Volume 2, No. 1, January 2001

On November 16, 2000, Clinton visited Vietnam, twenty-five years after the Vietnam War. Years back, on the occasion of normalisation of relations with Vietnam, on July 11, 1995, he had said, "the brave Americans who fought and died there had noble motives. They fought for the freedom and the independence of the Vietnamese people."

With these words Clinton absolved the US of whatever it did in the Vietnam War and imparted to the US a noble cause.

It is necessary to remind ourselves of those times, lest we forget the past and the real designs of US imperialism, and not be misled in the present when a world wide wave of the dark forces of reaction is out to sweep aside whatever has been really good, just and noble in mankind’s history. To make way for the future the mist of the present needs to be cleared and to clear the mist of the present, one must have a correct understanding of the past.

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The people who routed France at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and made the USA exit in 1975, are themselves knocked out in the Y2K times. In essence, Vietnam is back to square one as far as its struggle to safeguard its national independence is concerned. And the socialist dream stands shattered, as it had gone the Khrushchevian way right in its early infancy.

The war in Vietnam, or the Vietnam War as the whole world used to call it, had remained on the center-stage of the world political scene for ten long years. It came to an end resulting in a complete humiliation for the US imperialists. Analysts agree that the Vietnam War was the third greatest war for America and the first where it had to taste a defeat. The mightiest power of the world had to yield to the determination, bravery and sacrificing spirit of a very small country and its people.

The saga of the Vietnam war made people identify themselves with the cause of the National Liberation Front (Vietcong) guerrillas. In India it was rendered well into a song called "Mera Naam Tera Naam, Vietnam Vietnam." The very name "Vietnam" aroused inspiration in the oppressed and determination and ardent emotions in revolutionaries, both nationalists and communists, around the world. At the same time, it sent shudders down the spines of reactionaries in all lands. While the Vietnamese guerrillas commanded respect and approbation of the progressive people the world over, the US imperialists earned hatred, opposition and condemnation worldwide. Even the "American" historians have marked the American defeat in Vietnam as a "national humiliation" and a "catastrophe".

When the last US helicopter took off from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, in late April 1975, carrying the last American out of Vietnam, the then US President, Gerald Ford felt that he was "the saddest man in the world". The sadness of the US President may be a debatable thing among psychoanalysts but there is no debate over the point that the macabre dance of gory death and destruction, which the US butchers carried out in Vietnam for years, made the USA the most hated regime in the world.

American forces killed three million Vietnamese liberation fighters and civilians; devastated buildings, bridges and ports; sprayed defoliants (Agent Orange) all over North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, strafed residential places with napalm bombs; mined the whole landscape with millions of landmines dropped from aircrafts and turned the whole of Vietnam into a laboratory for testing and experimenting all kinds of weapons except the nuclear and hydrogen bombs. The little Vietnam endured four times the total explosives used in World War II. Yet in the end, to the great delight of the Vietnamese and the struggling people of the world and to the great humiliation of the dark forces of world imperialism, the mighty US was forced to concede to an ignominious defeat, biting dust at the hands of a very small and one of the poorest nations of the world.

The US listed 57,939 American deaths in the Vietnam War. It had spent countless billions of dollars to conduct the war of aggression with a maximum of 5,49,500 troops. The US intervention in Vietnam had started during Truman’s tenure when he sent a few "advisors" to help France to continue its colonial occupation of Vietnam in the face of a developing national liberation struggle. Eisenhower raised this strength to 685 and Kennedy increased it further to 16,000 men, which included CIA trained Green Beret saboteurs and dreaded terrorists. Kennedy wanted to counter revolutionary guerrilla tactics with the operations of underhand covert agents to spread panic and conduct psychological warfare, a la dons of the underworld. During Johnson’s presidency the US imperialists became more and more desperate and the strength of US forces reached gigantic figures. For America the war assumed an all-out character just short of a nuclear strike. Yet all the US politicians, including Johnson, knew that they were waging a losing battle. They were confounded by the Vietnamese endurance and their capacity to resist and attack even after suffering enormous losses and extensive devastation. Nixon too, found himself in the same desperation his predecessor was in. But he could snatch an opportunity to open a channel for dialogue with North Vietnamese leaders and the NLF. Only, it was Ford who had to face the fate of becoming "the saddest man in the world" and could not enjoy a bit more of the macabre drama in Vietnam. The war in Vietnam proved a real test for the US and the myth of the invincibility of US power was torn to shreds.

