[This issue of Peking Review is from massline.org. Massline.org has kindly given us permission to to place these documents on the MIA. We made only some formatting changes to make them congruent with our style sheets.]
[This unsigned article is reprinted from Peking Review, #4, Jan. 21, 1966, pp. 8-11.]
AT the very time the war-makers in Washington have been trying to delude the world with specious “peace talk” propaganda, they have intensified their atrocities against the people of south Vietnam. Since the end of 1965, U.S. aggressor troops have let loose inhuman “kill all, burn all and destroy all” campaigns, using virtually everything at their disposal—including widespread poison gas warfare.
After the Johnson Administration published its “14-point” proposition on December 27, “mopping-up” operations were set in motion by the American invaders in south Vietnam on a more frequent and bigger scale than ever. The U.S. First Infantry Division, First Cavalry Division and marines, and south Korean, Australian and puppet south Vietnamese troops have mounted massive attacks on the liberated areas in Cho Lon, Tan An, Binh Dinh, Bien Hoa and other provinces and in areas around Plei Me and Da Nang. The inhuman nature of these operations—a genocide policy of “kill all, burn all and destroy all”—was demonstrated when they were launched against many populated areas.
According to an Associated Press dispatch from Saigon on January 6, U.S. troops on January 1 began to implement a “broad-based program” which, the dispatch said, “includes the establishment of free-bombing zones in Viet Cong regions, killing rice crops in enemy areas, and burning other crops and homes.” In the “mopping-up” campaigns west of Saigon, it continued, “every house they [U.S. troops) encountered they burned to the ground.” “They round up all the people they could find ... and burn and destroy everything eatable and livable.” Other Western news agencies report that the densely populated plain south of the Vam Co Dong River, where the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade began its “mop-up” on January 1, is a “prime scorched earth target.” The U.S. aggressors have also used poison gas, white phosphorus bombs, napalm and B-52 strategic bombers in this operation.
A Reuter correspondent reported tht American marines in Da Nang on January 5 mounted a terrorist raid on an area 16 kilometres southwest of Da Nang and reduced the whole village of Vinh Phuong to ashes.
Since the end of last year, the U.S. aggressors have been using poison gas in south Vietnam on an unprecedented scale. In their eight-day “mopping-up” campaign in Tan An and Cho Lon, poison gas was widely and repeatedly used. Gas-grenades were air-dropped in clusters from low altitudes and were also used by ground forces. Gas bombs have even been used against women, children and old people in the “mop-up” against the “Iron Triangle” region northwest of Saigon, which was started on January 1 by 8,000 U.S. and satellite troops.
When south Korean puppet troops were turned loose in their “mop-up” against Tuy Hoa in Phu Yen Province on January 4, U.S. aircraft dropped poison gas bombs on the area, and the south Korean puppets used poison gas against tunnels.
Loud professions by the U.S. war criminals that the gas they are using is non-lethal are pure bunkum. A January 12 Reuter dispatch from Saigon reported that seven Australian soldiers were poisoned while using such gas and had to be rushed to a hospital. One of them, Corporal Robert Bowtell, died.
U.S. aircraft have been spraying toxic chemicals on an extensive scale over populated areas in south Vietnam. They were used against the village of Long Hai in Ba Ria Province on December 27. On December 28, U.S. planes sprayed these chemicals over Can Tho Province, resulting in 4,000 people poisoned and more than 10,000 hectares of crops ruined. For three days, beginning on New Year’s Day, toxic chemicals were sprayed by U.S. planes over wide areas in Vinh Long and Sa Dec Provinces. A great number of inhabitants were poisoned and large areas of crops were destroyed.
Recently, American planes have been flying 300 to 400 sorties a day on wild bombing missions of populated areas in south Vietnam. U.S. news agencies have disclosed that in four days, January 5, 6, 7, and 9, U.S. aircraft damaged or destroyed 2,280 houses and sunk 78 civilian vessels. On January 8, U.S. planes committed the monstrous crime of bombing and rocketing the passenger ship Thuan Phong en route from Thu Dau Mot to Dau Tieng. The ship was sunk and more than 200 passengers were killed.
Guam-based B-52 strategic bombers have recently carried out “carpet bombing” in Quang Tri, Tay Ninh, Cho Lon and Tan An Provinces. From December 30 to January 6, these planes bombed Tay Ninh Province three times at night.
By their crimes, the U.S. aggressors in south Vietnam have shown themselves to be more barbarous than Hitler’s Nazis. They have acted like savages in their “mopping-up” campaigns.
During a “sweep” in Quang Nam Province, American troops accused a youth of being a member of the people’s liberation forces. After tying him to a tree, they slit his throat and laughed and watched as the young man’s blood dripped into a waiting basin.
The invaders and their puppets have used all kinds of torture. So depraved have they become that they have been known to slowly hack a prisoner to death before pouring gasoline on the body and burning it up. In Quang Ngai Province, American soldiers after beating up a woman prisoner tied her to a post and then, after tying up the bottoms of her trousers, put six venomous snakes into the trousers.
Up to this moment, the savage beasts who make up the Johnson Administration are still loudly professing that the United States cherishes a “humanitarian desire” towards Vietnam, that the American purpose is “peace and freedom” for Vietnam, and that they intend to help the Vietnamese people “improve opportunities for a better life.” However, the U.S. imperialists are using the most up-to-date lethal weapons in south Vietnam, employing poison gas and toxic chemicals which the German and Japanese fascists never dared to use openly. In south Vietnam the U.S. aggressors and their lackeys have slaughtered, injured or jailed more than 1.4 million people in a territory with a total population of only 14 million. They have reached the heights of savagery.
This is what the U.S. aggressors are doing in south Vietnam while Johnson talks about “peace and freedom” for Vietnam.