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SF14-207-2-force and put all political opp. tion---Communist and anti-C munist---in jail. 1959it was clear that there weren't going to be any elections, and the guerillas known as theViet Cong began to fight back. By 1963 our government was fed up with Diem, but stillwasn't willing to risk elections. Our CLA helped a group of Vietnamese generals to over-throw Diem and kill him. Since then there have been a series of "better" militarydictators. General Ky---the man who admires Hitler---is the latest one.## FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACYYour job as a soldier is supposed to be "to win the people of South Vietnam." Winthem to what? Not democracy. We keep democracy for ourselves---they get, militarydictators. What then? The American way of life ? But why should they care my moreabout that than we care about the Vietnamese way of life? We can't speak their languageor even pronounce their names. We don't know anything about their religion or even whatit is. We never even heard of Vietnam until Washington decided to run it.You are supposed to be fighting to "save the Vietnamese people from Communism."Certainly Communist influence is very strong in the National Liberation Front, the rebelgovernment. Yet most of the people support the NLF. Why? Many of the same peoplewho now lead the NLF led the Vietnamese independence movement against the Japaneseduring World War II and then went on to fight against French colonial rule. Most Vietnamesthink of the NLF leaders as their country's outstanding patriots. In fact, many anti-Communists have joined the guerilla forces in the belief that the most important thing isto get rid of foreign domination and military dictators. On the other hand, very fewVietnamese support the official government of General Ky. His army has low morale anda high desertion rate.## THE TOUGH GUERILLASThe newspapers and television have told us again and agian what a brave, tough fighterthe Vietnamese guerilla is. Short of ammunition and without any air cover, he can beatforces that outnumber him five or ten to one. Why do they have such high morale? Theyare not draftees; no draftees ever fight like that. They are not high-paid, professionalsoldiers; most of them are peasants who work their fields. They are not well-trained;they can't even spare the ammunition for target practice.Their secret is that they know why they are fighting. They didn't hear about Vietnamin the newspapers; they've lived there all their lives. While we were in high school,they were living under the Diem regime and hating it. Now American planes are bombingtheir towns and strafing their fields; American troops have occupied their country; and ifthey complain out loud, an American-supported dictator sentences them to jail or thefiring squad. Is it any wonder that they fight so fiercely?## CRUSHING THE RESISTANCEThe war in Vietnam is not being fought according to the rules. Civilians are gassed.Prisoners are tortured. Our planes drop incendiary bombs on civilian villages. Oursoldiers shoot at women and children. Your officers will tell you that it is all necessary,that we couldn't win the war any other way. And they are right. Americans are no morecruel than any other people; American soldiers don't enjoy this kind of war. But if youare going to wage war against an entire people, you have to become cruel. The ordinaryGerman soldier in occupied Europe wasn't especially cruel, either. But as the resistancemovements grew, he became cruel. He shot at women and children because they wereshooting at him; he never asked himself why they were shooting at him. When a certaintown became a center of resistance activity, he followed his orders and destroyed the966NW 88613 Docld:34530152 Page 5