No Military Aid

THE AMERICAN involvement in Indochina has been long and cruel, both for the peoples of Indochina--torn by the upheaval of revolution--and for the people of the United States, divided over the loss of American lives halfway around the world in a conflict that seemed to be no threat to American security. Finally, it looks as though this long and agonizing commitment is coming to an end and the peoples of Indochina--in Cambodia and Vietnam--will be able to achieve a long-sought self-determination.

American military aid has been largely responsible for stoking the fires of violence and death in Indochina: over $112 billion and 55,000 Americans were lost in Vietnam alone. And now, while President Ford continues to invoke the domino theory as justification for more money for more bloodshed in Vietnam and Cambodia, all indicators clearly show that Congress is prepared to make the final withdrawal of U.S. commitments in Indochina. In the past two weeks it has become apparent that Congress is going to reject Ford's proposal for military aid--$222 million to Cambodia and $300 million to Vietnam.

But these indicators warrant only a cautious optimism. Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a compromise $82.5 million military aid plan for Cambodia. And even though it is doubtful that this plan will be approved in the House, where a similar bill was already defeated, there are no guarantees.

When the Vietnam peace accord was signed over two years ago it was welcomed by the National Liberation Front not only as a harbinger of peace but as the chance for a people uprotted by war to return to their homes and to choose their own government. But the Provisional Revolutionary Government, the extension of the NLF, was denied access to the press and to free elections--both were provided for in the agreement. Land control in the PRG-controlled sectors moved ahead, there were no more privileged large landowners. But in areas controlled by the Thieu regime, there were no reforms: newspapers were--and continue to be--shut down; the people in some villages on the border of PRG-sectors were kept from going to their farms not for their own protection, but because the Thieu regime was afraid of PRG influence.

Reports now filtering to the West talk of "communists" slaughtering innocent refugees from the central highlands abandoned by Thieu last week. But these reports are still incomplete; this latest bloodshed may well stem from the traditionally vicious rivalry between the Montangard highland tribes and the Vietnamese people rather than from deliberate policies of the PRG.

While there is little information about the Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in Cambodia, they now control almost the entire country, and their support is increasing. Sydney Schanberg's reports in The New York Times of corruption in the Lon Nol government make it clear that the forces opposed to Lon Nol's policies are fighting for the people of Cambodia.

It is time for Americans to help heal the wounds of Indochina, and it is time for the U.S. to recognize the failure of its foreign policy in Vietnam and Cambodia. When Congress makes the final decision on U.S. military and to Cambodia and Vietnam on April 10 it should say "no" to support for their corrupt regime and it should say "no" to continuing the strife of those peoples who have not known peace on self determination in two generations.