans have been deeply involved in its conducto
At first, Western newspapers and even persons connected with the peace move-
ment in the West held that there was no evidence of American direction of this
war. The "New York Times" stated this several times. Finally, in the course
of controversy, it was allowed that American participation was solely in an
advisory oapacity. When it was alleged that chemicals were being employed by
the United States forces in Vietnam, it was first denied and then alleged that
the chemicals employed were used against American advice and wishes. It was
admitted that they were used under the direction of the United States, but it
was said that chemicals were harmless to human beings and were intended selely
for the purpose of clearing vegetation and feliageo I brought to public atten-
tion impressive and particularised evidence concerning the use of additional
chemicals and asked for international investigation of these allegations and
the evidence adduced to support themo I was informed by various Western
newspapers that no observers had found harmful results through the use of these
chemicals and that no condemnatory comment had been made by the International
Control Commission.
It is odd that this is advanced on behalf of that Commission. The functien
of the Commission was to regulate and prevent intervention from the outside.
The failure of this International Commission to place on record its observa-
tion of American participation was in violation of its mandate and does not
inspire confidence in its ability to detect chemicals where it failed to
detect armed forces, aircraft, military supplies and a full-scale waro I shall


wish to return to these more contemporary aspects of the war in Vietnam. It is
sufficient here to note that the extraordinary war which has been raging in Viet-
nam managed to elude the juridical commitments of the Geneva agreements. It
encompassed repression and extermination without any hindrance on the part of
the Control Commissions set up at Geneva, escaped for some time the notice of
the Western press and enjoyed restrained consideration by those nominally com-
mitted to opposition to Cold War, small wars and wars of annihilation.
THE U.S. AND DIEM
The history of French and Vietnamese relations, particularly in the North,
is much the same as that of the United States and South Vietnamo At the time of
the conclusion of the Second World War, a movement of rebellion began, acquired
new strength and culminated in the Geneva decisions. Vietnam was to be parti-
tioned for an interim period, with the North under the control of the forces of
Ho Chi Minh, and the South under the control of pro-Western groupso It was
agreed that there would be a general election throughout Vietnam, out of which
unification and neutralisation were expected to come. The Geneva Conferences
of 1955 were designed to bring neutralisation to all. of Indo-Chinao The United
States, though not a signatory to this Convention, accepted it in name and pro-
fessed it to be the basis of American policy in Indo-Chinao
In fact, the United States quickly decided that it was impossible to per-
mit a general election, in view of what it considered to be "the disturbed state
of the countryo' # The United States began to intervene actively with arms, money
and men and established in power a ruling oligarchy subservient to American
interests. This direct foreign intervention destroyed the purpose of the
Geneva agreements and was a test for the International Control Commission. Its
failure to instance this violation prepared the way for violence, the intrusion
of the Cold War and the present threat to the peace of the world in South East
Asia.
John Foster Dulles had urged the use of nuclear weapons at Dien Bien Phuo
His desire to encompass the area in the Cold War led to the formation of the
South East Asia Treaty Organisation. The purpose of this body was to forestall
neutrality and to forge a military alliance of anti-communists. The United
State's favoured Ngo Dinh Diem, a rich refugee from North Vietnam. He and his
family, together with the Nhu family, represented a group of landowners and the
Catholic hierarchy in Vietnam e a: small, closely knit circule. The Diem family
installed officers and relatives in various provinces, who administered them
virtually as private estates. Various religious sects and cults in Vietnam
were subdued because they failed to prove sufficiently loyal to the Diem regime.
The Diem and Nhu families were dependent upon American backing for their powero
American policy aimed at keeping South Vietnam in the enti-Communist camp and at
opposing all groups not subservient to that purposeo: The Vietcong were to be
eradicated, despite the fact that the Vietcong was neutralisto Diem's regime
was one of terror and persecution. Ghastly tortures were inflicted upon the
peasants. It is instructive that it has been possible for 350,000 people to be
placed in camps as political prisoners and for the greater part of the rural
population to be uprodted and put in camps without vigorous protest taking place.