The end of World War II saw half of Europe out of the reach of the imperialist powers. Due to the loosened control of the imperialist powers, the whole of Asia was in turmoil and tides of revolution were on the rise. China was just four years away from the complete take-over by the communist forces. During the war itself the Korean people had started a war of liberation against the Japanese occupiers and at the end of the war the USSR and US pushed the Japanese out of the Korean peninsula. The area occupied by the USSR’s forces was handed over to the Korean guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung, with Russians withdrawing from Korea. America, which occupied the Southern part, set up a puppet military regime in the South and did not pull out. The French had already been there in Vietnam for fifty years. In 1946, the Vietnamese people launched a liberation struggle against the French colonialists, which soon engulfed the whole of the country leaving only city pockets in the hands of the French. The communist forces were especially strong in Turkey and Greece while the rest of Western Europe had a sizable presence of communist and other progressive forces. With the Japanese bulwark of reaction broken in Asia and half of Germany gone, the need of the hour for the Western powers was, on the one hand, to stem the tide of revolution in Turkey, Greece, China, Korea and Vietnam and, on the other, to rebuild the forces of reaction in Europe and Asia. This resulted in the Marshall plan for Europe and Japan while massive military aid was given to Turkish, Greek and Chinese reactionaries to crush the communist forces.

While revolution was crushed in Turkey and Greece, the Chinese revolution became victorious in 1949 leaving Formosa (Taiwan) in the hands of the Kuomintang reactionaries under the protective umbrella of the US imperialists. The American puppet, Syngman Rhee, imposed martial law in South Korea to control the communist led massive upsurge of the people in their bid to unite the country. Rhee could stay in power only with the help of the US armed forces. Truman assisted the French to continue their colonial hold over Vietnam. Meanwhile war between North and South Korea erupted in 1950 and direct US involvement in the war in this Asian region started. Had the US not been there, forces of revolution would have swept, not only Korea, but Vietnam, Turkey, and Greece and the whole of South East Asia. But the US and its Western allies were to be there to stop peoples form achieving their liberation. The "Specter of communism" threatening to engulf the colonies of East Asia and mid Western Europe, became the primary concern for the US and the Western powers. To stop this "global march of communism" the US adopted the dirty rhetoric of defending and maintaining the "independence of nations" to strengthen the reactionary state structures there, by all means, including direct military interventions.

The importance of South East Asia in the then existing balance of forces between revolution and reaction on a global scale was the real background which led to the Korean war and the historic war in Indo-China where Vietnam acquired the status of a central arena for the world leaders of reaction. The massive involvement of the US, under its successive presidents from 1945 onwards, has to be seen in this context, ultimately resulting in the humiliating defeat for the US and the glorious heroism and endurance of the Vietnamese masses and their determination to resist domination.

The falling of Vietnam into "communist hands" was considered by the West as a corridor to revolutions in the South East Asian countries. The French ambassador in Washington was told that the US was "ready and willing to do anything which it might consider helpful in the circumstances". So, the first batch of US "advisors" arrived in Vietnam. The US had the opinion that the fall of Vietnam would trigger a chain reaction and Burma and Thailand would fall "like overripe apples". These overripe apples were considered dominoes. Eisenhower was afraid that if the first domino falls it would knock over the second and then others in a row. In January 1954, the National Security Council of the US prepared a paper that declared that the "loss of any single country" in South East Asia would mean the loss of the entire region and then India and Japan would follow suit "endangering the security of Europe" [Pentagon Papers; New York Edition p.10]. Japan, reduced to a US protectorate of sorts, was also considered as an eventual candidate for communism in the US’s fears. So, the first domino’s fall had to be stalled, either it be Korea or Vietnam. The fall of South Korea had already been stemmed with massive US participation. The war in Korea became the third greatest war the US ever had only to be surpassed by the Vietnam war which pushed the Korean war to the fourth place. In Korea the US lost 53,246 men within a span of three years. In Vietnam the figures was to touch even a higher mark. But death, then, is of little importance when bigger things are at stake. The US had to protect its world empire of "Evil" and this had respect neither for the living nor for the dead. So, the war in Vietnam, we can conclude, came as a sequel to a definite policy framework of the US imperialists in the South East Asian region.

