z6L+ dred kilometres long in the region of oF cRlilclsM Cu Chi alone; similarly, only a just, revolutionary cause could motivate o men and women to endure the hard- o- ship of living and f ighting underground for months and years The Tunnels of Cu Chi at a time. Tom Mongold ond John Penycote The region of Cu Chi was long a Hodder .l985& Stoughton stronghold of the NLF. Because of lII London its proximity to Saigon the U.S. (olso ovoiloble in French: army spared no effort in trying to Les tunnels Chi de Cu .l985) control the area. A huge U.S. base Albin Michel; Poris housing an Army division was con- structed near the village of Cu Chi. There are few examples of Huge expanses of land were heroism more telling than that of the bulldozed, burned and sprayed with EI= Vietnamese people's just struggle pesticides. The authors report that I against U.S. aggression. One of the wells in the area were systematically J. merits of Mangold and Penycate's poisoned by U.S. soldiers who threw work The Tunnels of Cu Chi is to the corpses of dead animals into l- rekindle memories (for those of us them. Villagers were herded by force old enough to remember) or present into the in f amous ' 'strategic a first picture of the unbelievable hamlets." Those who escaped were courage, self-sacrifice and ingenuity considered fair game for attack by that the men and women of Vietnam artillery fire and bombs or the Cobra demonstrated. To a certain extent helicopters that flew low to the such a picture shines throughdespite ground machinegunning everything the intentions of the authors, who that moved. Pilots returning to their attempt a "balanced" and "two- bases were encouraged to drop any sided" account ofa war whose reac- remaining explosives or napalm on tionary character on the part of U.S. Cu Chi. Yet despite this incredible imperialism and just character on barbarism the U.S. imperialists were the part of the oppressed who took never able to "pacify" Cu Chi and up arms makes any such al- it remained a strong hold of the tempt at bourgeois objectivity revolutionary forces throughout the derisory. war. In fact, at the height of the U.S. The Tunnels of Cu Chi is a lively presence, in 1969, the NLF was able account based mainly on interviews to carry out a daring raid inside the with the participants of the war Cu Chi base, destroying a great deal waged by the National Liberation of military equipment. Front (NLF) against the U.S. army Cu Chi is located on the southern in one particular area of Vietnam edge ofthe plain that extends from near Cu Chi, located less than forty the Mekong River Delta in the south kilometres from what was then to the highlands to the north and Saigon, the capital of the puppet west. Except for some forests, the South Vietnamese regime. As its ti- region does not have any particular tle implies, the book examines in favourable geographical features for particular the "tunnel warfare" waging guerrilla war. It does have a waged by the NLF in the area which concentration of the peasantry. The bordered a region known to the authors refer to Cu Chi (at the U.S.during the war as the "Iron beginning of the war) as a "densely Triangle. " Tunnel warfare is a form populated agricultural area" con- of combat that is suited to the weak sisting of both rice fields and rubber in their struggle against a stronger, and coconut plantations. highly armed and technically Tunnel warfare was a key means superior force. The ability to con- by which the NLF utilised the duct tunnel warfare depends upon positive factors (above all, the sup- the overall character of the war port of the population and, linked to itself: without relying upon the this, the sense of self-sacrifice of its masses the NLF would never have fighters which resulted from the fact been able to construct a network of that they were fighting for a revolu- tunnels that were almost three hun- tionary cause) to neutralise the t-e :'

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Book illustration

negative factors - the overwhelm- became aware of the importance of at reminding the soldier of the ing superiority of the U.S. in the tunnels in the NLF war strategy "American Way of Life" he was weaponry and technology. While and therefore tried to come up with supposed to protect. Usually the the tunnels might seem to be a defen- new weapons and methods to Americans would be transported sive measure (and they certainly did neutralise them. Most of their high back to the base by helicopter after have that aspect), they were above tech weapons proved completely un- a busy day of burning villages and all a means and method l'or combat- suited to this kind of warfare murder. ting the enemy. because of their unwieldiness. Tunnel warfare also led to a close Even the term "tunnel" is In the last analysis, as Mao hand-to-hand combat that favoured somewhat of rnisnomer. In fact, pointed out, people not weapons, those fighting for a revolutionary they were really labyrinths of firing determine the outcome in war and line. One story, not recounted in the posts, dormitories, kitchens, storage all the technology available to the book, illustrates this. A Black GI rooms, even hospitals and con- U.S. could not change the fact that descended into a tunnel when he ference rooms all constructed at dif- their soldiers were thoroughly hated heard the unmistakable sound of a ferent levels underground and con- by the people, demoralised and in- bullet being chambered. He turned nected to one another and to