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Jones: Attention, attention, attention. News on this Sunday afternoon. A moderate to severe earthquake has struck the Los Angeles basin and the islands of Japan. At this time, casualties and property damage is undetermined. A moderate to severe earthquake has struck Los Angeles basin. The epicenter is near Pomona, California. Again, a moderate to severe earthquake has struck the entire Los Angeles basin. The epicenter of the earthquake is near Pomona. Also, an earthquake of similar magnitude, about four point– and a half on the Richter scale, ranging up to five and a half to even six on the Richter scale, has struck Japan, the islands of Japan.
Swarms of locustses– swarms of locusts that have been breeding in Saudi Arabia have besieged Somalia and Ethiopia, reminiscent of the old parables of Bible times. On top of the already overburdening problem of starvation, due to the Somalian invasion, backed by US and Chinese interests, now on top of it, with one million people who have died of starvation, the locusts are swarming. An immediate appeal has been made to the eight surrounding African nations and Arab nations to assist in this terrible blight of locusts that’re attacking both Somalia and Ethiopia.
Tehran. Tehran, Iran. The– the government of the fascist Shah of Iran [Reza Pahlavi] that was put in power by a bloody coup backed by the CIA, sponsored by US imperialist tax dollars in 1963, has now taken strong repressive emergency measures and ordered all citizens to remain in their homes because of general unrest, strikes, protests that’re taking place throughout Iran against policies of the repressive and oppressive regime of the Shah of Iran, one of the richest men in the world in that oil-rich nation. It’s under the bondage of fascism, a puppet member of SEATO of the Trilateral Commission. As you know, now that Afghanistan has taken a policy, pro-socialist, and in strong alliance with the Soviets, their problems in Iran have just begun, because they’re completely surrounded by uh, nations that are not friendly to SEATO and the US-NATO alliance. Iraq, Syria, the Soviet Union, and Afghanistan are all strongly allied in purpose.
The battle wages on in Zaire. As US [President Jimmy] Carter calls for a pan-African so-called peace-keeping force, which indeed has become an invading force today, trying to put down the insurgency, the revolution of the Katangan people for liberation. Fifteen hundred US troops, several thousand French legionnaires, 2500 Belgians, unknown amount of troops from Senegal, a puppet regime of NATO, equally unknown amount of troops from Morocco, but the crack elite troops of the kingly guard of that fascist state of Morocco. Imperialsim is determined to keep Zaire under the bondage– under the boot of bondage of the Tri– uh, lateral Commission, the transnational, multiple national corporations that are causing the suffering in the world, in which over one billion are starving to death, according to satits– statistics of the United Nations, and two out of three babies go to bed hungry. The world news is not particularly pleasant these days.
We go back in history, to look at the 16th– As we’ve noted, 16th has some peculiar patterns – May 16, 1953. In its March issue of monthly Freedom magazine, Paul Robeson described North Carolina as planning on this day a festival of murder, in dooming four Negroes on May 16, 1953. Raleigh Speller, Clyde Brown, Benny N. Lloyd, Ray Daniels, all appointed to death to the gas chamber on May 16, 1953. The festival had been postponed by an appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court, which ruled however, that there was nothing prejudicial in excluding Negroes or blacks from the Speller and Brown juries. Both were condemned to death for alleged rape against white women. North Carolina in practice applies the death penalty only to black people.
May 16, 1963. The battle for peace and order in Birmur– Birmingham, Alabama, seemed at press time to’ve been won, at least temporarily. But even with 3000 federal troops ordered by President [John F.] Kennedy to stand on alert near the city, and with Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, avowed racist, vowing to maintain and keep federal troops out of Birmingham by illegal action, the city smoldered from fires throughout the ghettoes of last Sunday morning’s disorders and from more than a half century of brutal police state enforcement of segregation. As you know, the news has not changed in the South, from the news I gave you yesterday and earlier about the horrible things that’re being done to blacks. Frame-ups. There’s an Alabama city where all the police were just let off yesterday, for crimes of brutality and torture against the black community.
