George Katsiaficas - Vietnam Documents: American and Vietnamese Views

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VIETNAM DOCUMENTS: AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE VIEWS OF THE WAR

Vietnam Documents: American and Vietnamese Views of the War

Edited by
George Katsiaficas

First published 1992 by M.E. Sharpe.Inc

Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1992 by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage topersons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use of operation of any products, instructions or ideascontained in the material herein.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vietnam documents: American and Vietnamese views of the war / edited by George Katsiaficas.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-87332-896-5 ISBN 0-87332-897-3 (pbk.)
1. Vietnamese Conflict, 19611975Sources.
I. Katsiaficas, George, 1949
DS557.4.V55 1992
959.704'3dc20
91-22957
CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-87332-897-5 (pbk)

Contents

HO CHI MINH

BERNARD B. FALL

GENERAL HOANG VAN THAI

BENJAMIN SPOCK AND M. ZIMMERMAN

U.S. CONGRESS

I. F. STONE

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE WHITE PAPER

NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT OF SOUTH VIETNAM

DEAN RUSK

HO CHI MINH

PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMED FORCES

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

MALCOLM X

STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

RICHARD M. NIXON

VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR

HUEY P.NEWTON

HERBERT MARCUSE

RICHARD M. NIXON

GEORGE MCGOVERN

TRUONG CHINH

GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH VIETNAM

VU CAN

PAUL FEENY WITH JIM ALLAWAY

HENRY KISSINGER

TRUONG NHU TANG

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

HANS MORGENTHAU

VO NHAN TRI

RICHARD M. NIXON

NGO VINH LONG

As the title of this volume implies, the documents collected here illustrate the differing perceptions and beliefs that led the United States and Vietnam to fight a war that claimed more than two million lives. In selecting the contents of each chapter, I have provided a balance so the reader can experience directly these conflicting points of view. Contained here are the words of American presidents and Communist theoreticians, antiwar activists and Vietnamese allies of the United States. By juxtaposing these contradictory views, I hope to develop a "sociology of knowledge" perspectiveto create a prism that clarifies our perception of the reality of the conflict. After all has been said and done, wars are themselves irrational, and a sociology of knowledge perspective is perhaps the only hope of explaining their origins and histories. This is particularly so for the Vietnam War, since it remains controversial nearly two decades after the peace treaty formally ending it was signed.

At the same time that a diversity of views is maintained, the topics of the chapters are ones that nearly all observers would agree are essential. The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Conference of 1954 provide the context for the American entry into the Vietnamese quagmire. For us, that is an adequate starting point, although from the Vietnamese point of view, the origins of their quest for national independence can be traced back nearly two thousand years. Similarly, many issues between the United States and Vietnam have arisen since the end of the war in 1975. The fact that this volume does not address them says nothing about my judgment concerning their importance. Rather, I provide a selection of documents about the war itself, a topic of continuing interest and unresolved debate in the United States.

Some notes about the documents are necessary. To give the reader a feeling for the types of discourse in which the original authors or speakers were engaged, most documents have not been abridged. Moreover, somewhat in the manner of cinema verite, editorial commentary has been kept to a minimum, thereby allowing the documents to speak for themselves. Since I have no desire to inflate the events in question, I have consistently used conservative numbers in the chapter introductions. Finally, the reader will notice that in the documents several spellings are used for proper nouns like Vietnam (Viet Nam). The specific form of these words sometimes carries an ideological content, and the original spellings have been retained. By preserving these contradictions rather than seeking to resolve them, the reader is provided with a sense of the different styles characterizing the various authors.

For their help in the preparation of this manuscript, I wish to thank Joe Bangert, David Entin, Rosie Lynn, Jeff Potter, Ngo Vinh Long, Huu Ngoc, and Paul Joseph. Leon Cort has helped me better understand politics from the perspective of the Third World. Michael Weber, my editor at M.E. Sharpe, has been both sympathetic and critical, qualities whose combination greatly assisted me. My students at Tufts University and Wentworth Institute of Technology provided me with invaluable feedback used to structure the documents contained in this anthology.

My interest in Vietnam began over twenty years ago when I became active in the movement to end the war. I felt then, and continue to believe today, that Vietnam poses no threat to the United States except insofar as our own fear compels us to harm a people whose national pride is their most unifying value. During the 1960s, the American public's perception of Vietnam was polarized to the point of bitter confrontation. Only recently has dispassionate discourse about the war become possible. Simultaneously, there is considerable interest about the Vietnam War among scholars and students. This anthology has been designed to satisfy their needs.

George Katsiaficas

VIETNAM DOCUMENTS: AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE VIEWS OF THE WAR

Chapter I
The First Indochina WarFrance

September 2, 1945, was a beautiful day in Hanoi, and a festive crowd of hundreds of thousands of people assembled outdoors to hear Ho Chi Minh declare Vietnam's independence. During this auspicious event an airplane flew overhead, causing some people to panic out of fear the plane might bomb them. When the plane flew lower and people could see that it was from the United States of America, the crowd cheered spontaneously. They believed its presence meant that the United States would help protect their country's new independence from French, Japanese, and Chinese threats.

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