the capable of acting out of any noble his head expecting to get a final surface through an ingenious system interest. While the men and women glimpse of the person who was of passageways and trap doors. In of the NLF endured incredible hard- about to kill him. He found himself Cu Chi, some tunnels reached ship living in caverns, the American face-to-face with an NLF fighter within a kilometre of the U.S. base soldiers enjoyed a comfort never who told him in English, "our fight itself and played a vital role in the before seen in history of warfare. is not with you Black man." This GI daring attack referred to earlier. Their base at Cu Chi was equipped never picked up a rifle again! Other tunnels joined networks hous- with movie theatres and swimming The tunnels were dug using hand ing NLF command centres. pools and supplied by daily convoys shovels and simple baskets to Bit by bit the imperialist army of lorries filled with amenities aimed evacuate the dirt.The latter wasno 66 tn= (J- simple matter as evidence of fresh blem throughout the war, even this left leaderless and often demoralised soil would invite certain U.S. attack. barbaric weapon was resisted to a when the immense sacrifices of the E The peasants of the area who did large degree by the system of tight offensive failed to achieve quick vic- 4 most of the tunnel construction also seals leading from one passageway tory as had been promised. It seems L' had to carry and distribute the dirt to another and ingenious methods of that the Tet Offensive was part of an t! a considerable distance from the using water to filter the air. overall strategy aimed at seeking a o tunnels themselves. The entrances to An even more deadly challenge to negotiated settlement (which finally the tunnels were disguised with tunnel warfare came from the B-52 occurred). With this kind of a z foliage or sometimes (before the carpet bombings the U.S. began political line it is not surprising that, o U.S. had devastated the area) would conducting systematically around in the last few years of the war, the O. exit into a barn. There would always Cu Chi in April 1969, when it ceased Vietnamese leadership put increas- be multiple ways out of the tunnel in using these B-52s to bomb the ingly less emphasis on mobilising the UI case the enemy stumbled upon an North. These bombs blasted enor- masses of peasants and encouraging entrance. The tunnels were con- mous craters that did destroy many them to continue along the path of =ut structed using only earth and clay, of the tunnels that the U.S. had been arming themselves with the weapons - sometimes reinforced with bamboo. unable to wipe out in five years of of the enemy. F Nevertheless the walls were so hard war. Despite the tragic fact that the many of the U. S. soldiers were con- The Tunnels of Cu Chi makes no heroism and sacrifice of the Viet- vinced they were made of cement! pretext of being an overall history of namese people was increasingly Their strength, their depth the Vietnam War, but in passing betrayed by a centrist and ultimately underground (sometimes several makes some interesting observations revisionist political line on the part metres) and their intricacy made about some of the war's broader of the Vietnamese leadership, the them very difficult to destroy. military and political features. The Vietnam War remains not only a Simply throwing a handgrenade in authors attempt to draw a firm line source of inspiration for today's the tunnels caused little or no of distinction between the NLF and revolutionary communists but also damage and the NLF would soon be the "North Vietnamese," which a treasure chest of experience, able to return. But the typical GI would give credence once again to positive as well as negative, of car- would rarely dare venture into one the bugaboo of "invasion from the rying out revolutionary warfare. of the NLF tunnels, even though the North," but clearly, the struggle of The experience of the NLF in wag- only sure way to destroy them was the people of Vietnam, north and ing tunnel warfare on a grand scale by actually going in and placing ex- south, constituted a single historical will undoubtedly prove to be very plosive charges. process. valuable in the period ahead. To try to solve this problem the The changes in some of the A.S. U.S. army developed special elite military features of the resistance groups known as "tunnel rats" after 1970 that the authors describe whose task was to neutralise the (in particular, a greater reliance on NLF's underground warfare. The conventional warfare and a cor- authors euphemistically refer to the responding diminution of the role Origins of rhe Greoi Purges "mixed motivations" of these rats; played by the local NLF guerrillas) J. Arch Getty .l985 even their own deliberately seem to be less a result of the entry Combridge University Press charitable portrait reveals a vicious of regular North Vietnamese band of psychological misfits and soldiers into the war in the south There are few subjects in modern pathological killers. Sometimes than a negative development in the history so thoroughly (and when these rats went underground, political-military line guiding the deliberately) distorted as the 1930s they would be ambushed or booby conduct of the war as a whole. The period of class struggle in the Soviet trapped. The authors report that one authors touch on the Tet Offensive Union. The mountain of memoirs group of women guerrillas would which marked a radical shift in Viet- and