State and local security measures on May 16, 1963 (pause) had to be stiffened, but even with the restoration of relatively some balance of order, two blacks were shot to death on May 16, and police said there were at least ten knife fights where whites killed blacks– or injured blacks, rather. It took a surprisingly long time for a city as tense and tough as Birmingham to erupt. There were six weeks of demonstrations which grew more and more massive in the final week before the situation turned explosive for several days, finally blew up about midnight, just before medna– midnight, May 16. Fires ranged [raged] in the black district near a motel, six stores, twelve-story– 12 high-level apartment houses burned. Before police arrived at the motel, a crowd of angry blacks were already there. Firemen and police were met by a barrage of bricks and pieces of cement as the police brutally shot into the crowd of black protestors, with their few Indian and white sympathizers.
May 16, 1973. Indian militants at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, laid down their arms, after occupying the town for 70 days, to protest the oppression of Native Americans. Their surrender came on May 16– May 16, 1973. The ceasefire and surrender was achieved when Sioux tribal chiefs received a letter from the White House signed by newly-appointed presidential counselor, Leonard Garmet– Garment, promised that at least five White House representatives would renegotiate the important 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty with the Indian holdouts, if they abandoned Wounded Knee by May 16. The representatives, the letter stated, would include Garment and President [Richard] Nixon’s recently-appointed chief of staff, General Alexander Haig, who I told you about in the news today, has become an aggressive and bellicose warrior as chief of NATO forces in Europe. The Fort Laramie Treaty granted the Ogalala Sioux Indians sovereignty over all of western southern Dakota, supposedly, an area today that is still dominated by a white business interest, because the treaty, the agreement – as always with the government and Indians and blacks – was not kept.
I just thought that might be of interest to some of you on the 16th. We want to take great care in our use of sharp instruments. Anyone having knives must have them cleared for their work. There’re too many knives going around, too many dangerous accidents can come from those knives that’re used for wood whittling and so forth. All knives are to be approved, or they’re to be kept in central supply, under your name, for times when you need them for your work. But it is very important that we are extremely careful with instruments that could injure, with explosive material in the garage, gas, like acetylene welding or anything else, pumping up tubes and tires, how we drive our tractors, we need to be more safety-conscious. Let us remember Tommy Beikman and how he was devastated, it took a miracle when he was blind, dead, broken in body, to come back to be with us now, in spite of his bones being broken s– they had actually been thrown through his skin – we must take great care. We’ve had more safety-consciousness than most communities, but it can never be enough. We have come too close too many times, too close too many ca– many times.
Colombia. Elections are being held which looks apparently like the right-wing regime will totter and be replaced by a social democracy. In view of weeks and weeks of student strikes and trade union hunger strikes and militant activity, all through Colombia, Radio Voice of America says that Colombia will have to have social change. All of South America is demanding more participation by the people, more reforms and the elimination of military oppressive regimes. It is time. It is certainly time.
The Vietnam/Kampuchea border conflict continues. (Tape edit) The large-scale border clashes between the socialist states of Vietnam and Kampuchea, due to undue nationalism that has no place in those who are Marxist, have according to Western reports, decreased in intensity in the last several weeks, but the armed conflict, accompanied by public exchanges of very serious charges, continues. Many socialist countries, communist parties and organizations, as well as progressive individuals, have expressed the hope that the conflict will be settled peacefully. The Chinese have been blamed for fo– fanning the flames of conflict in their open militant support of Cambodia, which is now known as Kampuchea, K-a-m-p-u-c-h-e-a.
