The Facts We Omitted

From recent articles printed in Salient it is quite obvious that certain facts are omitted.

I am writing in connection with articles which try to condone recent activities in South East Asia, viz the overthrowing of certain regimes which obtained financial and military support from the US.

Are we to believe that the communist regimes replacing the capitalists are going to implement the 'Programmes for democratic freedoms of the people' (Article on Indo China April 15), Surely not.

I am certain that those who can remember or, those who are prepared to remember the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the resulting political strangulation of freedom of thought, of speech, of opposition, etc. etc., that they will realise that the Provisional Revolutionary Government in South Vict Nam and the new regimes in Cambodia are as corrupt from a political point of view as the regimes before them.

Sihanouk said, at least we are told he said, 'we formed the government in response to a request from inside the country, mainly from those in the resistance movement'. How close this is to the reasons given by the Russians, for their invasion of Czechoslovakia. Remember how they were asked to enter.

Was it the Sihanouk government which evolved its own resistance movement to Lon Nol or did the resistance movement develop of its oven accord. I quote from the same article: 'leading members of the Government are actually directing that resistance movement. An unfortunate admission by Sihanouk.

I think the greater proportion of students at this and all the other universities in New Zealand are well aware of the trap into which resistance movements can fall. Who is first to help the Chinese and/or the Russians. Sure they succeed in overthrowing the Capitalist regimes but let us not assume that that which replaces the latter is going to restore the freedom to oppose the small elite power group which will exist and does exist.

Next time, you think about 'the triumph of the people's war' in Indo China, just remember the students who lost their lives in Czechoslovakia trying to guard their hard won, limited democratic rights, remember the purges in Russia and China, remember the expulsion and imprisonment of dissident writers in Russia, remember the fiasco in Cuba after the revolution, remember the hundreds of East Germans who have been shot trying to leave what can only be described as a prison. When you are reminded of Thieu's political prisoners in South Viet Nam, don't forget the thousands inprisoned in Russia..

(About those facts we omitted. I would like to reply to Nevill Wynn's criticisms one by one for I believe it is not that we are omitting facts but that he is including 'facts' quite irrelevant to the situation.

Firstly we do not just 'condone' the orerthrowing of US puppet regimes — we actively support such acts. Secondly Nevill Wynn talks about the communist regimes that are replacing the capitalist regimes. This is quite an incorrect view of the situation. The battles of the Indochinese people have not been directed against local capitalism, but the predatory imperialist capitalism represented recently by the United States. Their battles have always been against foreign interference in their affairs and for self-determination. These battles have been directly against the French. Japan and the US as well as in directly against various puppet regimes who have survived solely due to foreign support. In these battles the Indochinese people have allied with local capitalists in many instances.

The communist regimes that are mentioned in W'ynn's letter are a bit of an anachronism. Communism is an ideology not a form of government. Communist led governments have assumed a wide variety of forms. Rather than labelling certain regimes in South East Asia as communist we should look at exactly what form of government there is in each situation. If we had looked at Lon Nol's regime we would see that it arrived in power by a coup, immediately condoned an invasion of Cambodia by US and Saigon troops, and suspended democratic rights. Thieu has shown a remarkable habit for shutting down newspapers, and imprisoning MPs if they happen to disagree with him. He has also imprisoned many thousands of people who have taken a neutralist position in the war, shunted whole towns and villages about the country and into strategic hamlets and presided over a regime full of corruption. Democracy neither existed in Cambodia or Vietnam under the US sponsored regimes.

Both the PRG and the Khmer Rouge are allowing freedom of movement and speech. Both have a policy of allowing religious freedom. Buddhism is the state religion in Cambodia. In North Vietnam Buddhists and Catholics practice their religion without harrassment. However, the PRG and the Khmer Rouge will allow no freedom for friends of imperialism, nor will they allow any foreigners to interfere in their affairs.

The next point is somehow blaming the Indochinese people for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The present government in Cambodia was formed as a direct result of the Lon Nol coup in 1970. This was two years after the Soviet invasion. In fact Sihanouk has been quite critical of the USSR and rightly so. The USSR did not bother to recognise the Khmer Rouge until about one month ago, nor has it consistently supported their struggle. The Vietnamese had no part in the invasion and neither are they responsible in any way for the sins of Russia. If the mud is supposed to stick because of the fact that they are all 'commies' then again it judges people by labels and not by their deeds.

The next point is as pathetic. Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia as with the US intervention in Vietnam was justified by a call from within the country. But in Sihanouk's case this call did not lead to a consequent invasion of the country by a foreign power. It merely led to Sihanouk allying his considerable prestige among the Cambodian people with the resistance movement. Even 'Time' admits that for at least the last two years the resistance movement has been made up solely of Cambodians. What sort of invasion is this? The Americans and South Vietnamese are the only ones who invaded Cambodia.

The next Wynn sally would have us believe that the resistance movement in Cambodia came about due solely to the overbearing leadership of the Khmer Rouge — that the people didn't really want to join it. The problem with this is that all means of coercion were on Lon No1's side. Lon Nol had an airforce that could flatten whole villages. Lon Nol also had artillary and armoured vehicles. The resistance movement, on the other hand, had to capture much of its heavy equipment. If coercion had decided the issue no-one would have joined the Khmer Rouge. The problem is that they did.

The rest of Wynn's emotional outburst consists of an assertion that an elite will always exist in societies and will continue to wield power, and then various unfounded (he presents no evidence) attacks on Cuba, Russia, China and East Germany. Somehow the defects he sees in these countries are supposed to have something to do with Indochina.

It looks like Nevill Wynn could find no evidence with which to discredit the successful struggles of the Indochinese people or their leadership, so he has had to drag out totally unrelated 'evidence' to attack these people. Obviously 30 years of killing isn't enough for some people. Ed.)