To short circuit the liberation guerrilla forces in Vietnam the French, in 1949 installed a puppet regime under Bao Dai. Bao Dai was a former emperor of a small French protectorate of Annam. Though the actual head was Bao Dai, the control , however, remained in French hands. Meanwhile, the communist guerrilla forces announced the establishment of a new regime in the liberated areas. Bao Dai, under the overall control of the French forces, had his administration only in the city centers while the vast rural areas were controlled by the communist forces. Truman extended recognition to the French puppet Bao Dai and started helping him to consolidate his power. After Korea, Vietnam became the next destination for the US administration in South East Asia. In 1950, Truman sent a military mission to Vietnam to strengthen the French forces.

When the battle of Dien Bien Phu occurred in 1954 Eisenhower presided over the US imperialists. To help the French avoid a defeat, Eisenhower prepared to intervene with air power. However, the French were routed in the battle of Dien Bien Phu conceding to the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Vietminh) the area north of the 17th parallel, later getting to be known as North Vietnam. France decided to pull out of Vietnam to concentrate more on North Africa, but only after making way for the US to replace herself, and not by giving the Vietnamese the right to decide their own future. The Geneva Accord 1954, which was signed by North Vietnam and France in the aftermath of Dien Bien Phu, held that elections would be held throughout Vietnam within two years to make it a single sovereign state. But the Bao Dai regime, with US complicity, had other schemes.

As a part of the US geo-strategic interests in Southeast Asia, Americans began replacing the departing French. The US pumped dollars and military equipment to the Diem regime and started training the South Vietnamese troops. When election time approached in 1956, Diem under the directives of the US, refused to hold elections in South Vietnam. The Geneva Accords bounced, and military means replaced the political process. Eisenhower, in Oct.1954, had already pledged Diem that the US would strengthen South Vietnam to resist "attempted subversion or aggression through military means." [Larry Berman, Planning a Tragedy, The Americanisation of the war in Vietnam (New York 1982), p.13]

With this pledge, the "champion" of the free world and democracy, Eisenhower, provoked Diem to subvert the Accord and instigated him to adopt military means. NATO’s first commander, Eisenhower, now president of the US, thought of carrying out the imperialist interests of the US through military means by trampling the Geneva Accords under his boots.

Eisenhower supported Diem by all means, except the job of coming face to face with the NLF guerrillas. He sent Ed.G.Lansdale, a CIA agent and anti-guerrilla strategist, as the head of the military advisory and assistance group, which took up sabotage work in North Vietnam. But the liberation struggle in South Vietnam was gaining strength with every passing year and in spite of the fact that now the South Vietnamese army was being trained directly by the Americans. Merely the training of troops could not get the desired results and Eisenhower suggested to the next incumbent, Kennedy, to intervene directly.

Kennedy stepped into the shoes of his predecessor and decided to show the world the credibility of US power through US actions in Vietnam. He immediately increased the strength of the American military mission in Vietnam from 685 to 16000. The Geneva Accord had forbidden South Vietnam to have more than the number 685 of foreign military personnel on its soil. Kennedy breached the limit and, as such, proclaimed the Accord as dead. He authorized the CIA to go ahead with its plans to overthrow Diem and install a new creditable puppet with consultations and connivance of some top generals in Vietnam. CIA henchmen pounced on Diem, killed him and a long chain of coups ensued. But, damn it, the US must continue to run the world according to its wishes! Kennedy actively took up counter insurgency measures in Vietnam, Malaya and the Philippines. During ‘democrat’ Kennedy’s times the CIA increased its covert operations to unprecedented levels. Vietnam was flooded with the CIA trained Green Berets. He defended his own aggressive conduct by saying, "Aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war". His hypocrisy, like all of his ilk, had no limits. He extended the American aggression to Laos and North Vietnam in the name of fighting communist domination. As the saying goes, "oppression leads to resistance", so the resistance in Vietnam, as everywhere else, was bound to increase further due to the heightened US aggressiveness. The US humiliation of 1975 was approaching as time limped by. But during the in-between years Vietnam was to go through the worst kind of barbarity of the most "advanced" and "civilized" nation of our times.

