Jane Fonda Speaks

Jane Fonda, longtime critic of the Vietnam War and activist for the implementation of the Peace Agreement spoke at CCC on May 27. She noted that the liberation of Vietnam came after almost 30 years of U.S. intervention and that Henry Kissinger's dream of a U.S. stronghold in Indochina, under the guise of the Thieu regime, had failed.

The U.S. could have implemented the Peace Agreement, she said, but after 7 or 8 months it became U.S. policy to continue the war, thus ruling out a political settlement. The U.S. puppet, Thieu, launched major offensives within the first year of the signing of the Peace Agreement, forcing the other side to retaliate.

Ms. Fonda cited the Indochina Peace Campaign and other groups in their role in forcing Congress to cut aid to Vietnam. With diminishing U.S. aid, she said. there was a gradual shift in the balance of forces. The defeated aid bills caused a downard spiral in the morale of the South Vietnamese troops. They began deserting Thieu as they realized there were fewer and fewer funds.

The first major reversal for the Thieu government, signalling the end of the war, came this past January at Dar Loc. Ms. Fonda stated that minority tribes rose up and took over the reigns of Dar Loc. One province after another then fell, according to the domino theory, surprising only the CIA and the Pentagon. The same thing happened in Cambodia where the U.S. characteristically underestimated the will of the Cambodian people to win. In addition, the passage of '73 legislation forbade the sending of U.S. ground and air troops to Indochina.

At this time the main concern of the U.S. is to disguise the failure of Kissinger with false concern for refugees. In exposing this false concern Ms. Fonda talked about forced urbanization. Since 1954, the peasants have been pushed out

of the countryside and into the cities and made into consumers of U.S. products. In 1961, South Vietnam was 90% rural; 14 years later, it was 75% urban. The. city of Saigon was built to hold 400,000 people. In 1971 it held 4,000,000 people. These peasants, refugees in their own coun.. trý, had been created by the deliberate policy of the U.S..

In contrast; Ms. Fonda stated that the refugees we are accepting in the U.S. are for the most part extremely wealthy. Some are secret police, and perhaps 5,000, are former agents of the Phoenix program, a U.S. sponsored program which during its first 4 years of existance executed 40,000 Viet civilians without trial. She felt that all refugees here who wished to should be allowed to return to Vietnarn on the basis of negotiations with the Provisional Revolutionary Government.

She said that we should have learned several lessons from the war. First of all, we must now be able to ask ourselves if we will ever again fight a counter-revolutionary war supporting a dictator. Second we must recognize the principle myths concerning the war and destroy them. 1) The bloodbath is ending not beginning. 2) 2) Indochina is rising not falling. 3) The people of of Indochina are not lost, but have found themselves.

Ms. Fonda said that our cold warriors are falling now. That our whole foreign policy is falling. She felt that we must turn our attention to what we want our foreign policy to be. According to a recent Harris Poll, 70% of the people are not in favor of U.S. tax dollars going to support dictators. And high level military spending results in fewer jobs, not increased jobs (see chart.) If we cut back military spending, jobs can be created in housing, mass transit, education, etc. Just as that would show a concern for building (re-building) our society, we must be committed to help rebuild Vietnam.

"We've spent so much on defense that there's not much left to defend."

HOW MANY JOBS DOES $1 BILLION IN FEDERAL SPENDING PROVIDE?

Defense

.75,812 jobs

.or

Health Care.

.80,041 jobs

Education

.104,019 jobs

HUMAN NEEDS

VS.

MILITARY SPENDING

IS THERE A CONTRADICTION

$9 billion cut from programs for the poor and elderly in the 1976 Budget

$1.2 billion for the Housing Assistance Program

$10 million for increased transit system costs in Cleveland

$6 billion for 3 equipped schools in each of 250 communitits plus one year salary for 35,714 teachers

$30 million for entire Federal court system

$1 million for 66 low cost houses

$76 million for 20 health centers

/What She Wants/July, 1975

2 x $9 billion for Thermonuclear weapons ($18.2 Billion in 1975)

$1.5 billion for one Trident submacine

one F-15 fighter plane at $10 million

≈ 6,000 aircraft lost in Indochina by the end of 1969

$30 million for one C-5A aircraft

$1 million for one Huey helicopter

= $76 million for one B-1 Bomber

(Sources: New York Times; SANE; Seymour Melman, American Friends Service Committee; Clergy and Laity Concerned)

July Heat, 1973

I lay tense at his side,

his satisfied sigh

an electrical shock.

Wired for communication

that didn't take place,

tam a clump

of tangled threads and currents.

Clued to causes of power failure

by a generation of studs,

his pride is pricked

and he defensively asks

if I "expected a better performance".

I laugh sardonically,

insulate my pain.

He's not equipped to touch

wires beneath my skin,

not ready or willing

to make the connection.

Virgie Small