Part of the responsibility for this default lies with the suppression of facts
which, until the last two years, characterised Western reports about Vietnamo
Part of the fault lies with the silence of peace groups, frightened to appear to
be supporting "the Communist side" of things.
One case is related in The Furtive War. It is that of a young girl:
"One day", she says, "I came home and there were two security
agents waiting for me. I was taken to the town of Faifo and
for months on end I was tortured very badlyo
Once I recovered
consciousness and found I was stark naked, blood oozing from
wounds all over my bodyo There were others in the cell. I
heard a woman moaning, and in the half dark saw a woman in a
pool of blood. She had been beaten into having a miscarriage.
Then, I made out an old mano An eye had been gouged out and he
was dyingo Alongside him was a thirteen or fourteen year old
boy, also dead; a little further away, another dead youth with
his head split openo They had thrown me there, hoping the sight
of this would break me downo"
Finally, she was covertly conveyed to North Vietnamo This story was sub-
sequently confirmed by neutral enquirerso It is typical of many among the
350,000 polical prisoners.
"STRATEGIC HAMLETS"
The vast majority of peasants support the Vietcongo It is estimated that
160,000 have died and as. many as 700,000 have been maimed. In order to combat
the support of the populatien, Diem and the Americans instituted what were
called "strategic hamlets", into which the inhabitants of rural areas and exist-
ing villages were, in cruel circumstances, moved at a moment's notice. "Strategic
hamlets" were, in reality, prisonso Those who had been forcibly brought into
them were unable to get outo These "hamlets" were surrounded by spikes, moats
and barbed wire and were. patrolled by guards with dogso They have all the
character of concentration camps. The London Observer estimated that 65 per
cent of the rural populatien, or over seven million people were inside these
"hamlets" by mid-1963. Their establishment was the result of a decision on the
part of the United States, publicly set out by WoWo Rostow, an adviser of the
State Department. He suggested that Vietnam should be used as an experimental
area for the development of anti-guerilla techniques and weapons by American
forces.
The rural population was stuffed into the "strategic hamlets" SO that
they would be shut off from the guerilla forces, who depended for their food
and manpower upon them. I wrote leiters to the Wa.shington Post and the New
York Times in 1963 in which I sought to set out the full nature of this war,
which I designated as a war of annihilation and atrocity. The New York Times
vigorously denounced me for making such a charge.
THE "ADVISORY CAPACITY"
The State Department denied that chemicals were used in Vietnam and the
New York Times admitted editorially that weedkillers were used, but stated


that napalm was not used by Americans but only by Vietnamese governmental forces.
Madame Nhu states: "If they don't like our chemicals why don't they get out of our
jungles?" The New York Times failed to remember its own reports of June 19, 1962
which refer to the destruction of nearly 1,400 villages by governmental forces.
Napalm and chemicals were used in the course of this devastation. My charge of
atroci ty was based upon the ruthless use of chemicals and jelly-gasoline, the
devastetion of civilian populations and the use of concentration camps.
In addition to uprooting the population and establishing the hamlets, the
United States sent special helicopters which could fire small rockets and
ammunition in excess of that used by any aircraft during the Second World War.
The Americans, as mentioned earlier, grofessed that their soldiers and airmen in
Vietnam were only there in an advisory capaci ity and were not responsible for Diem's
doings. At the same time, they took great pains to conceal from the world the
sort of things that were being done. The New York Times, in its editorial comments,
illustrates this attempt.
THE EVIDENCE
In the course of controversy in the pages of the Observer, I sought to bring
to the attention of people facts which I had before me in the form of photographs
and documents which particularised villages, dates, individuals and specific
chemicals, and the use of toxic chemicals in Vietnam by American forces. I have
evidence that over 1,000 people were caused severe illness, characterised by vomi t-
ing, bleeding, paralysis and loss of sight and consciousness. The evidence includes
the destruction of frui t trees, vegetables, cattle and domestic animals. Further
evidence specified the use of toxic gas on densely populated areas. This evidence
was provided in part by the South Vietnam Tiberatioh Red Cross and in part by the
Foreign Minister of North Vietnam. It has been offered to any international
agency for impartial consideration. The replies to my setting out of this s evidence
were indicati ve of Western attitudes towards this war. Dennis Bloodworth, the Far
Eastern Correspondent of the Observer, blandly stated that I was "apparently
referring to the defoliation campai gn known was "Operation Ranchland" and said
that the weedkillers were popularly known in America and had been used widely
wit thout causing harm to animals or to humans. He contended that à propaganda
campaign was being employed in which it was falsely said that these chemicals
had ill effects and suggested that I was now assisting in a Communist propaganda
campaign.
Iet us now consider some of the statements which have appeared in the American
and British press over the past two years. These statements will help to indicate
the nature of the war and the validity of the editorial protests which have
peppered my appeals about the situation in Vietnam. Wi th respect to the conten-
tion that Americans served only as advisors, it is worth looking at the New York
Times of March 17, 1962. It was stated that, after two Vietnamese pilots pulled
out of formation and launched a full attack on Diem's palace, Americans were
designated to accompany every Vietnamese pilot on a mi ssion. The Saturday
Evening Post of March 23, 1963, published a long report in which it contradicted
the New York Times' statement that uniformed Americans were "solely advisors and
trainers". The Saturday Evening Post saids
"Virtually all the fighting is done by U.S. troops."