studies aimed at denouncing wait until a GI stuck his head and namese tactics away from the idea of Stalin and the Communist Party of arms through a trap door leading protracted war aimed at whittling the Soviet Union, whether written from one level to another, and then away the enemy's strength. Of by Trotskyites and social democrats, would spear him through the neck course, the Tet Offensive did indeed bourgeois liberals or avowed with a sharpened bamboo stick. spectacularly demonstrate the nostalgics of Tsarism like Solzhenit- These rats ' most success f ul vulnerability of U.S. imperialism syn, all have in common one very weapon however, seems to have and helped strengthen anti-war sen- central point: vilifying and slander- been the poison gas, including tear timent in the U.S. itself. But the cost ing the dictatorship of the pro- gas, which is usually deadly when to the NLF was very high: according letariat and trying to wipe out the used in a small, confined area with to Penycate and Mangold, more immense prestige that the socialist no ventilation. (lnterestingly, the than 40,000 NLF fighters were killed system won during that tumultuous authors never mention that the use during the Tet Offensive, including decade. In the face of this or- of any gas in warfare is outlawed by a very high percentage of their chestrated campaign one cannot the Geneva Convention.) Although cadre. According to the authors, help but welcome the appearance of poison gas remained a serious pro- rank and file guerrilla fighters were a book by J. Getty which sets out to 67 { I ltt "reconsider" the Soviet party of commonly held stereotype of a tight- gram of crash industrialisation yet 1933 to 1938, the period often refer- knit bureaucracy thoroughly was extremely lacking in trained € red to (and as Arch Getty points out, beholden to Stalin and anxious to scientific and technical personnel lil incorrectly) as the "purges." crush on his behalf any trace of dis- and those that did exist were, more Professor Arch Getty is not a sent does not conform to the facts often than not, conservative 1' Marxist historian, nor has he broken that Getty convincingly presents. elements who generally opposed the o with all of the prevailing prejudices Most of Getty's work is based on line of going all out to develop a z about this subject. He feels obliged, a meticulous study of the Party ar- socialist economy. Far from being for example, to make a gratuitous chives in Smolensk, the capital of the totalitarian, all-controlling o-ll and unfounded reference to "the the Western Region (Oblast') of the machine that anti-communists like monstrous crimes of Stalin" even Russian Soviet Federated Socialist to portray, Stalin's Party was a still r) though - and perhaps because - Republic (RSFSR), a region with a relatively small organisation based F his work would tend to argue against population of 65 million bordering upon the proletariat in the cities -{ such a view. Nevertheless, by apply- the Ukraine on one hand and the which faced great difficulties in 6 ing the methods of the modern Leningrad and Moscow regions on leading socialist construction in the an- historian - especially reliance on the other. Getty also read Pravdu country as a whole. The archives of primary sources together with a and other central Party documents. the Western Region show that in healthy disrespect for the What comes through in Getty's ac- many areas there was only an = "testimony" of those who have the count is a picture of a central leader- average of one party member for most to gain from a distortion of ship which is itself divided on a series every two collective farms! history - Getty succeeds in of outstanding questions but is Within the Party itself there were demolishing a number of myths con- nevertheless committed to a policy a number of obstacles to the im- cerning the "purges" so widely held of energetically unleashing the plementation of Stalin's line. Getty that they have long been considered workers and peasants and the shows an often sharp contradiction almost sacrosanct. rank and file of the Party- to, as between the regional and local of- Who, for example, cannot recall Mao was to put it later in relation- to ficials and the central Party ap- the often repeated charge that the China, "achieve faster, better and paratus, as well as the contradiction "purges" were directed against the more economical results in the con- between the leadership and the led in "Old Bolsheviks," that is to say, the struction of socialism. " the region itself. Again with the aid original followers of Lenin? Getty It is also clear that in trying to of documents, Getty points out how musters a convincing set of statistics carry out this line Stalin and the resistance from lower and middle- to demonstrate that nothing of the leadership of the CPSU encountered level Party organisations was often kind was the case. Many have accus- a great deal of resistance. First, from able to bury the central directives in ed Stalin of having organised the among certain sections of the Party red tape. assassination of S.M.Kirov in 1934 leadership itself (or former Party Getty shows that the target of the because of the latter's support for leadership) such as Trotsky and "purges" was, in fact, the Party more "moderate" policies and in a Bukharin who argued, either open- bureaucracy itself. The term purge Machiavellian attempt to lay the Iy or simply in essence, that it would (chistka, to cleanse) was originally basis