On March 12, 1947, Truman laid down the basis of post World War II America’s role in world affairs while asking for the Congress’s permission to sanction $ 400 million for Greece and Turkey. And for the authority to send military personnel and military equipment, Truman said "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." This statement of Truman became known as the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine, coupled with US Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s plan to rebuild Europe and Japan as against the socialist states, became the basis for organizing world reaction and securing the supremacy of US imperialism in the world. This doctrine, determined the attitude of the imperialist masters to every social upheaval and revolt. Opposition to reactionary governments by the oppressed peoples was termed as a threat to the ‘free world’ and ‘independence’ of the countries. Conspiracies, coups and subversion were employed to bind nations into the neo-colonial set up of the post World War II world. Methods were devised to divert the liberation struggles from the path of real liberation, subjecting those movements, which did not comply with the economic system and values of the West, to extreme oppression.

In many a country the movements led by sections of the exploiting classes were fairly tolerated and deals to transfer power were struck, like India, Kenya, Burma etc. But movements in Greece, Korea, and Vietnam had a different mettle and these attracted the utmost attention of the US and its allies. The attitude towards the liberation struggle in Vietnam represented what the ‘free world’ would have in store for the struggling people in various countries. The rhetoric to "defend and maintain the independence of Vietnam" never stopped. The real intentions were reflected in words like "to prevent communist domination of Vietnam", "to keep communists from winning", "to stop the march of world communism", "to prevent eventual accommodation to communism" etc. etc. Here the real struggle lay in the opposing systems and opposing ideologies. Even revolutionary national liberation struggles in Africa, though not led by the communists, attracted the large-scale barbarity of the colonial masters. These liberation struggles comprised the second current of world proletarian revolution, and, so, were bound to invite the wrath of the rulers. Streams of blood flowed in Asia, Africa and Latin America. But the masses resisted and persevered, dealing severe blows to the imperialists and reactionaries and forcing a strategic retreat of imperialism which had to desert the outpost i.e., colonialism, and retreated to the rear i.e., neo-colonialism.

When the French set up Bao Dai in 1949 it was one step back from direct colonial rule but, nevertheless, to continue the French domination in a new form. But the French had to leave, giving room for the US to step in. Only, Bao Dai’s masters changed hands, Bao Dai remained the puppet. The real struggle for liberation remained in the hands of the Vietminh, and later the Vietcong. But the US hypocrites tried to paint Bao Dai’s South Vietnam as "an independent country". You will agree, it was the height of deception and perfidy, a sinister imperialist logic destined to lose in the end. Vietnam slapped the Truman doctrine in the face. And all the inheritors of Truman could never recover from the shock.

The incident in the Gulf of Tonkin became a pretext to take the war into North Vietnam. Prior to that, no regular warfare against the Northern part was conducted. Johnson’s advisors and officials, including Sec. Of State Dean Rusk, Sec. Of Defence Robert S. McNamara, Director Central Intelligence John Mc Lone, JCO G. Wheeler etc., had been asking him to "progressively escalate the pressure" on North Vietnam to stem the "deteriorating" situation in the South where guerrilla forces had been exerting ever greater pressure despite Kennedy’s aggressive policies of containment. They wanted him to carry bombing raids on the North to disrupt the supply lines to the Vietcong guerrilla forces. In Feb.1964 Johnson agreed to a proposal, code named OPLAN34-A, which included air raids on industrial facilities, sea-borne command assaults to blow up rail and highway bridges; using PT boats to fire over coastal installations; parachute drops on sabotage missions etc. In addition, patrolling of the coastal line by American naval vessels with electronic devices to gather intelligence, was approved. Although the bombing raids had not been taken up yet, the destroyer USS Maddox started reconnaissance along the coastal line of Vietnam. On August 2, 1964 Johnson received a high-priority message in the White House that the USS Maddox had been attacked by PT boats off Tonkin. Hanoi was sent a warning note that "grave consequences would inevitably result from any further unprovoked offensive military action" on US ships "on the high seas".

