REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE 45 the community. He stresses the ethical content in Maoism, and this is a point which has been made many times since, and we should constantly bear in mind the nature of the enemy against whom the PLA fought: a irapacious fascism of the cruellest and most callous cast.l & Of Mao himself, Han Suyin writes that very early in his revolutionary career "he ..formulated the distinction between the liquidation of a class by economic anc} social means and the physical liquidation of human beings, which he abhorred.911 ^ Eqbal Ahmad's statement of the basic principles and tactics of guerrilla warfare—by one who fought in the Algerian revolution-makes an irrefutable case in short compass.12t Sensitive Use of Force ^ It is interesting to turn to the reactionary 'experts' like Pike. Unlike the propagandists, politicians, and penpushers of the bourgeois press, th^sg 'experts^ have to make as realistic assessments as possible in order to be ^ any use to their paymasters in the Pentagon and the GIA. Pike, in h^ standard work, comes to the following conclusions : r Terror was used to immobilize these forces, including the GVN o^ffi-^ cials, standing between it (the NLF) and its domination of the rural areas. For this reason there was little terrorism in Saigon and ^virtually none directed at top-level government officials...We havc^M way of determining whether terror was employed by the NLF rfor internal morale-building purposes, but apparently it was not; the_m-ternal documents dealing with criticism and self-criticism of t^c violence program indicate a fairly widespread distaste for terror 9^1 ^q part of the NLF rank and file...Nor apparently was terror used I)v die NLF as provocation; at least no internal documents wer^ ^y^ uncovered that so instructed cadres; on the contrary, struggle n^ove-ment cadres particularly were warned not to allow extremists yin the crowd to commit any violence or terroristic act which would ^provoke the GVN or justify retaliation in force... Nor did the NLF pyrsue terror in a random or indiscriminate pattern. On the contrary,' tKe' killing of individuals was done with great specificity, as, for example pinning a note to the shirtfront of an assassinated government official, explaining what crime he had committed.. .The NLF made a concerted effort to ensure that there were no unexplained killings; sometimes it went so far as to issue leaflets denying the killing of indivil?9a?s, asserting that they were killed by bandits masquerading as NQ^rmy soldiers18.. .The NLF theoreticians considered terror to be the weapoS of the weak, the desperate, of the ineffectual guerrilla leadcf.^ t Precisely, and the NLF won! ^ ^of j fiscu _,- I B 85 ?irU 92U There appears, therefore, to be an extraordinary convergence 01 testimony-on ^he tactics of peoples war with respect to its pointer av(^Bt ancc of committing "bloodbaths." Before leaving this aspect of the topic. I should deal with two recurring staples of those concerned with pimp-, .,„ „ , ,, , , . . ,i 3m,o» .qooja ^mw gating the "bloodbath myth: casualties in the land reform of the