Richard Hughes in the Sunday Times of January 13, 1963, speaks of the
"Washington fiction that no United States troops are involved in combat and that
Uni ted States officers and trainers are on the scene merely to I advise, support
and assist'. The Americans are now operating more than 200 helicopters and scores
of reconnaissance and troop transport planes in the combat ereas. Probably half
of all bombing and strafing mi ssions of the South Vietnam Air Force are undertakem
by Americans serving as pilots and co-pilots". It is illustrative, as well, of the
nature of this war to quote the New York Times and other American papers for the
period 1962 to 1963. On July 7, 1962, the New York Times states:
"Tactical air support is used extensively. It is difficult to
ascertain whether the people who are being killed by napalm and frag-
mentation bombs are guerillas or merely farmers".
On June 15, 1962, the New York Times had stated:
"Tho gh the Government makes some attempt to re-educate the
captured guerillas, many are shot".
The New York Times had stated on June 5, 1962:
"Seren leprosy clinics were wiped out by mi stake in bombing raids
last iglls
The New York Times of July 25, 1962 states:
"Many of the 'enomy' dead reported by the Government to have been
shot were ordinary peasants shot down because they fled from villages
as troop3 entered. It is possible that some were Vietcong sympathisers,
but others were running away bacause they did not want to be rounded up
for mili Sary conscri tion or forced labour".
TARGETS
The Chicago Daily News is more direct in its statement of January 18, 1963:
"The Government regards Vietcong hospitals as fair targets for
ground altack. If Vietnamese commanders order an airstrike on a modical
centre, che planes bomb and strafe it, even when Americans are along as
advisors or instructors. When askedi if Americans officially condone these
attacks, a U.S. military spokesman said: There ha S not been a definite
ruling for Vietnam' Planes of the Vietnamese Air Force are frequontly
piloted by American:".
The, New York Times vhich, edit torially, overlooks its new reports (as when
it reported the razing oT 60 per cent of the villages of the country) might have
ebeen advised to li sten tr the Voice of America on January 6, 1963. It was stated
that during 'he year 196 2 the American Air Force carried out 50,000 attacks an
villages and upon vi rtually, all the peasant population outside of the stràtegic
hamlets. Tiis'report was confirmed by the Uni ted States Defence Department.
Senator Michael Mansfield of Montana stated that there were American troops in
action ir. Vietnames Senator Mansfield referred to the action as
every fight ng
"America's necret war". Areas in which heavy guerilla activity was reported
were denudet of population and then virtually obliterated.


"A DIRTY, CRUEL WAR"
The New York Times managed to say UII Outober R1, 1962:
"Americans and Vietnamese march together, fight together and die
together, and it is hard to get much more involved than that".
The New York Herald Tribune of November 23, 1962, stated:
"The United States is deeply involved in the bi
ggest secret war in
its history. Never have so many U.S. military men been involved in a
combat area wi thout any formal programme to inform the public about what
is happening. It is a war fought wi thout official public
reports or
reports on the number of troops involved or the amount of money. and
equipment being poured in."
This war in which seven million people have been placed in internment
camps, 160,000 killed, 700,000
tortured, 350,000 imprisoned - requiring 16,000
camps a was described by The Nation of January 19, 1963:
"It is a dirty, cruel war. As dirty and as cruel as the war
waged by the French forces in Algeria, which SO shocked the American
conscience".
The Nation continued:
"The truth is that the Uni ted States Army, some 10,000 miles from
home, is fighting to bolster up an open and brutal dictatorship in an
undeglared war that has never received the constitutional sanction of
the United States Congress."
A supporter of the Vietcong, Ma Thi Chu, stated:
"From January to March, chemicals were used against 46 villages.
20,000 people were affected, many of them women, children and old people.
I have been on the spot. I have seen children with swollen facès and
bodies covered wi th burns. I have met women blinded or suffering from
sanguinolent diarrhoea. Many of them died afterwards. I have seen the
luxuriant vegetation of the Mekong Delta devastated by chemicals. Our
enemies have thus attacked all life, human, animal and vegetable."
"WEEDKILLERS"
The concealment to which I have referred has included the effects of what
were euphemistically called "weedkillers". Dennis Bloodworth described how in
April, 1963, South Vietnamese officials "rubbed defoliant an their hands and arms
in the presence of foreign correspondents who had selected the canisters from
whi ch it should be drawn - and in one.case drank some of it" (Observer; 9 February,
"1964). It is interesting to examine. these weedkillers and their effects. The
Times of 16 May, 1963, disclosed the death by pesticide of birds of 58 species
and described fifty pesticides in widespread use as responsible for "acute
poisoning" of animals and human beings. President Kennedy found it necessary
to halt their use and to begin a formal investigation. It was stated in the
United States that chemicals. used there for purposes of defoliation and the
killing of weeds resulted in California in 1,100 cases of serious illness and
150 deaths (Reuter, May 16, 1963). Dr. Jerome Weisner, the Chief Science