The Tonkin Gulf incidence was never confirmed. This was true in the absence of any damages-like circumstantial evidence too. But the cruel lion pounced upon the lamb. After that, bombing raids on North Vietnam never stopped for three and a half years. Fire and destruction rained like hell on every part of North Vietnam killing, maiming and devastating. Still, the guerrilla war in South Vietnam intensified to Johnson’s and his advisor’s frustrations and helplessness. It looked as if the Vietnamese guerrillas would appear form nowhere like a bang and pounce upon their targets. The advantages of a people’s war that no adversary, no power, could destroy. Johnson raised the strength of his troops to more than 500,000 men from Kennedy’s 16,000. But war seemed unending, un-winnable and incredible to the US generals and politicians alike. The death ratio of Americans to Vietnamese stood at 1:40, which was enough to plunge the US butchers into desperation and consternation because still there was no sign of an end to the war, nor did any demoralization appear on the part of the North Vietnamese or the Vietcong guerrillas.

The farce of the Tonkin Gulf incidence, instead of intimidating North Vietnam into submission, boomeranged on the US itself. A powerful anti-war movement of a wide range of schools of thought took the hell out of Johnson and he earned the nickname of "Johnson the murderer". The American people termed him as a war criminal. However, the basic cause for home opposition to the Vietnam war was the steep rise in the American body count. Streams of coffins started arriving on overseas US aircrafts and this created mixed feelings of rage, disgust and revolt among the Americans. The Anti-Vietnam war movement, though, is beyond the purview of this article and needs to be dealt with separately. Let us return to the arena of war where a far bigger bewilderment awaited the US warmongers. Come 1968, and the Tet offensive begins.

When the bombing of North Vietnam did not yield the desired results, Johnson tried to coax the Vietnamese leadership to give into an alluring economic package for developing the South and North Vietnam economically if the latter pledges to stop supporting Vietcong guerrillas. He also proposed peace talks with Ho Chi Minh to stop hostilities. But he did not get any response. He was not ready to see a communist government installed in the South and wanted a middle road. Neither was he in a position to subdue the North, nor was he able to force them on to the negotiating table. In a situation of hopelessness he ordered the cessation of the bombing campaign in the middle of 1967 hoping that the "enemy" might respond to this ‘good’ gesture of his. No feelers came and the guerrilla struggle in the South continued at a steady pace.

On January 30, 1968, Vietcong guerrillas launched their first major offensive on all of the South Vietnamese cities and towns simultaneously. It was unexpected as the US bombers had been continuously strafing guerrilla bases in the South and intelligence agencies too had not reported any visible signs of a sudden spurt in guerrilla activities, and that too, on such a huge scale. The White House turned grey as one after the other report struck it with the news of mortar, rocket and ground attacks on various cities, airports and radio stations. Even Saigon itself came under fire. Guerrillas captured the old imperial capital city of Hue and held it for 25 days. The US commanders shuddered at the thought of many a Dien Bien Phus looming large. The US military machine in Vietnam went into disarray. Desertions were being reported, especially among the South Vietnamese soldiers. But at the 17th parallel there were no visible signs of a general North Vietnamese mobilization. No incursions worth reporting were seen.

No sooner would the Americans clear an area off the "enemy" and move forward the guerrillas would appear, as if from the thin air, and force the Americans into combat. The US body count rose steeply. Johnson felt trapped between the devil and the deep sea and had to say to the leaders of the US Congress that they were "living in dangerous times". The battle in the South resembled Dien Bien Phu and the US administration feared the worst might happen. Johnson contemplated using nuclear weapons and conveyed his feelings to the US commander in Vietnam, Gen. Westmoreland, seeking his opinion. General Westmoreland told Johnson that he might need it if a general offensive by the North Vietnamese army was launched. He visualized tactical nuclear weapons or chemical agents as possible candidates for employment.

Johnson had a vision of a "Great Society" for the Americans. His ‘vision’, we can say, also included a nuclear holocaust to fulfill the American Dream. Truman did it, Kennedy threatened it twice and Johnson was on the brink of pushing the button! A great society indeed! The society of US presidents down the line since Vietnam has to their credit Lebanon, Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Serbia etc.

The US bombed North Vietnam and Tet bombed the US, ripping apart its social fabric and bringing out all its contradictions to the fore. The blacks, the students the workers, the hippies, the anarchists… millions and millions came on to the streets.

