Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 10. 22nd May 1975

[Introduction]

The Vietnamese people have struggled for national independence for many decades, first against the French and the Japanese and later against the United States. They have now won complete victory, a victory which followed hard on the liberation of Cambodia.

For more than fifteen years, without fear of any sacrifice, the heroic Vietnamese people waged a dynamic war against that most cruel and powerful enemy — U.S. imperialism. Despite the despatch of more than 600,000 ground troops, the Seventh Fleet, tens of thousands of planes and helicopters, attempted ecocide, mass murder, the dropping of nearly 8 million tons of bombs and at a cost of nearly 200,000 million U.S. dollars, the United States failed to force the Vietnamese people to their knees. On the contrary, the Vietnamese people have defeated the United States.

People all over the world are now asking themselves: Why were the three Indochinese peoples able to stand up to such an onslaught? How is it that a small and weak country can defeat a big and strong country! What are the main factors which have enabled the three Indochinese peoples to defeat U.S. imperialism?

These are complex questions which cannot be answered in detail in one short article, but the essentials are: correct political lines, the combined strength of a united people, protracted people's war and sympathy and support from the people of the world.