64 SOCIAL SCIENTIST however the American public opinion continues to be repelled by the bloodshed that was inflicted on Vietnam. Though the US lost the war in Vietnam it has managed to safeguard its South-East Asian sphere of influence against communism, it has, in other words, managed to consolidate its position. Another "gain" for the Americans was that they converted Vietnam into a testing ground for biological warfare system, napalm, and for conducting experiments on monsoons etc. But the fact remains that the world's mightiest power was humbled by the tiny freedom loving patriotic people of Vietnam. The Communist Party of Vietnam would not have succeeded but for the commitment of the people to struggle. Vietnam proved that if the people are committed, any foreign intervention or aggression could be thrown back Ho Chi Minh said in 1946 : "Whatever sacrifices we must endure and however long the war of resistance will last, we are determined to fight to the end, until Vietnam is completely independent and reunified."M His dream was fulfilled by the heroic people of Vietnam. GVC NA1DU Centre for South-East Asion Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. 1 Ho Chi Minh, Selected Writings (1920-1969), Hanoi, Foreign Language Publishing House, 1973, p 70. 2 See Wilfred Burchett, The China, Cambodia, Vietnam Triangle, London^ 1967. pp 15-17. 3 Betrand Russel, War Crimes in Vietnam, London, George Alien and Unwin Ltd, 1967 pp 15-17. 4 Ibid, pp 22-23. 5 Barry Weisberg (ed), Ecocide in Vietnam : The Ecology of War, New York,. 1970,p 5. 6 Newsweek, 15 April 1985. 7 Harish Chandola, "Vietnam : Who are the Refugees ?"Economic and Political Weekly, 12 April 1975, p 614. 8 Keesing's Contemporary Archives, 22-31 December 1975, p 27493. 9 Peter Linqueco, "Notes on a Visit to Vietnam", Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol 6, No 4, 1976, p 408. 10 Noam Chomsky After Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Construction of Imperial Ideology, Political Economy of Human Rights II, Nottingham,, Spokesman, 1979, p 84. 11 Ibid, pp 50-56. 12 Asian Almanac, 5 March 1977, p 8109. 13 Time, 15 April 1985. 14 Ho Chi Minh, Selected Writings, op cit, p 71.