VIETNAMESE ANSWER TO JOHNSON
{The following is the text of a statement issued by the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam taking cognizance of President Johnson's announcement that he had decided to issue orders "limiting" the bombing of North Vietnam. The statement was broadcast in English over Hanoi radio's international service April 3.]
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For over ten years now, the U.S. imperialists have been blatantly violating the 1954 Geneva agreements on Vietnam, strenuously carrying out a policy of intervention and aggression and waging war against the Vietnamese people. Their design is to prolong the partition of Vietnam and to turn South Vietnam into a neocolony and a military base of the United States.
The people of South Vietnan, united as one man, have risen up in a resolute struggle to defend their fundamental national rights.
Since 1965, in an attempt to retrieve its defeats and to get out of the South Vietnam quagmire, the United States has massively brought in U.S. expeditionary troops to wage a "local war" in the South. At the same time it has conducted a war of destruction against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It has thus committed an extremely barbarous crime of aggression against the entire Vietnamese people.
The heroic South Vietnamese people, under the talented leadership of the National Liberation Front, have fought with wonderful gallantry, successively defeated all schemes and tricks, however wicked and perfidious, of the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys, and recorded very great victories.
The generalized offensive and uprising of the South Vietnam armed forces and people early this year have inflicted a fatal blow on the U.S. aggressors and their lackeys. Nothing can save from collapse the puppet administration and army, props of U.S. neocolonialism in South
Vietnam. Nothing can save the U.S. aggres-
sors from a total defeat.
The valiant North Vietnamese peo-
ple, firmly resolved to thwart the U.S.
imperialists' war of destruction and to
defend their sovereignty and territory,
have meted out well-deserved punishment
to the U.S. aggressors.
The Vietnamese people's fight for
independence and freedom has entered a
new period. The U.S. defeat is already
evident. The United States must bring
its aggressive war in Vietnam to an end,
withdraw all U.S. and satellite troops
from South Vietnam and let the Vietnamese
people settle the internal affairs of
Vietnam themselves.
The Vietnamese people's stand for
peace and independence, as expressed in
the four points of the Government of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the
political program of the South Vietnam
National Liberation Front, embodies the
fundamental principles and main provi-
sions of the 1954 Geneva Agreements on
Vietnam. It is the correct basis for a
political settlement of the Vietnam prob-
len.
The Government of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam has stated on many
occasions: Talks between the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam and the United States
will begin as soon as the United States
has proved that it has really stopped un-
conditionally the bombing raids and all
other acts of war against the Democratic
Republic of Vietnan.
This just stand and goodwill atti-
tude of the Government of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam has elicited warm ap-
proval and support from broad sections of
public opinion in the world. Peace- and
justice-loving peoples over the five con-
tinents demand that the United States
meet the reasonable and sensible require-
ment of the Government of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, stop definitely and
unconditionally the bombing raids and all
other acts of war against the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, and put an end to
its aggression against Vietnan.
Recently, in the face of an extremely critical situation with no way out in South Vietnam and the heavy setbacks in the war of destruction in North Vietnam, in the face of great difficulties -~- political, social and financial -- due to the aggressive war in Vietnam and in the face of ever stronger pressure from world public opinion and from progressive American opinion, President Johnson has had to announce the "limited bombing" of North Vietnan.
This is a defeat, and at the same time a perfidious trick of the U.S. Government to appease public opinion. In fact the U.S. Government keeps sending more U.S. troops to South Vietnam, makes every effort to strengthen the puppet army and asks for additional appropriations to pursue the aggressive war in Vietnam. In fact the United States continues to bomb an important part of the territory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, from the seventeenth to the twentieth parallel, and refuses to stop unconditionally the bombing raids and all other acts of war on the whole territory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
It is obvious that the U.S. Government has not seriously and fully met the legitimate demands of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, of progressive American opinion and of world
opinion.
However, for its part, the Govern-
ment of the Democratic Republic of Viet-
nam declares its readiness to appoint its
representative to contact the U.S. repre-
sentative with a view to determining with
the American side the unconditional ces-
sation of the U.S. bombing raids and all
other acts of war against the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam so that talks may
start.
So long as the United States pur-
sues its aggression against Vietnam, the
Vietnamese people, responding to Presi-
dent Ho Chi Minh's sacred appeal, will
resolutely fight on till final victory
to defend the North, liberate the South,
proceed toward peaceful reunification of
the fatherland and thus contribute to the
defense of peace in Indochina, Southeast
Asia and the world.
The Government of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam earnestly calls on
the Governments and peoples of the fra-
ternal Socialist countries, peace-loving
countries in the world and the progres-
sive American people to extend still
stronger support to the just struggle and
correct stand of the Vietnamese people
and the Government of the Democratic Re-
public of Vietnan.