46 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1953-1956, and what is referred to as th^ Hue massacre. ISoth have recently been discussed in an extremely valuable consideration of the whole subject of "bloodbaths" by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman.'s On the first, there is an extended examination of the allegation, and a crushing retort by Gareth Porter.1* On the second, the reader is referred to the extended analysis in the December-January, 1669-70, issue of Vietnam International. What emerges with stark clarity from sources such as these is that there has been systematic, deliberate, and calculated distortion of the facts in favour of manufacturing propaganda supposedly mitigatory or even explanatory of the incalculable war crimes committed by US leaders against the peoples of Indochina. Moral Superiority A crucial consideration which most observers and commentators overlook is that the Vietnamese strove throughout to establish and maintain a clear moral superiority over the imperialist aggressors, I stress this because in this the Vietnamese struggle presents a striking contrast with such other armed struggles as those waged by the Palestinians, and the Provi-sionals of the Irish Republican Army, to cite but two. From the outset, the liberation forces in Vietnam drew a distinction between the American people, including ordinary American servicemen, and the American government and ruling class. Obviously, such was their support both inside and outside Vietnam that the NLF could easily have wa^ed, and called on their countless eager allies throughout the world to wage in their support, an all-out campaign of terror. How easy it would have been for Vietnamese cadres to have burst into US forces' recreation clubs and sprayed relating American servicemen with random machine-gun fire! What sitting targets tourists presented in Saigon! How simple for them, or for dedicated supporters in the worldwide solidarity movement, to plant bombs in Washington or Los Angeles and blast the limbs off American women and children! What the Japanese Red Army did at Lodz international airport, or what the Palestinians- did at the Munich Olympics, could have been fashioned and perpetrated a thousand-fold by the Vietnamese comrades and their international friends had they so wished. The point is that they did not so wish, and in this I believe they were absolutely right—in both senses. It was imperative that, the more the Americans resorted in their desperation to indiscriminate slaughter of the 'gooks^ and the ^slant-eyes9, the more scrupulously should the liberation movement cleave to its policy of incarnating a transparently superior ethical stance. The grievances of the Vietnamese were, to put it mildly, no less deep-seated and justified than those of the Palestinians or the Ulster Catholics, but never did they use this as a justification for maiming, blinding and slaughtering US civilians, far less those of other nationalities going about their day-to-day lives totally unconnected with the war. Revolutionaries everywhere ought to commend and hail the Vietnamese and equally condemn other struggles Which" stoop to the moral squalor of their oppressors; for not only i«