In 1969, another ‘star’ appears at the oval office. Nixon assumes the chair. He continues with the Vietnam legacy. The US involvement further intensifies but victory recedes farther into the darkness. Through his shuttling ‘prodigy’ Henry Kissinger, Nixon desperately seeks for channels to communicate with the North Vietnamese leadership and the Vietcong leaders in the South. To show the American ‘prowess’ he expands the war into Cambodia, dragging the US further into the mire. Now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the whole of Indo-China, batter the devil. In December 1972, Nixon opts for the most ever brutal and intense bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail guerrilla supply line – running through all the three Indo-Chinese countries. North Vietnam is straffed to the maximum. Kennedy had said that the United States would "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to ensure the survival and success of liberty." And Indo-China bore all the brutalities of the imperialist concept of ‘liberty’ down the White House lane to Johnson and Nixon!

The Paris talks with North Vietnam broke down. But he, nevertheless, ‘decided’ to pull America out of the Vietnam Syndrome and started withdrawing unilaterally rather than face a "Hands Up!" situation. The number of troops came down to 30,000 from 550,000. American causalities dropped form 1200 a month to 30 a month. Then, in April 1975, the last American took his flight home from atop the roof of the US embassy, as the Saigon airport was about to fall into the guerrillas’ hands.

The Vietnam Syndrome still continues for the US imperialist rulers. They fear the backlash back home if body bags arrive. Now the US resorts to war from the skies. New technologies are being advanced and tested to conduct wars from afar. The same system continues in the US. In the name of liberty, human rights and the free spirit of the free market the US’s crimes against humanity continue. But Clinton says that let the past be buried and the dead be respected. These seemingly humane words, with an oriental touch, contain the same deception US imperialism has been resorting to in the past.

All of the US presidents involved in the Vietnam war considered that they had done their duty "honestly" "in the service of the American nation". The imperialist butchery and brigandage in Vietnam was hundred percent imperialist "honesty". It could not have been otherwise. When the premises on which two persons stand, differ, their logic and outlook to see things differ. In case of an imperialist and an oppressed nation both stand diametrically opposite to each other and have different concepts about truth, honesty, right, wrong etc.

During his visit to Vietnam, Clinton spoke of the sacrifices and tragedies of both the Vietnamese and the Americans alike during the war without differentiating who were on the side of justice and who were on the side of crime. For him both were right in their own earnest. This is another criminal attempt to gloss over the reality. This seemingly humanistic approach of Clinton tries to conceal the real intentions of the US imperialists. Their interest is to bring Vietnam under the US thumb again, though, this time not to fight against the "world communist onslaught", but, nevertheless, to control its economy and politics to serve imperialist interests of the US in the name of "building bridges" and "looking towards the future." While visiting an excavation site for the dead Americans missing-in-Action (MIS), he said of the US soldiers who died during the years of US butchery and gore in Vietnam, "They [Americans] fought for the freedom and independence of the Vietnamese people." Then what was that the Vietnamese fought for?

The words of Clinton put the glorious history of the Vietnamese freedom struggle in black letters and justified the US crimes. You can’t find a more explicit example of falsification of history.

Why the Vietnamese leaders digested it and why they accorded Clinton a red carpet welcome and now want US assistance "to help build the[ir] future" is another story. The story of betrayal by the Vietnamese leadership and Vietnam’s journey towards a new hell we intend to take up at some time in the future. It will not be, however, out of context to state that the glorious revolutionary legacy of the Vietnamese people is bound to assert itself once again and sweep away the renegades, their masters and all the evil, which afflicts present Vietnamese society, and make it advance once again on the path of real socialism.

As far as Clinton is concerned he is the true inheritor of the Truman, Johnson and Nixon legacy with the same intents and purposes — the domination of Vietnam.

While the US has been spending $ 100 million annually, since 1993, to trace the 1800 dead Americans missing in action in Vietnam it has agreed to spend $ 3 million to detect the land mines which have been killing 2000 Vietnamese every year for the last twenty five years. Still there are about 3.5 million landmines scattered in the fields, jungles and hills in Vietnam. The imperialist master is more concerned with the dead than the living. He knows "the cause" for which the Americans died was an imperialist cause and he must respect them. The "new future" he seeks for the Vietnamese and his calls to the Vietnamese students and people to ask for political and economic freedoms is a call to the living to fall in line with the global aspirations of the US. Leaving aside that the Vietnamese leaders are already falling in line to the forces of the market economy, Clinton appealed to the people to come forward to quicken this pace towards another hell. In fact, Clinton went to Vietnam to aim at the living while looking for the dead.

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