UN General Assembly
1968

70. The American argument that North Viet-Nam is the aggressor against South Viet-Nam is not only mistaken, it is contrary to real facts. It must be remembered that the origin of the Viet-Nam war was the legitimate revolt of the South Viet-Namese people against the dictatorship of Ngo Dinh Diem and the illegal intervention by the American armed forces in that domestic dispute. It is the United States that deliberately transformed the civil war in South Viet-Nam into a war of independence by the Viet-Namese people against a foreign invader. The representatives of the United States assure us that they have no colonial ambitions and that their only aim is the welfare of Viet-Nam and the Viet-Namese. Unfortunately, these fine sentiments are reflected in the wholesale murder of the civilian population, in untold sufferings inflicted on a people, and in the methodical destruction of a country under the pretence of helping it.