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Vietnam And Its Lessons

By VVAW

This Spring, the Vietnamese people greeted the total liberation of Vietnam with the prolonged joy and enthusiasm that was inevitable after 20 years of struggle against US domination. Following the many large celebrations in the North and South of Vietnam, the Vietnamese people have begun the task of reconstructing their country and overcoming the problems created by the war.

With the liberation of Vietnam, large celebrations also greeted this victory in the United States, bringing thousands of Americans into the streets culminating a resistance to the war the likes of which this country had never experienced in its 200 year history. This resistance and rage, a movement that eventually reached all sectors of our society and that claimed the lives of students and workers alike, was a major contributing factor to US withdrawal from Vietnam and all of Indochina, a movement that contributed greatly to the total liberation of Vietnam. Not the least of that struggle was the contributions of the GI movement and Vietnam veterans, led in many cases by VVAW.

As veterans of that war, we have much in common, a wealth of experience to share with the country, a spectrum of rich and bitter knowledge that will be essential in the fight against future wars of US aggression, the fight for decent benefits for all vets, and the application of what we learned from Vietnam in the long struggle ahead for the American people.

Confronted with the contradictions and contrast of the Vietnam war, doubts among the American GIs grew rapidly as to how "just" the war was. Faking body counts daily, picking up our dead and wounded friends, hearing the broadcasts of great victories an after seeing the bitter defaults, took a heavy toll upon the minds of American GIs. As the war progressed the frustration and rage grew, many GIs took their minds off the war behind a smokescreen of dope, and some turned to measures of outright resistance and fragging.

Living and moving about in the areas controlled by the Thieu government, we saw the poverty and corruption that the majority of Vietnamese people lived under. From the sight of seeing those who dug through the American garage dumps for food and refuse with which they constructed their housing, to the legions of prostitutes, peasant women forced from the countryside into the major cities by the US occupation and the Thieu regime, the living standard of the people was intolerably low. Apparent also to many GIs was the widespread support among the people for the liberation struggle as the peasants worked the fields and rice paddies openly by day and picked up the gun to battle the American invaders by night.

In sharp contrast were the areas won back by the liberation forces. Spoon-fed on propaganda by the US military command, American GIs were unaware of the vastly improved areas held by the National Liberation Font (NFL). In these areas the health and well being of the people became the primary consideration upon liberation. The establishment of clinics, free schools, efficient food distribution went hand in hand with reconstruction, reorganization of all industry and self-defense. These material programs in conjunction with social and cultural events that emphasized the proud history and culture of the Vietnamese people had an almost unbelievable effect at the Thieu forces were finally overrun and crushed last Spring.

Today, Vietnam is a country in a turmoil of reconstruction. The work of rebuilding still faces many problems due to the rapid collapse of the Saigon Army and administration, whose machinery and projects depended heavily on American machinery and raw materials. This lack of material has led to massive unemployment throughout Vietnam. However, with the Vietnamese working class taking the lead the revolution continues. Large numbers of textile, food, machinery, medicine, chemicals, tools, and other factories have resumed full production, including former American plants that have been nationalized, communication and transportation have been restored on a massive basis with ports, railroads, roads and airports being nearly totally repaired. Of major importance is the "land to the tiller" program begun in 1961 in though liberated areas, which is working towards returning the 10 million Vietnamese peasants to their land that they were forcibly removed from during the US occupation.

These programs and struggles in Vietnam stand in sharp contradiction to the expectations the American GIs in Vietnam were led to believe would occur if Vietnam was liberated. Deceived and used as cannon fodder in a rich man's war, Vietnam vets returned home to non-existent jobs, massive unemployment and a Veterans Administration that is totally inadequate, serving the interests of the rich that rule this country, instead of veterans.

With the American economy in crisis and crumbling, the rich are once again striking up the band to march us off to anther war, probably the Middle East this time. Recently, the media gave an unusual amount of time to one of the biggest war criminals in the world, Richard Nixon. He said that this country needs a good war (like the one in Vietnam, maybe?) to bring the American people's morale and faith back up. What he really meant was he and the rich he fronts for need a good war to bring their profits back up and grow fat on.

The biggest joke is that they expect the American people to sallow this garbage after what we've learned from the Vietnam war. They expect us as veterans and working people to sit by as we watch our friends and children go off to war again. They expect our cheerful cooperation as the US and Soviet Union try to re-divide the world like a big pie. With the heat on the Middle East, this year's "technicians" in the Sinai are no different that the "advisors" in Vietnam 15 years ago, an attack upon whom the US government would use as an excuse to open another war in the Middle East.

We got a bellyfull of the war in Vietnam, learned a lot from it, and we don't like the taste it left in our mouths when we came home. If these rich punks want another war somewhere in the world they'll have to fight it themselves, we won't! We'll fight against that was here at home, taking up the struggle against US aggression abroad, in the same breath as we fight for our jobs and a decent way of life.