"In the history of imperialist butchery, the destructive power unleashed on the Democratic Republic of Vietnam since May 8th (1972) is of unheard of proportions. The bomb load released by four squadrons is equivalent in destructive blast to a Hiroshima-type atomic bomb ..... While these colossal crimes were being committed, subjecting one of the most courageous peoples in the world to genocide, the Kremlin chieftains clinked champagne glasses with war criminal Nixon, as if they were toasting his deeds in Vietnam. They pictured their summit conference with Nixon as a "great success", a big step towards world peace", while Nixon with the callousness of a professional executioner, continued the most ferocious and barbarous acts of aggression and violence ever to be vented on the workers and peasants of a small country.. (From a Statement by the Fourth International issued on 31 May 1972)
The B-52 raids on Vietnam during December 1972 have far surpassed the butchery of May, but have failed to achieve their objective. Nixon is finding out like Johnson and Dulles before him that the Vietnamese are not usually impressed by terror and blackmail. He has been of Hanoi and Haiphong.
Of course bombs continue to rain down on the rest ot the country. But why has Nixon suspended the raids? In the first place because the Vietnamese leaders have made it clear that they were not prepared to modify their positions on the 9-points agreed to by Kissinger and Le Due Tho last October. In fact General Giap stated at the height of the bombing raids on December 22, 1972 that: "The US hopes to bend the will of the Vietnamese people by mass bombings of North Vietnam. This will prove to be an illusion. Hanoi, Haiphong and other cities may be bombed and even razed, but the will of the Vietnamese people will never give." This statement is in marked contrast to the mealy-mouthed utterances of Russian and Chinese leaders.
Secondly the number of B-52's knocked down by the Vietnamese has quite clearly demoralised the American military establishment. After all,34 B-52's downed in two weeks is an extremely impressive total and the Vietnamese leaders are justified in claiming this as a victory of some importance. And lastly the terror bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong created a potentially dangerous split within the ruling class internationally. The response from European bourgeois leaders must certainly have given Nixon backing the Americans and basically restricting on the eve of the enlargement of the Common Market. To prevent himself from becoming completely isolated he announced a "pause in the bombing. His slavish followers in this country are implying that he has beaten the Vietnamese down to their knees and that they are now prepared to make further concessions Hanoi has denied these reports most vigorously. It is obviously a weak attempt to cover up American losses and the failure of the terror bombing:
The very fact that Nixon could carry out these raids without fear of a serious threat of reprisals from either China or the Soviet Union is a telling indictment of the latter two countries. However the main reason for the raids was not only to wring concessions from Hanoi, but to prevent a new offensive in the South. The latter may have been delayed temporarily, but the bombing has not succeeded in changing the balance of forces in the South. What it does show is the enormous importance the imperialists and their puppets attach to bombing raids simply in order to preserve the status quo. That is why, as we argued at the time the Vietnamese revealed the terms of the 9-point plan, an agreement to end the bombing throughout Indochina would, of itself, represent a major advance for the revolutionary forces. That still holds true. Despite the bombing civilian casualties have not been as high as they might have been-thanks to these shelters International Fund To Aid