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US-Saigon Ignore Peace Agreement

By VVAW

The U.S. government is currently funding 86% of the national budget of the Saigon Government, and now the Pentagon wants to increase U.S. aid to Saigon to $2-1/2 billion for the next year! Through the Commercial Import Program, Food for Peace and the military assistance programs, our government is sending billions of American tax dollars to support the country of South Vietnam which is run by a dictator, top heavy with military expenditures and overcome by inflation caused by U.S. presence. Although the signing of the Paris Agreement was hailed as a major step in ending the war, the U.S. and Saigon governments continue to ignore most provisions of the Agreement.

By replacing the older-style F-5A fighter jets with the newer F-5E planes (the U.S. is sending 150 F-5E fighter jets to Saigon), the U.S. is violating Article 7 of the Paris Agreement which provides only for exact replacement of used-up equipment and not for improving the character of the equipment or expanding the arsenal. Articles 4 and 7 of the Paris Agreement are bing violated by the U.S. government by maintaining over 2700 civilian contractor personnel who perform technical military functions for the South Vietnamese Army. Funds spent for field advisors violates Articles 4, 5, and 7; the use of Rural Development Cadre to recruit villagers into Thieu's political party is a violation of both Article 4 and 9. By funding and maintaining the Defense Attache Office in Saigon the U.S. is violating Article 4 by intervening in the internal affairs of South Vietnam, and Articles 5 and 7 by not withdrawing military personnel and by allowing new personnel to be brought in. The Defense Attache Office employs about 50 military personnel and 936 direct-hire civilians who provide logistical support, communications-electronic cupport, budget-programming and training for the South Vietnamese Air Force, all in violation of the Paris Agreement.

Saigon's Policies

In violation of Article 2 of the Agreement, the South Vietnamese Army has moved into new areas to expand their areas of control and establish new bases. The Saigon government has ignored Article 11 by refusing to restore democratic liberties, including the right to publish newspapers and even to print the full text of the Peace Agreement. They have refused to plan for national elections guaranteed in Article 9, and they have ignored Article 8 by keeping over 200,000 people in prison and detention cmaps because of their political beliefs. One of the most blatant, but little-known, violations of the Paris Agreement on the part of the Saigon government is the failure to implement sections of Article 11 which guarantee the freedom to travel to any part of the country. The reason this provision is explicitly ignored is because the majority of the people who wish to travel anywhere whish to travel back to their original homes; but as it turns out, most of these homes are in areas that have been liberated, and the Saigon government is trying every way possible to prevent the people from returning to their ancestral homes in liberated areas. Through the extensive national police and military network and the prison system, the Saigon government is effectively running a police state with no intention whatsoever of implementing the provisions of the Paris Agreement.

U.S.Government Strategy

Our government had only one purpose in signing the Paris Agreement: to trick the American people into thinking tha the war was over and the U.S. was finished there. In reality, the government is continuing the same policy in Vietnam that it has been following there for the last 30 years, to maintain through any means possible a government friendly to U.S. business interests.

The signing of the Agreement was a political victory for the liberation forces in that it recognized the legitimacy of the Provisional Revolutionary Government and offered the best solution for gaining and independence. That is why the liberation forces want the Agreement implemented. In reality, though, the U.S. government recognizes only the Thieu government in Saigon which does not intend to follow any of the provisions of the Paris Agreement. By supporting the Saigon government and ignoring the main provisions of the Paris Agreement, the U.S. government is trying to perpetuate the division of Vietnam into two countries and maintain South Vietnam under U.S. influence.

Under imperialism, our government will always be more responsive to the wealthy class of people who run this country, rather than the majority of the American people who want the Agreement implemented. Our government does not want the Vietnamese to prove to the whole world that imperialism can be defeated. But through the continued, united effort of both the Vietnamese and American people, we will eventually defeat the U.S. strategy in Vietnam and insure peace and independence of the Vietnamese people.