In order to inform you, members of the Jonestown community, on the Kampuchea/Vietnam dispute, we (sigh) try to give you some news and background of the ethnic conflicts. As the border clashes have escalated, it has become evident that sharp political differences going back decades – a decade is ten years – play a key role in the dispute. Among the questions that one or another side has raised are the Kampuchean United Front with Norodom Sihanouk and the question of Indochina federation, among other issues. Combined with this, there are differences in current foreign and domestic policy between the two nations. Vietnam is pro-Soviet, and Kampuchea is pro-China. These questions are taken up from time to time in commentary along with that of the border dispute. It seems evident that the border question, while extremely complex and delicate, is only one element in a conflict that had been deepening for years. The first document is a composite drawn from two interviews given by Kampuchean Communist Party secretary-general and prime minister, Pol Pot, capital P-o-l, capital P-o-t. The excerpts that I’m giving is from an interview granted to Yugoslav journalist on May 17, an interview with journalist of the Kampuchean press agency. The second selection is excerpts from a 28-page document issued April 17 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam. The serge selec– third selection is from an article at Cornell University Indochina Affairs specialist Steve Hedder, originally published by the Swedish-Kampuchean Friendship Association. Hedder gives a version of the background of the border conflict from the Kampuchean point of view. The final selections is excerpted from May 21 article appearing in the Far Eastern Economic Review, a bourgeoisie business publication of monopoly capitalism. The Review article is based on an interview which includes Vietnam’s version of the background to the conflict. All of the selections have been edited, because I can’t give you the full material.
Kampuchea expresses its view of strife. (Tape edit) Following– The following is an excerpt from recent interviews with Kampuchean Prime Minister Pol Pot. The Yugoslav journal– journalist (Tape edit) if we have understood well, democratic Kampuchea faces many problems and difficulties of all kinds with her neighbors. What is your opinion, and how could you solve these problems, said the Yugoslav Third World Communist journalist, and overcome the present difficulties. (Tape edit) The main difficulty is that we have abided by the position of independence, (Tape edit) sovereignty and self-reliance, and of deciding by ourselves our own destiny. The position runs counter to some countries, that is, the expansionist and the imperialist. How to solve these difficulties. This problem would depend on the factors of our side and those of the opposing side. (Tape edit) We have successfully sought to solve this problem through meetings and negotiations. (unintelligible under radio) in June 1975, myself, said the prime minister of Kampuchea or Cambodia, and other comrades went to Hanoi, the capital of reunified socialist Vietnam, that was backed in its liberation efforts against US imperialism by the Soviet Union. Immediately after liberation in June 1975, myself and other comrades went to Hanoi. There were many problems, but there was one problem, the problem of border to be discussed. (Tape edit) We said that Kampuchea wants only to live in peace and in order to preserve, develop and strengthen the friendship between our two countries and peoples, she considers as state borders between the two countries, the present borders that Vietnam has solemnly recognized in 1966 and 1967, and committed itself to respect them. We have also not claimed our former islands. We have not claimed even an inch of territory, said the Prime Minister, Pol Pot of Kampuchea.
The Vietnamese did not deign to reply (Pause) for they have fostered greater ambitions, that is, to take possession of the whole of Kampuchea under the form of Indocheen– Indochina Federation. It’s Vietnam’s feeling, the only buffer against capitalist expansionist is a unified Indochina, and she has tried to achieve this by sending every year many hundreds of thousands or millions of Vietnamese to come and install themselves as Kampuchea. In 30 years or more, said the Prime Minister of Kampuchea, the people of Kampuchea would become a national minority. That is very clear. In May 1976, we invited the Vietnamese to come and negotiate in Phnom Penh. At first, they did not want to come. That’s spelled P-h-n-o-m and P-e-n-h, the capital of Kampuchea. (Pause) And as I said at first, they did not want to come and participate, the Vietnamese, that is, according to the Kampuchean view. I’m giving you all views, and then you can make up your own mind. Vietnam is pro-Soviet and Kampuchea is pro-Chinese. When they arrived, the Vietnamese, they said that they were coming because we had insisted on inviting them to come during the negotiation. Vietnam rejected the borders that it had recognized in 1966 and 1967, and that it had committed itself to respect. Vietnam told us that internationalism was our only solution, a unified federated Indochina which included Vietnam and Kampuchea. And Vietnam told us that in 1966, it agreed with Kampuchea for that time– for at that time it needed to fight against US imperialist, therefore it was a– a dupery, according to Kampuchea. Furthermore, Vietnam has proposed a new borderline cutting off a great part of our territorial waters. For us, that is expansionism and annexation. That is no friendship. (tape edit) Because we are small, Vietnam has exerted pressure on us, but we did not accept it and the negotiations had not then led to any result.
