The victorious resistance of the Vietnamese people against U. S. imperialist aggression, and the impressive rise of the antiwar movement inside the United States, have forced Washington to look for ways to end its criminal adventure in Southeast Asia. It seeks to do this in such a way that this retreat would not transform itself into a rout of the propertied classes in the whole area. Neither does Washington want this withdrawal to act as a powerful stimulus for the revolutionary anti-imperialist and anticapitalist struggle throughout the world. For a long time, U. S. imperialism has been intriguing with the Soviet bureaucracy in order to pressure the revolutionaries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to accept some formula whereby the Indochinese revolution could be kept from achieving full victory. However, the political influence of the Kremlin in that area has been declining rapidly.
Faced with the fact that the rotten Saigon, Vientiane, and Pnompenh regimes are tottering on the brink of total collapse, U.S. imperialism has desperately turned to Peking. It aims to enlist the aid of the Chinese bureaucracy in reestablishing "peaceful coexistence" in Southeast Asia in exchange for some diplomatic and economic concessions. We do not condemn the fact that Chinese and American diplomats talk to each other. What we do condemn is the fact that the masses of the world are kept in the dark about ·the purpose and contents of the talks and that the Peking bureaucracy -followed by its supporters in other countries - adapts its analyses and actions to the needs of these negotiations, cynically betraying revolutionary struggles in Bangla Desh, Ceylon, the Cameroons, and other countries.
The Fourth International stands for the defense of all workers states- no matter how bureaucratized- against imperialism and accepts the right of governments of these states to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with capitalist states.
But it refuses to accept the subordination of the interests of social revolution and national liberation struggles to the needs of the diplomatic maneuvers of either the Moscow or Peking bureaucracies. The Fourth International calls upon all workers, poor peasants, and the revolutionary masses of all countries to step up their defense of the Vietnamese revolution. No secret deals between big powers must be allowed to rob the Vietnamese people of the fruits of their victory, for which they have fought so long and so heroically!
'l'he Fourth International emphasizes that it is necessary for revolutionary organizations to be completely independent from the bureaucracies in Moscow and Peking, and while stressing the need for an anti-imperialist united front, whenever and wherever this is necessary and pos·Sible, the Fourth International affirms that it is essential for the masses to vigorously· defend their class interests regardless of diplomatic maneuvers by Moscow and Peking.
For an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U. S. troops from Indochina!
Against secret diplomacy!
For the victory of the Vietnamese revolution!