Vietnamese stone Chinese Troops on borde RADIO HANOL has and the Cambodian and Chinese borders.
reports.
broadcast an insurrection against the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. At the same time Peking has accused Vietnamese The Indochina conflict is thus getting worse. Vietnamese army is now involved on three fronts: Laos This is taking an inevitable toll on the ambitious objectives laid down by the Vietnamese leadership to consolidate the victory of 1975. PIERRE ROUSSET The consequences of what is already a state of semi-war are the budget is one problem.
The eradia susbeston and then abrupt termination of Chinese aid puts a question mark against development projects. of these are economy: the modernisation of the Mao Khe coal mines, the extension of the Thai Nguyen steel plant, the construction of a bridge over the Red River. Hanoi, The departure of 160,000 Hoas for China also has serious implications, as Chinese labour is traditionally more skilled. For example, the Hoas of appeai 10 North Vietnam made up 60 per cent of the workforce in the conl mines, and play at eritini dule i the port of Haiphong.
Vietnam is heavily dependent CHI CORE TOF BC PrOQOCHOD DE BE domestic energy. Not only that EDAE industry, is a vital export sector Effects of 'semi-war strike home The Cambodi about again.
The vital for the supposed 1o tied up on the borders. vital.
dominate opportunists In spite of the LEIL China Important leaders of economic zones" has had to be functions. abandoned in the nrens close to Many of the and 200,000 soldiers demobilised i 1975 in order to work in the fields have now been called up which was turn its energie towards production and the creation of an infrastructure, is security 'OPPORTUNISTS' hierarchy, The objectives of the second Five Year Plan will therefore most probably not be achieved.
Yet they were considered to he the асссістате.
Political tensions are also apparent. The press recently called for a struegle against previous successcs of its policy towards minorities, Hanoi clearly fear:
Peking's overtures towards the Montagnard population, which originally came from Southern Vietnamese Communist Party restart such as Tay and Nung have been deprived of most of their So have generals Chu Van-tang. Le Hieh Mai Le Quang-ba. leaders of the VCP thoughtto be close to the Chinese, notably of the Central Committee, have met with the It is a time of reinforcement of the control of the party over all spheres of activity. And, one fears, of the organs of political and military In a very difficult economic and social situation, marked by a general shortage of basic products, the burcaucratisation only And that is one thing Vietnam does not need! hardly astonishing that Wet these conditions namese diplomacy hat evolved and mod WOWNTES TCHISE The Vietnamese leadership's room for manocuvre, already limited in 1975, has been furtber reduood.
Vietnam has found integration into Comecon unavoid. able, since only the latter can mumber of The the development projects aban- | leadership | doned hy Peking All the conditions for the 'normalisation of relations with the USA - notably the payment of million dollars in war reparations — have been set aside by Handi, which now finds itself in the position of supplicant.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. fearing diplomatic isolation, is multiplying states Association oF South-Enst Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Indochina is a powderkeg. The Sino-Soviet and Sino-Yielnamese contlicts have become major factors in the world and TELL SION TO BE EL benelit of imperialism and the neo-colonial dictatorships DIFFICULT Ar for the Vietnamese revolution, il is today guing through one of the difficult periods of its history large LUIS responsibility for this rests with policy of the Chinese