The Silent War

Vietnam: Still America's War produced by A.T.V., a British Independent Network narrated by John Piter of London's Daily Mirror available for distribution from the Old Cambridge Baptist Church

"...for many people engaged in modern warfare, there is no guilt because guilt depends ultimately on contemplating the destruction that one is responsible for. So much destruction in modern warfare takes place miles and miles away from the source of the destruction, the human being who has caused it." James Dickey

SIX YEARS AGO in an essay called "On Genocide," Jean-Paul Sartre condemned the United States government for its seemingly unlimited commitment to the total destruction of the Vietnamese people. Hidden away in that essay was a single paragraph dealing with the hypothesis: What if the war were to end? Sartre concluded that the U.S. would then pursue a more sophisticated form of genocide in which the Vietnamese people would be economically, politically and culturally suppressed. Such an argument is difficult to prove even now, in the so-called aftermath of the war. Yet more than one and a half years after the Paris peace agreement, Sartre's prediction has come true. The U.S. is complicit in--if not directly responsible for--continued violations of the Paris accord. Not only do these violations of the peace treaty, which was called an "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam," take the form of political and economic oppression, but they are blatantly acts of aggression.

Surprisingly enough, the best--because it's the only known--film documentary of continued American involvement in Vietnam comes from England, where a small team of journalists broadcast a half-hour documentary last May, called Vietnam: Still America's War. This film premiered in North America last Monday night under the auspices of the Coalition to Free Saigon Political Prisoners.

The film makes two controversial allegations. First, the American government has ignored its responsibilities to aid in war reparations. Second, U.S. military and economic aid to the Republic of South Vietnam perpetuates the continuing battle between ARVN and PRG forces, supports a politically oppressive climate, and denies the people of Vietnam its recognized right to self-determination.

Since the beginning of "peace with honor" claims John Pilger, the narrator, approximately 70,000 Vietnamese have died in the continuing civil strife. Pilger says that despite Vietnam's low priority in the news, and despite the fact that most Americans may consider the war in Vietnam over, it is still very much America's war. In interviews with several U.S. civilians in a Saigon bar each man explains his job--many are technical experts and all share one viewpoint in common. That is, they're absolutely essential to the smooth functioning of the South Vietnamese effort. Without them the Republic of South Vietnam wouldn't be able to survive for long. One man claims his work on a surveillance device used to detect enemy radar operation is vital; without it the Vietnamese Air Force would be grounded. One thing becomes clear in these interviews: Even taking into consideration the technicians' collective sense of inflated self-importance, one begins to understand that the South Vietnamese could not become self-sufficient within the next few years, not in the circumstances of continued fighting.

BUT THE FIGHTING is never actually captured on film. One only becomes aware of its impact upon individuals, just as most of this documentary deals with the direct effects of this non-war upon human beings. The film's appeal is decidedly emotional.

In a hospital for the disabled the camera focuses on several pairs of feet, some real, some wooden; they belong to mine-victims and grenade-casualties. An American nurse at the hospital says quite bluntly the worst problem is land-mines left by American troops. The Paris peace accord stipulated that all American land-mines be removed or defused within sixty days of the agreement. The most recent casualty, a teenage girl, is still soaking the stump of her amputated leg in solution to keep it from getting infected--more than a year after the treaty was signed. Later on in the documentary, it is revealed that several children who had stepped on the mines had been forced to go around the heavily-mined perimeters of ARVN outposts, supposedly to clear brush away. In effect they were used as human mine detectors. At this one hospital alone 61 per cent of the patients in 1973 were "war-related" cases.

The documentary is not as factually substantial as one might hope. But it does provide important information about the number of Americans still in Vietnam. It cites figures released by the American Embassy in Saigon setting the number of Americans in Vietnam at 6500. The narrator quotes the most recent figures from Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50: 2300. The discrepancy cannot be accounted for. According to unofficial sources there are about 15,000 Americans in South Vietnam.

In Article Four of the Paris Peace Treaty, the U.S. agreed that "The United States will not continue its military involvement or intervene in the internal affairs of South Vietnam." According to several reports the U.S. continues to supply the South Vietnamese Army with military strategy and logistics through twelve "liaison men" stationed throughout Vietnam. Article Five excludes "technical military personnel and...advisers...to all paramilitary organizations and the police force." While the presence of the civilian technical personel doesn't specifically violate Article Five, their presence certainly violates the spirit of the law, as does the presence of the C.I.A. in Vietnam, which reputedly helps the Saigon police force collect information on political dissenters.

There are many more specific violations to the Paris peace agreement. These are just a few. What it all adds up to is continued support for President Thieu's regime, a regime which now allows only one political party, a regime that has the power by law to confiscate any newspaper anytime. It was President Thieu who would not allow the general elections to be held, would not allow the communists access to the press, permission to run candidates or the freedom to hold open rallies in support of those candidates--all provided for in the Paris accord. Yet the United States supports Thieu with economic and military aid, both of which will be increased in the next year if Congress doesn't implement its new foreign aid provisions limiting President Ford's powers.

The war goes on in Vietnam--but now it is a war waged secretly and silently by the United States government, and silently, apathetically by the American people. For, in modern warfare we all become the causes of destruction.