In the parallel direction with these negotiations, the Vietnamese continued to attack us along the border, aiming at forcing us to comply. But we have always refused. After waging a hard struggle against the imperialist and their lackeys, we cannot accept to be slaves of Vietnam.
This is highly emotional and paranoid.
Now, how to solve this problem. We will solve it according to the concrete situation. If Vietnam really respects our independence and sovereignty, if Vietnam fosters a genuine friendship with us, there would be no difficulties in solving the problem. Kampuchean press agency. Respected comrade secretaries, said the Yugoslav journalist, we would like to ask you to state precisely, how is the present situation? What is the objective of the Vietnamese? What is the position of the Democratic Kampuchea in solving this problem? We will stop the radio transmitting for the time because of the rain. Cut the tape, cut the tape. (Tape edit)
Woman: Okay.
Jones: Vietnam does not abandon its plan of Indochina Federation. Since 1930 it has systematically sought to achieve this objective. That’s a bit hypocritical then, if Kampuchea says they’ve uh, been doing it since 1930, ‘cause they accuse them of hypocrisy and dupery by breaking some agreement about borders. Since 1930 it has systematically sought to achieve this objective. First, it wanted to have an Indochina Federation as a single state, with one party, one people, one army, and one country, Marxist-Leninist, within the Vietnamese Indochina. After it pretended to present the problem in the form of special friendship and special solidarity sanctioned by agreements or treaties of special cooperation without any limitation in the fields of internal policy and external policy, it said it was important to have a federated Indochina because of China’s turn– mainland China’s turn towards imperialism and abandonment of the Third World in its foreign policy. And it wanted these cooperations in the military, economic, and cultural fields also.
Since 1975, after liberation, Vietnam has continued to present this problem in the same form. Such is the essence of the Indochina Federation of Vietnam. It means the abolition of borders, which would bind Kampuchea to Vietnam within the Indochina Federation. In order to achieve this objective, Vietnam has carried out activities of spying, subversion, undermining, division of all kinds inside Kampuchea, said the Kampucheans. This is a Kampuchean perspective from their bias. The Vietnamese said the Kampucheans have done this for a long time, particularly from 1965 to 1975, when they ask and obtain refuge in Kampuchea’s territory. (Pause) They took advantage of the friendship of Kampuchea’s people to carry out subversive activities, create a separate party, set up a separate power, create a separate army in Kampuchea’s territory already under the control of Kampuchea’s revolution and which Kampuchea, formerly known as Cambodia, generously gave them refuge. It seems that socialist states do well when they realize they have a common enemy in imperialism and the Trilateral Commission and monopoly capitalism.
Concerning the partly– the party particularly, from 1970 to 1975, the Kampucheans said Vietnam carried out all the most criminal procedures aimed at annihilating the correct and clear-sighted central committee of the Communist Party of Cambo– Cambodia or what is known now that it’s been liberated from US imperialism as Kampuchea, in order to replace it by its accomplices who are crooks, corrupt persons and traitors in the revolution and their puppets ready to obey the least Vietnamese order, the Yugoslav journalist said. Has Vietnam now abandoned its aggressive and annexationist aims? Not at all, said the Kampucheans. Many divisions of its army, its artillery and armored cars have continued to violate, (pause) aggress and pound the territory of Democratic Kampuchea. At the moment, it proclaims that the plan of Indochina Federation was no more than it respected the so-and-so border and pretended that it wanted to negotiate. Vietnam sent many armed forces to launch a large-scale attack of invasion against Democratic Kampuchea.
Cut the tape, and we’ll stand by– (Tape edit)
Jones: –of Kampuchea, and the rever– revisionist journalist of Yugoslavia, who are more sympathetic to Kampuchea because it does follow an anti-Soviet line.
