[The following statement was released March 10 by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. It is in response to an appeal from the National Peace Action Coalition in the United States, urging that April 22 be made a day of international action against U.S. aggression in Indochina.]
The Vietnamese revolution is passing through a crucial period.
Faced with a presidential election in November of 1972, the Nixon administration is engaged in a massive diplomatic offensive to try to isolate the Vietnamese revolution and to convince the American people that everything possible is being done to end direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. To this end, Nixon's "eightpoint program" was announced at the end of January. It was revealed that secret negotiations had taken place between presidential adviser Henry Kissinger and the revolutionary forces in Vietnam. And one of the central goals of Nixon's voyage to Peking was to win public support for the administration's Southeast Asia policies.
While massive opposition to the war in the United States has forced the government to cut back on the use of American ground troops in the Indochina fighting, the Nixon administration is stepping up the war effort in every other respect. Bombing raids have been amongst the most massive ever, and unprecedented military aid to the Saigon regime is planned for the coming year.
In other words, Nixon is trying to pacify worldwide opposition to U.S. imperialist policies as he "Vietnamizes" and prolongs the war. He is attempting to buy time, with the American people especially, to convince them that the war is inevitably "winding down." He is hoping to reduce the ever mounting pressure for withdrawal of all American troops, bases, and logistic supplies from Indochina. He still hopes to "end" the war by "winning" it.
The American rulers have at the same time taken the offensive in a diplomatic maneuver with the Stalinist bureaucracies in Peking and Moscow, trying to arrange a "peaceful coexistence" deal in order to pressure the Vietnamese people into accepting strations on April 22, in solidarity with the Indochinese revolution. Simultaneous actions in other countries are already being planned.
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International calls on all those forces throughout the world who oppose U. S. aggression in Indochina to join the American, French, and other antiwar forces in mobilizing broad, united mass-actions on April 22.
Immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops, bases, and matériel from Indochina — OUT NOW!
End the bombing now!
Not a penny, not a gun for U.S. imperialism's war effort!
Solidarity with the revolutionary struggle of the Indochinese masses!
Victory to the Vietnamese revolution!
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