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"AGGRESION FROM THE NORTH"
February 27, 1965
South Vietnam is fighting for its life against a brutal campaign of
terror and armed attack inspired, directed, supplied, and controlled
by the Communist regime in Hanoi. This flagrant aggression has been
going on for years, but recently the pace has quickened and the
threat has now become acute.
The
war in Vietnam is a new kind of war, a fact as yet poorly understood
in most parts of the world. Much of the confusion that prevails in
the thinking of many people, and even governments, stems from this
basic misunderstanding. For in Vietnam a totally new brand of
aggression has been loosed against an independent people who want to
make their way in peace and freedom.
Vietnam is not another Greece, where indigenous guerrilla forces
used friendly neighboring territory as a sanctuary.
Vietnam is not another Malaya, where Communist guerrillas were, for
the most part, physically distinguishable from the peaceful majority
they sought to control.
Vietnam is not another Philippines, where Communist guerrillas were
physically separated from the source of their moral and physical
support.
Above all, the war in Vietnam is not a spontaneous and local
rebellion against the established government.
There are elements in the Communist program of conquest directed
against South Vietnam common to each of the previous areas of
aggression and subversion. But there is one fundamental difference.
In Vietnam a Communist government has set out deliberately to
conquer a sovereign people in a neighboring state. And to achieve
its end, it has used every resource of its own government to carry
out its carefully planned program of concealed aggression. North
Vietnam's commitment to seize control of the South is no less total
than was the commitment of the regime in North Korea in 1950. But
knowing the consequences of the latter's undisguised attack, the
planners in Hanoi have tried desperately to conceal their hand. They
have failed and their aggression is as real as that of an invading
army.
This report is a summary of the massive evidence of North Vietnamese
aggression obtained by the Government of South Vietnam. This
evidence has been jointly analyzed by South Vietnamese and American
experts.
The
evidence shows that the hard core of the Communist forces attacking
South Vietnam were trained in the North and ordered into the South
by Hanoi. It shows that the key leadership of the Vietcong (VC), the
officers and much of the cadre, many of the technicians, political
organizers, and propagandists have come from the North and operate
under Hanoi's direction. It shows that the training of essential
military personnel and their infiltration into the South is directed
by the Military High Command in Hanoi. In recent months new types of
weapons have been introduced in the VC army, for which all
ammunition must come from outside sources. Communist China and other
Communist states have been the prime suppliers of these weapons and
ammunition, and they have been channeled primarily through North
Vietnam.
The
directing force behind the effort to conqueror South Vietnam is the
Communist Party in the North, the Lao Dong (Workers) Party. As in
every Communist state. the party is an integral part of the regime
itself. North Vietnamese officials have expressed their firm
determination to absorb South Vietnam into the Communist world.
Through its Central Committee, which controls the Government of the
North, the Lao Dong Party directs the total political and military
effort of the Vietcong. The Military High Command in the North
trains the military men and sends them into South Vietnam. The
Central Research Agency, North Vietnam's central intelligence
organization, directs the elaborate espionage and subversion
effort...
Under Hanoi's overall direction the Communists have established an
extensive machine for carrying on the war within South Vietnam. The
focal point is the Central Office for South Vietnam with its
political and military subsections and other specialized agencies. A
subordinate part of this Central Office is the liberation Front for
South Vietnam. The front was formed at Hanoi's order in 1960. Its
principle function is to influence opinion abroad and to create the
false impression that the aggression in South Vietnam is an
indigenous rebellion against the established Government.
For
more than 10 years the people and the Government of South Vietnam,
exercising the inherent right of self-defense, have fought back
against these efforts to extend Communist power south across the
17th parallel. The United States has responded to the appeals of the
Government of the Republic of Vietnam for help in this defense of
the freedom and independence of its land and its people.
In
1961 the Department of State issued a report called A Threat to the
Peace. It described North Vietnam's program to seize South Vietnam.
The evidence in that report had been presented by the Government of
the Republic of Vietnam to the International Control Commission (ICC).
A special report by the ICC in June 1962 upheld the validity of that
evidence. The Commission held that there was "sufficient evidence to
show beyond reasonable doubt" that North Vietnam had sent arms and
men into South Vietnam to carry out subversion with the aim of
overthrowing the legal Government there. The ICC found the
authorities in Hanoi in specific violation of four provisions of the
Geneva Accords of 1954.
Since then, new and even more impressive evidence of Hanoi's
aggression has accumulated. The Government of the United States
believes that evidence should be presented to its own citizens and
to the world. It is important for free men to know what has been
happening in Vietnam, and how, and why.
That is the purpose of this report...
The
record is conclusive. It establishes beyond question that North
Vietnam is carrying out a carefully conceived plan of aggression
against the South. It shows that North Vietnam has intensified its
efforts in the years since it was condemned by the International
Control Commission. It proves that Hanoi continues to press its
systematic program of armed aggression into South Vietnam. This
aggression violates the United Nations Charter. It is directly
contrary to the Geneva Accords of 1954 and of 1962 to which North
Vietnam is a party. It is a fundamental threat to the freedom and
security of South Vietnam.
The
people of South Vietnam have chosen to resist this threat. At their
request, the United States has taken its place beside them in their
defensive struggle.
The
United States seeks no territory, no military bases, no favored
position. But we have learned the meaning of aggression elsewhere in
the post-war world, and we have met it.
If
peace can be restored in South Vietnam, the United States will be
ready at once to reduce its military involvement. But it will not
abandon friends who want to remain free. It will do what must be
done to help them. The choice now between peace and continued and
increasingly destructive conflict is one for the authorities in
Hanoi to make.
  
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