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.

Revolutionary leadership

The most important fact in the victories of the Indochinese peoples has been the leadership provided by revolutionary Marxist-Leninist parties. As the Vietnamese women put it during their recent visit to New Zealand: "The Party is the organiser of all our victories."

The application of Marxism-Leninism to the actual realities in Indochina enabled the parties to formulate a correct political line which guided the national liberation movement. In backward agrarian countries like those in Indochina, the basic social conflicts are between foreign imperialism and the nation and between the feudal landlord class and the people, particularly the peasantry. The conflict with U.S. imperialism was seen as the most important one.

With this understanding, the Indochinese revolutionaries have aimed their spearhead at defeating foreign imperialism and the feudal landlord class. At the present stage, except for north Vietnam, domestic capitalism has not been made a target, provided it has not collaborated with imperialism. When conditions are ripe, the revolution in all of Indochina will switch from the present national-democratic stage to the socialist stage, as in north Vietnam.

The United Front

This understanding has enabled the Indochinese revolutionaries to unite the greatest number of people against the common enemy — U.S. imperialism — so as to isolate him to the maximum. Policies have been adopted which unite all those who can be united, neutralise all those who can be nertialised and divide up the enemy. The Seven-Point Peace Proposal of [unclear: July] 1971 and the Paris agreement have been [unclear: concrete] examples of this political line in the diplomatic sphere.

Based on the unity between the working class and the peasantry, the revolutionary parties have been able to mobilise the people of all social classes, nationalities, religions and political beliefs into a single spearhead of resistance to U.S. imperialism. The National Front for Liberation of south Vietnam is an embodiment of this, line, including as it does the People's Revolutionary Party, the Democratic Party and the Radical Socialist Party.

Truong Chinh, leading Vietnamese theoretician, says that the national united front is "an indispensable political weapon for our people to bring into play their combined strength in the struggle against the enemy of our nation to [unclear: conquer] independence, freedom and to build a new life."

People's War

People and not weapons are decisive in warfare. As Giap has said, "It can be said that nowadays in military affairs there is a greater invention than atomic weapons, that is, people's war" In people's war the whole nation is aroused, the entire people is armed and fights on all fronts. Everybody, from small children to the old, take part in the [unclear: Comaon] struggle, using whatever weapons are available. People's war is revolutionary armed struggle developed on the basis of political struggle. The political struggle and the armed struggle are closely coordinated, supporting and stimulating each other.

The revolutionary armed forces are developed so that all types of warfare, from guerrilla war to regular war, can be fought. The cities are surrounded from the countryside and eventually liberated, as has happened this year in Cambodia and Vietnam.

International Solidarity

While the national liberation movements in Indochina relied mainly on their own efforts, they generated a movement of international support without precedent. Material aid and diplomatic support came from a number of countries, including socialist, former socialist and some bourgeois countries. An international protest movement developed in the capitalist world which greatly, contributed to the political isolation of U.S. imperialism.

The war in Indochina is without parallel in history. The great victories of the three Indochinese peoples have shown that while U.S. imperialism is outwardly strong and capable of inflicting great suffering on the people, it is inwardly weak: the people, provided they take their destiny into their own hands and fight a protracted people's war under correct political leadership, are capable of defeating any attacks of imperialism — that is the fundamental lesson of Indochina.