[Looking Back: A century of US imperialist devastation] Echoes of US armed intervention in Vietnam
The return of American troops in the Philippines in relation with the expansion of the US "war against terrorism" brings back to memory the Vietnam War, which began in September 1950 with the deployment of a few forces of the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Vietnam. These US troops served as "advisors" to the soldiers of France which was then the imperialist power in Vietnam.
In 1961, the US sent 400 Green Berets (US Special Forces) troopers to prop up the tottering Diem puppet regime and train the local reactionary forces in counter-guerrilla tactics against the Viet Cong, the armed forces of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Like the 160 Green Berets and the 500 other American troops participating in Balikatan 02-1, the first troops sent by the US to Vietnam were called "Special Advisors" of the puppet army. They launched"Special Wars"(commando operations) that eventually evolved into a full-scale war of aggression.
Before the end of the year, there were already about 900 "military advisers" there. By the end of 1962, the number had reached 11,000. Very much the same as what the officials of the US and Philippine government and armed forces are saying now, they also declared then that the American troops "will not participate in combat operations". And as in Balikatan 02-1, the American troops were given authority by then US President John F. Kennedy in 1962 to "shoot the Viet Cong when you are fired upon".
Then, they used the slogan of "containment" or the suppression of the spread of communism as the reason for US intervention in Vietnam. Now, they are using the "war against terrorism" to trample on the sovereignty and independence of nations. Lyndon B. Johnson (who took over after Kennedy�s assassination) used the spurious story of the alleged shooting by the Viet Cong of the navy destroyer USS Maddox at the Gulf of Tonkin as pretext to send more US troops to Vietnam starting 1967.
In the succeeding years, US troops sent to Vietnam rapidly increased. Their numbers peaked in 1969 with 550,000. In the span of 15 years since 1950, the total of American soldiers sent there reached two million.
On January 27, 1969, however, the paper tiger that is US imperialism was forced to sign a treaty to withdraw from the war and send home all its troops in Vietnam. This was because of the determination and bravery in struggle of the revolutionary Vietnamese under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the impending defeat of the US in the war. It was not until March 29, 1973 when the last US combat forces in Vietnam were finally withdrawn. The revolutionary Vietnamese easily crushed the puppet armed forces. On April 30, 1975, the puppet regime completely collapsed and the Vietnamese revolution gained complete victory.
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