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Thieu Going Out!

By VVAW

Opposition to President Thieu is increasingly becoming more unified in South Vietnam. Over the past several months, various organizations of Catholics, Buddhists, press, veterans, lawyers and others have denounced Thieu and are calling for his removal from office. Much of the protest of these organizations centers around the corruption and repression of the Thieu regime.

Thieu has been charged in a widely circulated document with allowing the most corrupt, repressive conditions to exist in Vietnam. According to the manifesto, Thieu has been charged with making a killing on various illegal land and housing deals, that his wife takes a rake off from a supposedly charitable hospital she founded, that his brother-in-law made a fortune in fertilizer speculation and that his relatives illegally profited from government-subsidized rice shipped to impoverished central Vietnam. These charges have been leveled by relatively new forces in the political struggle going toward being waged against Thieu.

In the wake of this manifesto, and with the continuing suppression of opposition press, thousands of Vietnamese have taken to the streets to demand the ouster of Thieu and the release of the over 200,000 political prisoners being held in his jails. Another factor in the growing public sentiment against Thieu is the fact that the economy of Saigon, one of the few areas still controlled by the regime, is rapidly deteriorating. Unemployment is now at 50% in Saigon and prices for staples skyrocket daily.

On October 20th, almost 2,000 people marched in Saigon. Thieu's police, in attempts to break up the demonstration, cordoned off streets and alleyways to stop others from joining the line of march. Angered students began hurling rocks at the police, who in turn, hurled bricks and stones back at them. The students charged the police jeep, overturned it and burned the vehicle. These public displays of protest have been drawing all segments of the population. In another demonstration, held on National Day (Nov 1st), 1,500 Catholics rallied after mass and were fired on by police because they were demanding Thieu's ouster. Also on November 1st, over 3,000 people marched in Saigon despite police attempts to stop them, resulting in major clashes with the police.

As the increasingly militant protest grows, the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) has stated that they will no longer negotiate with the Thieu regime. In a press conference held in Parish PRG spokesman Colonel Co Dong Giang said, "The present American government headed by Gerald Ford, continues to be bellicose and obstinate. The Nguyen Van Thieu administration, on United States orders, has sabotaged the Paris agreements and created a deadlock to all avenues of negotiation. Nguyen Van Thieu and his gang must be overthrown and a new administration formed."

On September 27th, the Foreign Ministry in Hanoi announced that American reconnaissance planes flew over Hanoi and Haiphong in another violation of the Paris agreements. In the face of these continued violations, the Vietnamese liberation forces have liberated major portions of the country freeing the people from the US-backed regime in Saigon. Saigon military authorities have stated that another outpost in central Vietnam, Chuong Nghia, has been taken by the Liberation forces, thereby virtually cutting South Vietnam in half, and further isolating the Thieu government.

The military victories and the ever-growing unity between the neutral and the communist forces will force the removal of the US-backed Thieu regime, insuring a better climate in which they can negotiate a peace in accordance with the Paris Agreement on Ending the War in Vietnam.