Before we continue, we wish to start blood typing during the– (tape edit) tonight at 7:30, where we’ll have testing. We’ll also have blood type typing– blood typing during the meeting. Otherwise it will take off so much time from work time. Marceline’s idea, we thank you for this concept, and we will gladly utilize it. Anything productive that can be done during People’s Rally, we’re glad for, but we do not want it to divert attention from the discussions about agriculture and education in reference to world events.
I would like to ask Joyce Parks to have a list of most common medications we need given to Sharon Amos to price check in Caracas, because some of our people have to go there. The agricultural committee should also prepare a list of things not in Georgetown. Take note again. Two of our people have to go for a meeting in Caracas. We would like to have a list of most commonly used medications that we need in our free medical clinic to assist people, our beautiful Guyanese neighbors, and our immediate Jonestown community. We need them to be given to Sharon Amos, and we need them to be given to Maria Katsaris, because they leave by air tomorrow, from this our lovely, lovely little haven. So we can price check in Caracas, we have been given approval by Dr. Hamilton Green [Guyana Minister of Health and Labor], who’s been very friendly to this free medical clinic to receive all medications and supplies duty-free and import license free. So please get those to Joyce Parks, medical dispenser, medical practitioner immediately. The agricultural committee should also prepare a list of things not available in Georgetown. We’re going to have to find other sources, as you know. We need parts, et cetera. List of parts. Especially tractor and hard-to-get equipment parts. If Charlie Touchette would also have that list available before they go out in the morning by air and then on to Caracas, Venezuela, we would appreciate it.
I was saying the Kampuchean propaganda view. Was this a pure coincidence or rather a coordinated plan, said the Kampucheans about the Vietnamese. It is clear that it was not a coincidence, said the Kampucheans, but surely a systematic and pre-established plan with the intention of continuing to mislead world opinion. The socialist, reunified Vietnam proclaimed that it wanted to solve the problem through negotiations, but indeed, on May 7, 1978, and on the eighth and ninth and tenth, the Vietnamese army launched again large-scale attacks against Kampuchea. That’s not the way BBC carried it. BBC said it was the reverse, that Kampuchea launched the attacks. (Pause)
Well, (pause) following now is Vietnamese point of view. The Vietnamese border fight position. This is an excerpt from the May 7 statement of the Vietnamese– May 17 statement of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With regard to the Vietnam-Kampuchea border question in its December 31, 1977 statement, the Socialist Republic reunified of Vietnam affirmed, Vietnam is resolved to defend its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and at the same time, it always respects Kampuchea, or Cambodia’s, independence and their sovereignty and territorial integrity, and does all it can to deserve the militant solidarity and great friendship between Vietnam and the Kampuchean people, which is essential to resist imperialist designs. Once again, Vietnam proposes that the two sides meet as early as possible at whatever level, so as to together solve the border issue between the two countries in a spirit of fraternal, socialist friendship. (tape edit)
Regarding the Vietnam-Kampuchea border question, the Communist Party of Vietnam and the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have adopted a consistent stand. That is, a) the existing land frontiers as drawn on the one (Pause) to 100,000 map printed by the French and widely used before 1954 will be taken as land borders between the two countries. That seems fair. 2) The Breveie line – B-r-e-v-e-i-e – line drawn in 1939 will be adopted for purposes of determining sovereignty over the islands. c) Regarding the sea border question, the two parties will negotiate a fair and reasonable settlement.
A word of explanation concerning the border issue is necessary, said the Vietnamese socialist government. The border dispute stems from a disagreement over the sea border between Vietnam and Kampuchea. Both the land and sea borders were established by the French imperialist colonial governors of Indochina. Jacques Breveie in 1939. The sea border was drawn (tape edit) only to establish colonial administrative jurisdiction, however, and did not constitute a final resolution of the sea border dispute which has been an issue between the French and the Royal Cambodian government for years and years. The current Kampuchean – formerly Cambodian – government states that Hanoi, the capital of the reunified Socialist liberated Republic of Vietnam, North and South– that government states – the Kampuchean government states – that Hanoi in 1966 and 1967 accepted both the land and sea borders drawn by Breveie as the permanent borders. The Vietnamese categorically deny that they ever accepted the sea border, saying that they agreed only to the land border, regarding the Indochi– Indo– Indochinese Federation question of all Southeast Asia, which the Vietnamese feel is essential to unity against imperialist design. (Tape edit)
Since December 31, 1977, the Kampucheans authorities have slanderously accused Vietnam of having– long had the strategic designs of turning Democratic Kampuchea into a member of an Indochi– Indochinese Federation and a slave of Vietnam. Vietnam deems it necessary to state the following truth. In 1930, the Indonesian– or the Indochinese, rather, correction, the Indochinese Communist Party came into being with the historic mission of leading all the Indochinese nations in the struggle for the complete independence of Indochina and for lands to the peasants in a genuine sense of international solidarity among socialist provinces. This is the constitution of the Indochinese Communist Party.