Advisor to President Kennedy, designated unregulated use of these weedkillers as
potentially "more dangerous than radioacti ve fallout". The actual use of these
weedkillers has killed. They caused serious illness in Britain, the Uni ted States
and Scandinavia.
In a paragraph of a letter I wrote to the New York Times, which the Times did
not see fit to publish, I said:
"In your fifth paragraph (of an editorial attack upon a former letter
from me on the subject of South Vietnam) you also endeavour to minimise
the effect of 'defoliation chemicals' by calling them 'cammon weedkillers'.
If spread, as they must be to achieve the end for which you say they are
intended, certain common weedkillers would destroy many crops and animals,
but, in fact, chemicals other than 'common weedkillers' have been used.
"Among these other chemicals are included some which were previously
used as 'weedkillers' in other countries before being found too dangerous.
"The United States Government has been charged by the South Vietnam
Liberation Red Cross, after a year's study by them of the chemicals spread
in South Vietnam, with using chemicals which, in the large doses used, are
harmful: with using white arsenic, various kinds of arseni te sodium and
arsenite calcium, lead manganese arsenates, D.N.P. and D.N.C. (which
inflame and eat into human flesh) and calcic cyanamide (which has caused
leaves, flowers and fruit to fall, killed big cattle like buffaloes and
cows, and seriously affected thousands of the inhabitants of South Vietnam);
with having spread these poisonous chemicals on large and densely populated
areas of South Vietnam. Admittedly, the South Vietnam Li beration Red
Cross is, as its name suggests, allied with those opposing the U.S.-supported
Diem regime, but its published findings cannot be ignored, sinçe it has
urged international investigation of the situation. The use of these
weapons, napalm bombs and chemi cals, consti tutes and. results in atrocities
and points to the fact that this is a 'war of annihilation'."
Napalm is a chemical which burns unremittingly and cannot be extinguished.
The victims suppurate before terrified observers. The object of this weapon is
to create hysteria and panic, as well as to annihilate. This weapon has been
used on over, 1,400 vi llages. The United States has spent one million dollars
daily on the war. The Observer of 8 September, 1963, estimates that there has
been an average number of 4,000 casual ti es monthly. The Central Intelligenos
Agency has spent an estimated sum monthly of 250,000 dollars on private armies,
espionage and intrigue, according to The Times of September 10,. 1963.
UNIFYING THE REVOLT
This war was largely conducted under the nominal rule of Diem. Diem grew
more and more reckless and was at last murdered in' a coup which most agreed was
engineered by the United States, after a number of eminent Buddhist priests had
burned themselves to death. It is noteworthy that Diem was said by the he ad of
military operations for the United States in the Mekong Delta to have been un-
willing to win the war... Diem feared that if he won the War, American forces
would be reduced and he would fall. His aim was simply indefinite. war. The


second junta to succeed him complained that its predecessor was secretly negotiating
39 with the North along Gaullist lines, but not t, noticeably, that tyranny was un- 4
palatable to the population. The death of Diem brought no amelioration. He had
been, in fact, only the tool of the Americans and the sole change brought by his
death was that the Americans had open responsibility for whatever they had formerly
blamed on Diem and for what was done under his regime.
The Viecong was formed on December 20, 1960, unifying the various elements
of revolt against American domination. By 1961, 10,000 Diem troops had deserted
and jointed the Vietcong with their arms. Iet us consider again the treatment
accorded this popular revolt. Homer Bigart described in the New York Times of
January 30, March 27, March 29, April 1, April 4, April 20, May 10, June 24 and
July 25, all in 1962, the following programme :
WISH FOR NEUTRALITY
: "The rounding up of the entire rural population in strategic hamlets,
the burning of all abandoned villages with the grain and possessions of
the inhabitants and the 'locking' of. strategic villages behind barbed wire"
It is clear that the majority of the inhabi tants wish their country to be
neutral. This the American Government cannot tolerate. The euphemisms used for
the military operations which have belatedly been acknowledged to be the full
res sponsibili ty of the United States are instructive. "Operation Sunrise",
"Pacification of the West" and "Morning Star" resulted, in- the area attacked, in
the destruction of all villages, fields and crops. In 1962 alone, according to
General Paul D. Harkins, 30,000 peasants were killed. The Christian Science
Moni tor described this process on March 8, 1963:
"Since the army finds sullen villagers and does not know which. are
pro-Communist and which are merely dissatisfied with Saigon, and since
the army must doi its job, it shoots anyone seen running or looking dangerous.
It often shoots the wrong peasants. They are in the records of battle
: li sted as Communists. Anyone ki lled is automatically a Vietcong".
On January 25, 1963, Life had photos of napalm bombings wi th the following
Me caption:
"Swooping low across enemy infested land, U.S. pi lot instructors
watch Vietnamese napalm strike. The object of the fire bombing is to
: sear all foliage and to flush the enemy into the open".
iThe NewYork Times also reported that U.S. advisors made a tally of
guerilla corpses after each battle to make sure that Diem's troops were
using American equipment to maximum advantage, SO that they could display
a good 'bag'." (Militant, April 15, 1963).
In the light of all this evidence, it is strange to find the New York Times
saying on April 8, 1963:
"Napalm has been used by the South Vietnam Air Force and has certainly
killed innocent people, as other weapons have done in all warso American
(my emphasis s) advisors have opposed its employment on both moral and
practical grounds agàinst all except clearly defined military targets".


