Modern History Sourcebook:
US State Department:
North Vietnamese Aggression, 1965
The Record of North Vietnam's Campaign to Conquer South Viet-NamSouth Viet-Nam 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 Viet-Nam 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
many governments, stems from this basic misunderstanding. For in Viet-Nam a totally new
brand of aggression has been loosed against an independent people who want to make their
own way in peace and freedom.Viet-Nam is not another Greece, where indigenous guerrilla forces used friendly
neighboring territory as a sanctuary.Viet-Nam is not another Malava, ",here Communist guerrillas were, for the
most part, physically distinguishable from the peaceful majority they sought to control.Viet-Nam is not another Philippines, where Communist guerrillas were physically
separated from the source of their moral and physical support.Above all, the war in Viet-Nam is not a spontaneous and local rebellion against the
established government.There are elements in the Communist program of conquest directed against South Viet-Nam
common to each of the previous areas of aggression and subversion. But there is one
fundamental difference. In Viet-Nam 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 Viet-Nam'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 band. They have failed and their aggression is as real as
that of an invading army….The evidence shows that the bard core of the Communist forces attacking South Viet-Nam
were trained in the North and ordered into the South by Hanoi. It shows that the key
leadership of the Viet Cong (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.The evidence shows that many of the weapons and much of the ammunition and other
supplies used by the Viet Cong have been sent into South Viet-Nam from 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 Viet-Nam.The directing force behind the effort to conquer South Viet-Nam 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 Viet-Nam 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 Viet Cong. The Military High
Command in the North trains the military men and sends them into South Viet-Nam. The
Central Research Agency, North Viet-Nam'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 Viet-Nam. The focal point is the Central Office for
South Viet-Nam with its political and military subsections and other specialized agencies.
A subordinate part of this Central Office is the Liberation Front for South Viet-Nam. The
front was formed at Hanoi's order in 1960. Its principal function is to influence opinion
abroad and to create the false impression that the aggression in South Viet-Nam is an
indigenous rebellion against the established government.For more than 10 years the people and the Government of South Viet-Nam, 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 Viet-Nam for help in this defense of the freedom and
independence of its land and its people.
Source:from The Department of State Bulletin, LII, No. 1343 (March 22, 1965), pp.
404-406.
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