The June 1941 resolution of the Eighth Plenum of the Central Committee of the party stressed, after driving out the French and the imperialist Japanese, we must correctly carry out the policy of national self-determination with regard to the Indochinese people. It is up to the peoples living in Indochina, either to organize themselves into a federation of democratic republics, such as the Union of S– Socialist Soviet Republics, the Soviet Union, or to stand separately as national states.
In February 1951, at the Second Congress of the Indochinese Communist Party, on the initiative of the Vietnamese communist, (tape edit) and with the concurrence or agreement of the Laos and Kampuchean communist, the Congress adopted the resolution. Because of the new conditions in Indochina and in the world, Vietnam– within the world generally, Vietnam will establish a Vietnam workers party, place emphasis on solidarity and constitution suited to Vietnam’s conditions. Laos and Cambodia will also found their respective revolutionary organizations suited to the conditions (tape edit) of their respective countries.
Along with resolutions to establish a separate party in each country, the Second Congress of the Indochinese Communist Party (tape edit) placed emphasis on solidarity (tape edit) and coordination by the peoples of Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos in the struggle against the common enemy of US imperialism.
Why then have the Kampuchean authorities distorted history and confused black and white in an attempt to slander the Socialist Republic of Vietnam? The Indochinese Federation is a historical matter, and for the past 20 years and more, it has no longer been referred to. The fact that they raise the historical matter again, just as they have done with the historical questions of territory between the two countries, is but a stratagem to arouse national hatred and enmity, because Vietnam has dropped the Indochinese Federation as a great view for internationalism, but unworkable because of the chauvinism and nationalism of Kampuchea.
The policy of fanning national hatred and enmity between Kampuchea and Vietnam, and sabotaging the friendship between the two peoples is part of their policy of creating border conflicts with neighboring countries, applying a closed-door foreign-policy, enhancing – that is, increasing – narrow nationalism and rejecting international and regional cooperation, such as the cooperation concerning the Mekong River. We feel this is the influence of the nationalistic trends in China’s foreign policy. The Kampuchean authorities’ foreign policy is aimed at serving their intensified repression of the people at home and their purging of revolutionaries and patriots (pause) opposed to their erroneous line, and even BBC and Voice of America confirms that Kampuchea has a very narrow nationalistic, austere, and horribly spartan type of communism. The Vietnamese say it is also aimed – that is, Kampuchean policy – is aimed at consolidating their power and diverting public opinion at home, which has become indig– indignant at their criminal police state practices. Undermining the traditional solidarity between the three nations, the Kampuchean authorities are not only betraying their peoples’ close comrade in arms, but also cutting across their peoples’ sacred feelings and national and international interest. Although the imperialists have been forced to withdraw from Indochina, they have not given up their vicious intentions to sabotage the independence and peace of the three Indochinese countries, and are receiving too much cooperation from an imperialist and backward foreign policy of mainland China. By undermining the militant solidarity between the three peoples, the Kampuchean authorities are committing a crime, which is encouraged by the imperialist and world reactionaries, and for which they must be held fully responsible to their own people and to history. The Vietnamese people are confident that in the end, justice will prevail, and the solidarity and friendship between the Vietnamese and the Kampuchean peoples will prevail. (Pause)
Now we have a capitalist view of the conflict between Vietnam and Cambodia, or what has been known since their so-called liberation as Kampuchea. As Hanoi sees it, the origin of the hostile Khmer policy toward Vietnam – K-h-m-e-r – lay not in Cambodia– again with the Cambodian fear of an Indochinese Federation between the three great Southeast Asian nations, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, which has so much historically in common, but it is a bitterness about more– it’s not in Cambodian fear of Indochinese Federation or bitterness about any alleged Vietnamese betrayal, but in the internal difficulties of the Pol Pot – that’s the Prime Minister of Kampuchea, capital P-o-l, capital P-o-t – regime, and encouragement from an unnamed big power believed to be China, that Vietnam, that is now pro-Soviet, both South and North Vietnam which unified– reunified, are pro-Soviet and pro-Warsaw Pact, and they believed China to have taken an imperialist course. Obviously, credence is given to that by the policies of China that has joined a military task force to invade Zaire and suppress the liberation efforts of the brave Zairian people, the Katangan people.