This definition appears to include 60 per cent of the villages, hospi tals
and clinics and all peasants who run or look dangerous. This editorial reply
contradicts the New York Times' own news reports about American use and insi stance
upon the use of napalm and other weapons on non-mi litary areas.
Many people in the Pentagon are urging that the war should be extended to an
invasion of North Vietnam. President Johnson has announced that those countries
which are directing and supplying the (so-called) Communist guerillas in South
Vietnam are playing a deeply dangerous game. A map in the New York Times of April
1, 1962, shows the forces of the Tiberation Front in the far sonth around Saigon,
and nowhere near the borders of Laos or North Vietnam. Both British and American
reporters have stated that primi tive guerilla weapons have been used by the Vietcong,
in addition to those plentiful supplies captured from the forces of South Vietnam e
The London Times of February 24 has stated that it is now considered doubtful
whether the Government of South Vietnam has any will to win the waro The Observer
of March 1, 19649 quoted an American official as stating that the trouble lay in
the fact that, while the United States wi shed to extend the war, the Vietnamese
only wanted to end the war.
TO RETIRE OR CONQUER?
The si tuation which faces those who have conducted this war is grave. Should
the United States retire and allow victory to the Vietcong? Should America engage
in a naked war of conquest, which will be clearly seen as such, and attempt to
establish again a Government dependent entirely upon alien armed force? This
"enemy" controls nearly 70 per cent of South Vie etnam. The majority of the Vietcong
was described as non-Communist by former Premier Tren Van Huu in Paris, as reported
in the Observer. The Vietcong official policy asks for a neutral and disengaged
South Vietnam. Despite all the attempts on the part of the Western press to
describe this war as one in which a helpless democratic people is under ruthless
attack from an aggressive Communist neighbour, it is evident that the Vietcong is
a popular front which has fought an appalling tyranny in South Vietnam and has
been opposed by the Uni ted States at an incalculable cost to the population. Why
is this non-Communist, neutralist, popular front SO ruthlessly opposed? Even the
Communist North has declared, through Ho Chi Minh, that it wi shes to be unified
with the South on terms of neutrality in the Cold War and independence of
Russia, China and the West (Times, 5 November, 1963).
The policy of the United States which has led to the prospect of an American
invasion of North Vietnam will likely bring on Chinese involvement, with war with
China as the result. The Soviet Union would then be drawn in. There are few
parallels with the war in Vietnam. It has lasted nearly two decades; two Western
industrial powers of overwhelming might have fought peasant guerillas in a manner
reminiscent of the Japanese during the Second World War. Everything short of
nuclear weapons has been employed. Atrocity has characterised the conduct of
the war throughout its history. The Western press has hesitatingly discovered
some of the facts about this war during the last two years. The Western peace


movement has been conspicuously si lent or restrained in its setting out of the :
truth about the war. The war has had no purpose. Its extension will bring direct
conflict between the Cold War powers, wi th the possible destruction of mankind as
the culmination of this folly. The tragedy in Vietnam indi cates the extent to
which it is possible to hide or disguise terri ble crimes and it is time that
people in the West raised their voices for an end to the bloodshed.
Bertrand Rssell
April 1964


EXTRACT OF DATA COMPIIED ON
WAR IN VIETNAM
The following figures are conservative as they were compiled before mid-1963:
Number dead in 1962 alone: 40,000. Source: General Paul D. Harkins, Chief
of U.S. military operations in Vietnam. Quoted in publication Sword of Free
Vietnam.
Note: The Sword of Free Vietnam is the official organ of the Democratic Farty
of Vietnam. The Democratic Party of Vietnam is a virulent anti-Communist
Party composed of former offi dials and sympathisers of Governments prior to
that of Diem. The motto of this party is: "For the Defeat of Communism in
the interests of Free Men EVERYWHERE" (capitals in original)
Numbers killed by late 1962: 100,000. Source: 1963 White Paper of Demoeratic
Party of Vietnam. From here on this party will be abbreviated DPV.
Numbers held in camps desig gnated "concentration camps". Over 5,000,000 by
mid-192. Source : Whi te Paper of DPV. Quot ted in Los Angeles Times for
19 October 1962.
Number of "anti-Communist nationalists" held in camps designated "ooncentration
camps" estimated at 100.000. Source: White Paper of DPV.
Number of students only held in "concentration camps" by late 1962: 45,000.
Source: Student Peace Union of the Uni ted States Bulletin, April 193.
Number of Secret Police 8: 300,000 by mid-1963. Source: DPV Whi te Paper.
Number estimated held in Strategic Hamlets: Over half rural population by
mid-1962. Source : DPV White Paper.
Use. of U.S. aid: U.K. Ambassador from Vietnam spent 40,000,000 francs on
house furnishings. Source: DPV White Peper.
Number of people in Strategic Hamlets by mid-193: Over Six million.
Described as concentruation_camps with spikes, moats, machine-gun turrets,
forced labour and patrols. Source: DPV report for June 1963.
Forty per cent of "enemy" casualties claimed estimated to be guerillas;
sixty per cent of "enemy" casualties claimed estimated to be uninvolved
peasants. Source : DPV report for September 1963.
General Wheeler quoted in N.Y. Times of 26 January 1963: "Dirty, nasty
little war",
Number of people intetned by 1963 on Paulo Condore Island alone : 300,000.
Source: DPV report for September 1963.
Review of Strategic Hamlet programme by Democratic Party of Vietnam through
on the spot investigation:
"Strategic hamlets mean forced labour under 300,000 secrét
police. The programme is planned for 15 million people.
DPV
It is the only conflict on record in which every means used
report to destroy own people....More severe and brutal than entire
Sept.
French colonial period....Series of barbaric attacks on unarmed
peasant villages with American arms and assistance.. 300,000
secret police committed numerous atrocities. Farm land and
food sources destroyed...."
Note: Vietcong is a slang term which means Vietnamese Communist. It is
comparable to "Commie". No organisation calls itself by this name e
The National Iiberation Front was formed on February 16, 1962. It has a 31
member Central Committee. Three anti-Governmental Parties existing in Vietnam
are represented on ito It is headed by a non-Communist lawyer. Leading
Buddhist priests, Catholic priests, Protestant clergy are represented on it.
(Source: The Tragedy of Vietnam: Helen B. Lamb) Source: Report of NIF.
Leader of Buddhists in NLF: Venerable Thich Thien Hao. Thich Thien Hao
estimates:


