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Vietnam War Replay: Bill To Fund Guerrillas Allied With Kymer RougeBy Barry RomoCongress has decided to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War by reinvolving the U.S. in that war scarred land. While farms are being stolen by the banks, nutrition programs for children are ended and aid to veterans is cut, Congress is taking up $5 million aid package for Kampuchean (Cambodian) guerrillas opposed to the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea. Civil war has raged since 1978 when Vietnamese forces drove out Pol Pot's Kymer Rouge. Since then, forces allied with Pol Pot, Prince Sihanouk or former Prime Minister Som Sann have fought the Vietnamese from base areas in Thailand. While humanitarian aid has been scant, military aid, especially to Pol Pot forces has been plentiful. Cambodia, more than any other country in IndoChina, has suffered through one holocaust after another. First came the murderous mass B-52 bombing by the U.S. followed by the murderous excesses of the Pol Pot regime and now a continuous guerrilla war kept alive by Chinese and U.S. aid. Today, this hapless land, where almost half the populace has been destroyed through war and starvation is again being eyed by the U.S. as a pawn in the great power game. Voices in Congress are calling for support to "bleed Vietnam white" through support for the anti-Vietnamese resistance. But through calling for the blood will not do the bleeding themselves. As with the "earlier" war, Congress will be willing to fight to last drop of someone else's blood. There is no real chance of the guerrilla forces kicking out the Vietnamese; if they could what decent American would really want a return to Pol Pot? Humanitarian aid is needed. That should be through the UN not through the CIA. Negotiation not military confrontation is needed, not new U.S. intervention. Americans should let their Congressmen know that they oppose any new U.S. involvement. NO AID! —Barry Romo
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