According to Hanoi, the struggle inside the Cambodian Communist Party dates back to 1953, just after the return of Paris-educated intellectuals like Pol Pot, then known as Saloth Sar– S-a-l-o-t-h-a– S-a-l-o-t-h, rather, and the second word is S-a-r. One proposal in the Vietnama– the Vietnamese view, the correct one, was to unite the forces in the country, said the capitalist magazine, to fight the colonial enemy and cooperate with Vietnamese and Laon– Laos resistance fighters. The other proposal was simply to overthrow the then-king Norodom Sihanouk – S-i-h-a-n-o-u-k. Now remember, this is exce– excerpts from the capitalist magazine Far Eastern Economic Review.
The difference between the two party lines became clearer after 1954, when in communist phraseology, US imperialism became the direct enemy of the Cambo– Cambodian people, and Sihanouk held high the banner of national independence. While the first line favored promoting Sihanouk (pause), the other line, led by Pol Pot, opposed this. The Pol Pot line triumphed in 1963, when he became the party chief. Because of Pol Pot’s incorrect line of class struggle, the party was not able to win prestige among the Cambodian people, who admired Sihanouk for his anti-imperialist role.
The line which called for a united front with Sihanouk in solidarity with Vietnam and Laos in an Indochina Federation that would’ve protected all of Southeast Asia under a Marxist socialist state remained a minority view until the 1970 coup d’état of Lon Nol– L-o-n, capital N-o-l. Pol Pot was forced to accept the new line and the formation of the National United Front of Kampuchea, NUFK, with Sihanouk as chairman, and to cooperate with Vietnam. (Pause)
However when victory was achieved in April 1975, Pol Pot returned to his isolationist line, disbanded NUFK, and removed Sihanouk as head of state, which was earlier promised as a position for life. Cambodia’s wartime solidarity with Vietnam was ended. Abandoning the path of unity, said a Vietnamese authority, Pol Pot embarked on the path of terrorism and destruction of all opposition. (Tape edit)
The evacuation of Phnom Penh – P-h-n-o-m, capital P-n– P-e-n-h – which was decried even by the US monopoly capitalist press, until US formed military ties with China last week through the right-wing neo-fascist chief advisor of Carter, Brezhnev– or [Zbigniew] Brzezinski, rather, up until that time, the evacuation of the capital of Cambodia and Kampuchea, Phnom Penh, was decried by all, even the Western press. The abolition of money and the post and telegraph, and forbidding contact between people, all this is aimed at preventing any opposition from developing. (Tape edit)
However, opposition to the Pol Pot line reportedly grew, and at the beginning of last year, there were attempts to overthrow the leadership. This sparked off the ruthless elimination of Pol Pot’s suspected opponents, labeled as lackeys of Vietnam. Remember, they were refused any contact at all. The Cambodians, or Kampucheans, were not to have any contact with socialist fraternal countries like Vietnam or Laos. And this sparked off the ruthless elimination of Pol Pot’s so-called opponents, labeled as lackeys of Vietnam, and to justify the purges, Hanoi charges, the Cambodian leaders invented Vietnamese aggression. And this is supported widely by both socialist and capitalist press.