160,000 dead by mid 1963; 700,000 tortured and maimed; 460,000 imprisoned
31,000 raped; 3,000 disembowelled with livers cut out-while-alive; 4,000
burned alive, 1,000 temples destroyed; 46 villages attacked with poison
chemicals between January and March 1964 affecting. -20,000 people, 16,000
camps employed or under construction in accordance with Staley-Taylor Plan.
The above: figures conform to the réport of the South.Vietriamese Liberation Red.
Cross, South Vietnamese Women S Union and the reports' of the Democratic Pàrty
of Vietnama
The Observer of 8 September 1963 estimated the monthly average of casualties in
the war to be 4,0000
idras
The NLF figures are attested to by Catholic Priest, Reverend Father Petrus
Vu Xuan Kyo
The Federation of American Scientists quotes Defence Department so urces on the
subject of chemical warfare and concludes: Chemical poisons are used by the
United States in South Vietnamo The U.So is using Vietnam as a battlefield
and. proving ground for chemical and biological warfareo Sources I.Fo Stonets
Weekly,
ON NORTH: VIETN AMESE CONTROL OR-THE WAR IN SOUTH VIETNAM:
(1) "Nol capture of North Vietnamese in the South has come to lighto"
Sources New York Times, 6 March 1964, report from
Vietnam by David Halberstam,
(2) "The guerrillas obviously are not being reinforced or supplied
systemat atically from North Vietnam, China or any place elseo
They depend for weapons primarily on whatever they can capturea"
General Paul Do Harkins, Head of U.So operationso
Source: Free World Colossus by David Horowitz. (Knopf)
Washington- Post, 6 March 1963.
(3) "All the Communists (in South Vietnam) have is their dedications
If I was in their shoes, I'd be pretty. sore at Hanoi for letting
me down," American Captain in charge of operations in a sector
in Vietnam as quoted in Newsweek, 10 December 1962.
On Strategic Hamlets:
"Already 8,000,000 villagers-- 59 percent of South Vietnam's population
are living in the 6,000 hamlets so far completedo The basic element of the
governments battle plan is to resettle almost the entire rural population in
12,000 "strategic hamlets" with bamboo fences, barbed wire and armed militiamen."
Souree: Time Magazine, 17 May 1963 as quoted in Sword of Vietnam for July 1963.
"65 per cent of the rural population are in strategic hamlets" Observer
3-11-63. On Ain-Attacks:
U.S. Air Force: carried -out 50,000 attacks on villages in 1962 and on virtually
all of the rural population outside of strategic hamletso
Source: Voice of America, 6 January 1963. U.So Defence Department
report quated on Voice of America broadcasto
On Popular Character of Guerrilla wars
"75 per cent of the people, in varying degrees, support the rebels, who
dominate 90 per cent of the lando"
Source: DPV report July 19630
On Nature of Strategic Hamlets:
"It is certainly an ironic way to protect the peasant masses from Communism--
to herd. them behind borbed wire, walls under police control, to subject them
to intensive indoctrinotion, to burn their villageso Poor as the Vietnamese
are, they are not domestic animals."
Sources Interview on CoBoSo with Trah-Van-Tung, leader of DPV as reported
in DPV report for September 1963.
On true nature of the war in Vietnam:


