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Vietnam Liberation Fighters Capture Provincial Capital

By VVAW

News reports from South Vietnam describe a country in turmoil. Fact, such as the liberation of Phuoc Binh (a province capital), mortar rounds landing in Saigon, US planes directing fire of Thieu's troops, the disabling of the Saigon power station, are mixed with charges about North Vietnam breaking the Paris agreements, and the US government's requests for more money for the Saigon dictatorship. Sifting through all the propaganda which the US peddles to its news media, however, one fact stands out clearly: the liberation forces are winning and Thieu with his US government backers are daily losing ground.

Phuoc Binh, also known as Son Be, is the capital of Phuoc Long province, a large jungle-covered area located from about 40-75 miles north of Saigon. Even five years ago, the city of Song Be was the only Saigon-controlled outpost in the province, a control enforced by a US Army brigade, The province chief, hated by his people, was one of petty dictators found throughout South Vietnam, who had created his own militia. But even with this armed band, he could not drive more than a couple of miles outside Song Be in safety. There was, in the beginning of January, 1975 fierce fighting as the liberation forces took the town, News report in US papers cried out about the "fate of the 22,000 civilians" in Phuoc Binh--and, in the same paragraph, talked about the intense bombing of the city by Thieu's forces. Other reactions by Thieu included an immediate request for more US $s, and the terror-bombing of the liberated forces headquarters city of Loc Ninh.

Strategically, Phuoc Binh is not a vital town--in fact, while the focus was on Phuoc Binh, the National Liberation Front (NLF) was making more important gains in the Mekong Delta area of South Vietnam. But the liberation of Phuoc Binh did give Thieu and the US government the opportunity to accuse the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) and North Vietnam of a major violation of the Paris agreements, and to say that the US was now free to break the agreements in response, totally ignoring the fact that Phuoc Binh has been a tiny dictatorship in the midst of a liberated province for years.

The fact is that the US has systematically violated the agreements ever since they were signed. US surveillance flights over North Vietnam, specifically prohibited in June of 1973 have again begun. And the fall of Phuoc Binh gave the Pentagon and the Ford administration the chance to start beating the war drums for more money for Thieu. It is not lack of money and ammunition which is causing Thieu to lose in South Vietnam--it is the struggle of the Vietnamese people to be free from the control of Thieu and the US imperialism which Thieu represents. In the words of President Nguyen Huu Tho, leader of the NLF "Practically all the areas illegally occupied by Thieu have been recovered, resulting in the liberation of hundreds of thousands and the conditions have been created for other hundreds of thousand of people to once again have the right to decide their own future."