By concentrating popular hatred against the Vietnamese, Phnom Penh– Phnom Penh is trying to eliminate everybody suspected of believing in solidarity with Vietnam and an Indochinese Federation. By Hanoi’s count, the capital of reunified Vietnam, at least 10 people, commanders at regimental and divisional level, and political commissars, together with several sector-level party secretaries, and five out of 20 Central Committee members have been murdered by the Phnom Penh or Kampuchean regime under Pol Pot. It is also said that Pol Pot rewrote the history of the Cambodian party, effacing its long-standing ties with socialist Vietnam.
Recapitulating the history of conflict with Vietnam’s turbulent neighbor, Cambodia, Vietnam Workers Party Central Committee member Hoang Tung – capital H-o-a-n-g, capital T-u-n-g – said that the– for the two years following, heavy full-scale fighting between the two over islands in the Gulf of Thailand – capital T-h-a-i-l-a-n-d – in May 1975, there have been small scale Cambodian attacks all along the border. But the situation became very tense following Khmer attacks near Chau Doc – Cha– C-h-a-u capital D-o-c – on May 30– no, April 30 rather, 1977, and on the Xa Mat – X-a capital M-a-t – area in September. After Chau Doc, we have to prepare the counterattack, but the army was given the order not only after the Khmer attack on Xa Mat, finally the counterattack was launched in December. Militarily we are strong enough to go much further. You know that it takes only a few hours to go to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia or Kampuchea from Saigon, which is now renamed Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as South Vietnam. But we restrained ourselves and withdrew, after we had been mercilessly attacked by the aggressive Kampuchean government.
What was the objective of the counterattack? First of all, to chase them – the Khmers – from our territory, and then deal a heavy blow to their division – the Khmers are very, very racist, and very nationalistic and chauvinist – and to make then realize that we are not passive, as they have assumed, and to tell them that they have to choose the other solution, that is, negotiation and peace. (Pause) It was not to mount a coup d’état or military takeover, or we would’ve stayed where we were, nearly penetrated as the Vietnamese did in counterattacking the aggressive Kampuchean government, they were almost at the capital, which is known as Phnom Penh– capital P-h-n-o-m P-e-n-h, that is the capital of Kampuchea. (Pause) It was not to mount a coup d’état, obviously.
Talking about the role of Vietnam and China in the Cambodian struggle, Hoang Tung provided some interesting historical glimpses, One of the most significant Vietnamese contributions to the success of Cambodian struggle in Vietnamese eyes was to persuade Cambodia to accept Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the deposed head of state, as the nominal head of the resistance. According to Hoang Tung, the Chinese disapproved of Sihanouk for his critical comments about Mao [Tse-Tung], especially during the Cultural Revolution. Sihanouk, who had lived in China, became critical and analytical of Mao, who he said was beginning a revisionist line and becoming a renegade of US imperialism.
The Chinese disapproved of Sihanouk, naturally, for his cria– critical comments about Mao, and the Cambodian communists hated him because he had uh, removed many of their comrades. But since his participation in the resistance was crucial for the movement, Premier Pham Van Dong – P-h-a-m, capital V-a-n, capital D-o-n-g – went to Peiping in April to– 1970 to persuade the Chinese leaders to accept Sihanouk. At the same time, Pham Hung – P-h-a-m, capital H-a– capital H-u-n-g – chief of the communist command in South Vietnam, contacted Saloth Sar in his jungle hideout and persuaded him to wean the prince to the cause of revolution. All this, the Vietnamese regret, has been forgotten.
This is a capitalistic view of the Vietnam-Kampuchea border conflict. Apparently the greater body of news shows that justice lies with the Vietnamese reunified state of South and North Vietnam that was reunified after the US imperialist defeat in that troubled area of Southeast Asia. Vietnam is pro-Soviet, pro-Warsaw Pact, and Kampuchea has become increasingly pro-Chinese.
Thank you. Study these various concepts, as I said, for People’s Rally and town forum. Testing tonight at 7:30. Thank you so much. I love you very, very dearly.
End of tape.
Tape originally posted May 2012