"The people cannot follow the strange logic which decrees that they should be
shot or imprisoned in the name of freedom. Offered the very finest facilities
for forced labour, they rebel; installed in the newest of concentration camps,
they protesto Showered with napalm bombs, they are SO ungrateful as to think
in terms of a new government.
The charred bodies of innocent women, children and peasants, lying in their
fields, the bullet-riddled corpses of Buddhist demonstrators.. this
is the
South Vietnam of todayo"
Sourcess Newyen-Thai-Binh of DPV, an anti-communist opposed to the NLF.
On press reportage from Vietnam:
0 Washington, May 5, (Associated Press)
A potentially explosive document în the hands of a House subcommittee
is reported to lay down Administration guidance for restricting movement
of correspondents covering the warfare in South Vietnams
(1) Keep reporters away from areas where fighting is being done
entirely or almost entirely by U.So troopso
(2) Keep reporters away from any area which will show the failure to
attract full allegiance of South Vietnamese peopleo
Source: As quoted in DPV report for June 1963.
On Use of South Vietnam as "Experimental Battlefield":
"The army tested small-caliber ammunition as long ago as the 1920s but it was
not until the recent combat experience in Vietnam that it really sat up and
took notice. About 1,000 AR-15s were sent'out
the hush-hush Advanced
Research Projects Agency in the Defense Department. A report has been issued
marked Secret because of the gory pictures in ito The story of what happens
to Vietcong guerillas who get hit with the AR-15 is being kept under heavy
wraps. B ut, aware that the enemy already knows what the AR-15 does, you can
find an occasional returnee who will tell you what he sawo
When I left out there it was the rifleo The effect is fantastico I saw
one guy hit in the armo It spun him around and blew the arm right offo
One got hit in the back and it blew his heartliterally out of his body.'
'A man hit in the buttocks lived for five minuteso All the others died
instantlyo His wound would have been superficial with other bullets.'
'The fellow had his head blown clean off - only the stump of the neck lefto'
(Photo of five year old child with arm shattered and in tatters).
Sources True Magazine, December, 1963.
Look Magazine 23 December, 1963.
On ulterior purposes for continuing wars
"À tremendous dope smuggling racket has seen the light of dayo One of the key
figures is Mmeo Tran Can, wife of a prominent genera.l". (DPV report 9-63).
"General Khanh boasted he had ten million dollars and could flee to lead a
life of ease if he wanted to"o (NoY. Herald-Tribune, 3 February 1964).
"Aviation Week" let the cat out of the bag (April 6, 1964). An air cargo
company, Air America, incorporated in Delaware, is currently the principle
instrument for the extension of the war in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam.
This company has some 200 airoraft..used under charter...It is airlifting
South Vietnamese special troops to various places. 00 othe return trip
(carries) a load of opium for further transport to markets in the U.So in
big Boeing aircraft. These aircraft are under the command of the U.So Army
General Paul Do Harkins and the pilots are former U.S. military pilots."
Sources Edgar Po Young, Commander RoNo retired in Eastern World, June 1964.
Plans by UoSo to Extend War to North Vietnamo
(1) WoW. Rostow, head of State Depertment planning staff, has advanced the
"Rostow plan Noo 6" providing for a naval blockade and air raids against
North Vietnamo Senstor-Melvin Laird stated in the Defence Appropriations
Committee of the U.So House of Reprosentatives: 'The U.S. administration
is' preparing plans for a strike into North Vietnamo 1 Associated Press
reported a combat forçe of 50 jet bombers training in the Philippines in
preparation for UoSo decision to bomb targets in North Vietnamo The
bombers were said to be furnished with intelligence data on North Vietnam


obtained by U2 reconnaissance planeso I understand that the Honolulu
Conference of June 1964 under Rusk and McNemara, planned air raids and
sabotage against the Democratic Republic of Vietnamo"
(Extract from letter to Lord Russell from Foreign Minister of North Vietnam)
(2) "War against the Communists has already erupted over the borders of South
Vietnam with raids and infiltration moves as far north as Chinao.With
U.S. backing in aircraft, weapons and money, an estimated 50,000 elite
South Vietnamese troops are being trained to take the offensive in
over-the-border strikes at Communist supply centres and communications
routes.
Despite Defense Secretary McNamara's implication in Washington (March 26)
that the decision has not yet been made to extend the war, it is known
here that guerrilla strikes against the Communists have been increasing
since last summeroo
Key factor in the current raids is airlift provided by Air America, a
U.S. Cargo company (which) camouflages its U.So Governmental sponsorship.
U.So military advisors here are optimistic that extending the war beyond
the borders, plus a stable Government in Saigon will force the Communist
insurgency to collapse in a yearoo
Special forces - now one tenth of the half-million South Vietnamese under
arms---are not connected with formal military organisation. They rely
on Air America using numerous secret airstrips in South Vietnam and Thailand.
Last Fall, when U.S. officials decided it was impossible to win the war
by confining it inside South Vietnamese borders, they began an expanded
program of training special forces at secret bases emphasising techniques
of operating beyond,national borders. 11
(Taken fromaviation Weck, 6 April 1964: PLEASE NOTE DATE).
(3) We have already aided and abetted the extension of the war beyond the
borders of South Vietnamo I am fearful that as the proof of that becomes
clearly established as I believe it can be - we may wake up some morning
: to find charges being levelled against us in the United Nations because
I do not believe we have any international law basis for being in South
Vietnam as a combatanto
(Senator Wayne Morse in UoS. Senate on 14 April 1964: PLEASE NOTE DATE).
(4) W.Wo Rostow's Plan Six provides initially for a naval blockade of Haiphong,
the port of Hanoi. If Hanoi still refuses to call off support, the
northern ports should be bombarded from the seas and finally U.S. strategic
bombers should attack Hanoi itself, if necessary flying the South Vietnam
flago
Sources James Cameron in Daily Herald for 4 March 1964: PLEASE NOTE DATE.
(5) Secretary of State Dean Rusk told SEATO Nations, U.So absolutely committed
to remain in South Vietnam and reiterated that the war may be brought to
North Vie tnam soono (N.Yo Times, 10 April 1964).
(6) U.S. planned South Vietnamese bombing attacks on the North may commence as
soon as late May or early Juneo (Wall Street Journal 13 April 1964).
(7) An expanded war in Asia could only be won if we used nuclear arms: Wayne
Morse after secret briefing by Dean Rusk (I.F. Stone's Weekly, 16 March 1964).
(8) The grim thing about Plan Six is that it has no endo If Hanoi must be
bombed, 00 Shanghai must be bombed to stop Chinese help to North Vietnameoo
(James Cameron in Daily Herald a 4 March 1964).
(9) On 30 July, U.So warships intruded into the Northern territorial waters of
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and shelled Hon Me and Hon Ngu islands.
On 1 and 2August, UoSo planes bombed a border post and village of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnamo The bombing of coastal towns of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 5 August was a pre-meditated move by
U.S. imperialism to extend the war step by stepo
(Office of the Charge d'Affaires of China in London - 6 August 1964).


