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State
Department White Paper on Vietnam
1965
South
Vietnam is fighting for its life against a brutal campaign
of terror and armed attack inspired, directed, supplied, and
controlled by the Communist regime in Hanoi. This flagrant
aggression has been going on for years, but recently the
pace has quickened and the threat has now become acute.
The
war in Vietnam is a new kind of war, a fact as yet poorly
understood in most parts of the world. Much of the confusion
that prevails in the thinking of many people, and even
governments, stems from this basic misunderstanding. For in
Vietnam a totally new brand of aggression has been loosed
against an independent people who want to make their way in
peace and freedom.
Vietnam
is not another Greece, where indigenous guerrilla forces
used friendly neighboring territory as a sanctuary.
Vietnam
is not another Malaya, where Communist guerrillas were, for
the most part, physically distinguishable from the peaceful
majority they sought to control.
Vietnam
is not another Philippines, where Communist guerrillas were
physically separated from the source of their moral and
physical support.
Above
all, the war in Vietnam is not a spontaneous and local
rebellion against the established government.
There
are elements in the Communist program of conquest directed
against South Vietnam common to each of the previous areas
of aggression and subversion. But there is one fundamental
difference. In Vietnam a Communist government has set out
deliberately to conquer a sovereign people in a neighboring
state. And to achieve its end, it has used every resource of
its own government to carry out its carefully planned
program of concealed aggression. North Vietnam's commitment
to seize control of the South is no less total than was the
commitment of the regime in North Korea in 1950. But knowing
the consequences of the latter's undisguised attack, the
planners in Hanoi have tried desperately to conceal their
hand. They have failed and their aggression is as real as
that of an invading army.
This
report is a summary of the massive evidence of North
Vietnamese aggression obtained by the Government of South
Vietnam. This evidence has been jointly analyzed by South
Vietnamese and American experts.
The
evidence shows that the hard core of the Communist forces
attacking South Vietnam were trained in the North and
ordered into the South by Hanoi. It shows that the key
leadership of the Vietcong (VC), the officers and much of
the cadre, many of the technicians, political organizers,
and propagandists have come from the North and operate under
Hanoi's direction. It shows that the training of essential
military personnel and their infiltration into the South is
directed by the Military High Command in Hanoi. In recent
months new types of weapons have been introduced in the VC
army, for which all ammunition must come from outside
sources. Communist China and other Communist states have
been the prime suppliers of these weapons and ammunition,
and they have been channeled primarily through North
Vietnam.
The
directing force behind the effort to conqueror South Vietnam
is the Communist Party in the North, the Lao Dong (Workers)
Party. As in every Communist state. the party is an integral
part of the regime itself. North Vietnamese officials have
expressed their firm determination to absorb South Vietnam
into the Communist world.
Through
its Central Committee, which controls the Government of the
North, the Lao Dong Party directs the total political and
military effort of the Vietcong. The Military High Command
in the North trains the military men and sends them into
South Vietnam. The Central Research Agency, North Vietnam's
central intelligence organization, directs the elaborate
espionage and subversion effort...
Under
Hanoi's overall direction the Communists have established an
extensive machine for carrying on the war within South
Vietnam. The focal point is the Central Office for South
Vietnam with its political and military subsections and
other specialized agencies. A subordinate part of this
Central Office is the liberation Front for South Vietnam.
The front was formed at Hanoi's order in 1960. Its principle
function is to influence opinion abroad and to create the
false impression that the aggression in South Vietnam is an
indigenous rebellion against the established Government.
For
more than 10 years the people and the Government of South
Vietnam, exercising the inherent right of self-defense, have
fought back against these efforts to extend Communist power
south across the 17th parallel. The United States has
responded to the appeals of the Government of the Republic
of Vietnam for help in this defense of the freedom and
independence of its land and its people.
In
1961 the Department of State issued a report called A Threat
to the Peace. It described North Vietnam's program to seize
South Vietnam. The evidence in that report had been
presented by the Government of the Republic of Vietnam to
the International Control Commission (ICC). A special report
by the ICC in June 1962 upheld the validity of that
evidence. The Commission held that there was
"sufficient evidence to show beyond reasonable
doubt" that North Vietnam had sent arms and men into
South Vietnam to carry out subversion with the aim of
overthrowing the legal Government there. The ICC found the
authorities in Hanoi in specific violation of four
provisions of the Geneva Accords of 1954.
Since
then, new and even more impressive evidence of Hanoi's
aggression has accumulated. The Government of the United
States believes that evidence should be presented to its own
citizens and to the world. It is important for free men to
know what has been happening in Vietnam, and how, and why.
That is the purpose of this report...
The
record is conclusive. It establishes beyond question that
North Vietnam is carrying out a carefully conceived plan of
aggression against the South. It shows that North Vietnam
has intensified its efforts in the years since it was
condemned by the International Control Commission. It proves
that Hanoi continues to press its systematic program of
armed aggression into South Vietnam. This aggression
violates the United Nations Charter. It is directly contrary
to the Geneva Accords of 1954 and of 1962 to which North
Vietnam is a party. It is a fundamental threat to the
freedom and security of South Vietnam.
The
people of South Vietnam have chosen to resist this threat.
At their request, the United States has taken its place
beside them in their defensive struggle.
The
United States seeks no territory, no military bases, no
favored position. But we have learned the meaning of
aggression elsewhere in the post-war world, and we have met
it.
If
peace can be restored in South Vietnam, the United States
will be ready at once to reduce its military involvement.
But it will not abandon friends who want to remain free. It
will do what must be done to help them. The choice now
between peace and continued and increasingly destructive
conflict is one for the authorities in Hanoi to make.
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