Further data on Expurimental Warfare conducted by U.S.
(1) "We supply a phosphorous explosive fired from artillery and from fighter
bombers which erupts in a white cloud, burning everything it touches."
(Associated Press from Saigon, 21 March 1964 in Baltimore Sun)o
(2) "The spectacle of children half alive with napalm bombs across their
bodies was revolting to both Vietnamese and imericans...". (Associated
Press in Washington Star, 22 March 1964).
Report by Democratic Party on Atrocities:"
(1) "Supposedly the purpose of the fortified villages is to koep the Vict-Cong
outo But barbed wire denies entrance and exito Vietnamese farmers are
forced at gunpoint into these virtual concentration campso Their homes,
possessions and crops are burnedoeIn the province of Kion-Tuong, seven
villagers were led to the town square. Their stomachs were slashed, their
livers extracted and put on displayo These victims were women and children.
In another village, a dozen mothers were decapitated before the eyes of
compatriots. In still another village, expectant mothers were invited
to the square by government forces to: be honoured. Their stomachs were
ripped and their unborn babies romoved...." (Published in Dallas Morning
News, 1 January 1963).
(2) "Decapitations, eviscerations and the public display of murdered women and
children are commonoo 0685,000 have been maimed by firearms or torture..."
From report by Democratic Party of Vietnam to Internatione.l Commission
on 18 October 1962)o
(3) "In the cells of more than one thousand prisons in South Vietnam, some
100, 000 women and 6,000 children are at present condemned to a slow death,
Many children have been there six years nowo Others were born in prison
and died there." Ma Thi Chu of National Liberation Fronto
(Note coincidence of reports from National Liberation Front and
Democratic Party of Vietnam although the two organisations are
politically opposed and the latter has offices in. the U.So and
publishes there).
Programme of Liberation National Front:
".o0To carry out without delay, real and broad democracy in which freedom of
thought, expression, the press, organisation, assembly, demonstrations, trade
unions and freedom to set up parties, political, social and professional
organisations, frecdom of movement, trade religion, worship, corporal liberties
to be guaranteed by law for the entire people without any discrimination.
To stop persecution, arrest, detention of patriots and opposition, individuals
and parties, to cancel the barbarous prison regime, especially torture,
penitence, brain washing and ill-troatment of prisonerso To refrain from
setting up in South Vietnam any form of dictatorial regime, either nepotic
and militarist or set up by a group or perty, and from carrying out a
mono-party or mono-religious policy, a policy of dictatorship in ideology,
politics, religions and economy.
Free general elections to elect organs and to form a national coalition
Government composed of ropresentatives of all forces, parties, tendencies and
strata of the South Vietnamese people. oo oo a policy of neutrality, will not
adhere to any military bloc, not let any foreign country station troops or
establish bases in South Vietnamo Will accept aid from all countries, regardless
of political regimes and establish friendly relations on an equal footing with
all countrieso Respect the sovereignty of all countries and form together
with Cambodia and Laos a neutral zone on the Indo-Chinese peninsulao
Reunification to be realised step by step on a voluntary basis with due
consideration for the charactoristics of each zone, with equality and without
annexion of one zone by the otherooo
Statement of Ho Chi Minh on neutrality
ooNeutrality for both North and South Vietnam and independence of Russia,
China and Americao.(5 November 1963, Times).


Statement of Wo Bedell Smith at Conclusion of Geneva Conference 21 July 1954:
We take note of the agreements and of paragraphs 1 to 12 inclusive of the
Final Declaration...Tho U.So will rofrain from threat or use of force to
disturb themoooand would view any renewal of aggression with grave concern
(in violation of agreements) and threatening international peace and
security."
Thus U.So went on record in support of the Geneva Conference Report of 1954.
UoSo troops are the only foreign troops in Vietnamo
The Guardian editorial of 11 August 1964 confirms rumours that the movement
of the Seventh Fleet into the Gulf of Tonkin was caloulated and directly
related to naval attacks by the "South Vietnamese" navy:
"Anew account is now emerging in Washington... The North Vietnamese
islands of Hon Me and Hon Ngu had indeed been attacked from the sea,
as Hanoi had alleged, before the crisis blew up; this is now admitted
in Wa.shington. The attackers were South Vietnamese ships, not the
Seventh Fleet; but that distinction may not seem so significant in
Hanoi as in Saigon and when at that point the US dcstroyer Moddox
sailed into the Gulf of Tonkinoo. a
Plan Six should be kept in mindo
Issued by: The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation,
3/4 Shavers Place,
Haymarket,
London, SoWol. (U.Ko)