for suppression ofthe opposi- be impossible to construct a genuine applied to periodic movements laun- tion. Getty shows that Kirov was socialist economy in the Soviet ched by the Soviet Party, the first of thoroughly identified with the same Union. Getty confirms, again rely- which took place in 1921. As the political line as Stalin and cites a very ing on the writings of Trotsky name implies, the goal of the chistka interesting and damning statement himself, that an oppositional bloc was to "purify" the Party by remov- by Trotsky. "Trotsky, writing three had indeed been formed between ing those unworthy of Party years after the assassination, called Trotsky and the followers of membership. In the period 1929- Kirov 'a clever and unscrupulous Bukharin as the Soviet leadership l93l Party membership more than Leningrad dictator, a typical was to later claim. doubled as the doors were thrown representative of his corporation,' But the opposition to Stalin's open during the great battle of the and maintained that terrorist attacks policy of vigorous socialist construc- collectivisation of agriculture and like the killing of Kirov by the tion based upon the collectivisation the first Five Year Plan. It is not sur- 'younger generation' 'have a very of agriculture and the rapid develop- prising that amongst the million- high significance.' " This should ment of industry was not only from plus new members there were more give food for thought to those who amongst leading oppositional than a few who had joined for dismiss as preposterous the charge figures in Moscow. The revolution dubious reasons, to which must be that Trotsky and his cohorts were in- had also to contend with the horri- added those Party members who volved in criminal counter- ble force of habit, the inertia that degenerated. The relative privileges revolutionary activity! still marked rural life, the fact that, that accompanied the title of Party Getty's greatest service, however, even if the bulk of the population member also made it unlikely that is his recreation of the general at- supported the Soviet regime, only a many such elements would quit the mosphere prevailing at the time of minority was won to the cause of ranks of the Party organisationally the "purges" and fairly insightful communism. In addition, the Soviet of their own accord, even if they had description of the "victims". The Union was embarked upon a pro- long ago abandoned its ideological 68 I= (J stance. It is, therefore, not the least Given the nature and goals of the concentrated in the two-line struggle -F surprising that around l8 percent of chistka it is not surprising that it in the Party itself - the struggle a the membership of the Party was (and subsequent "purges") met with over industrialisation and collec- (, "purged" in 1933. Getty cites the different forms of resistance by tivisation, the struggle with following criteria that was to govern bureaucratic elements in the Party Bukharin, the fight to further pro- IL the 1933 chistkq: leadership. Getty suggests some letarianise culture, the important o forms of this resistance - either try- Stakhanovite movement aimed at z l. Alien class, hostile elements who ing to carry through the chistka in a shattering the stranglehold of o try to deceitfully demoralize the closed-door manner, away from the bourgeois experts on technique,and o. Party. masses or (as the Chinese revolu- so on. 2. Double dealers, who deceitfully tionaries were to put during the There was ideological confusion ul undermine Party policy. Cultural Revolution) "aiming the on the part of Stalin and the Soviet 3. Violators of discipline who fail to spearhead down" that is trying to leadership concerning the nature of carry out Party decisions and who divert criticism of- themselves with the class struggle in socialist society. =llt are pessimistic about the "imprac- wholesale expulsions of rank and file Stalin did not understand the - ticality" of Party measures. members. Although the Central material base within the socialist F 4. Degenerates who merged with and Purge Commission had specifically economy itself for the emergence of do not struggle against kulaks (rich warned against it, 70,000 members a new bourgeoisie and thus saw on- peasants), loafers , thieves, etc. including many workers and ly the remnants of the oidexploiting 5. Careerists and self-seekers who peasants, were thrown out for classes and world imperialism as a are isolated from the masses and "passivity. " danger for capitalist restoration. disregard the needs of the people. The central leadership of the Par- Although both of these sources did 6. Moral degenerates whose unseem- ty, however, said that a majority of indeed contribute to the eventual ly behavior discredits the Party. these people were actually "staunch overthrow of proletarian rule in the Party people." In fact, a great many USSR it was the newly engendered It is clear thatthe chistkawas con- expulsions pronounced at the local bourgeoisie, represented politically ceived as part of a movement aimed level were later overturned upon ap- by Khrushchev and his clique, that against bureaucracy and sought to peal. played the central role in the involve the masses. Local and fac- Getty also examines a series of counter-revolution. tory newspapers (and, interestingly, other "purges" that came after the Stalin never ceased to wage class wall newspapers) were called upon 1933 chistka: the Verification of struggle, but his metaphysical view to explain the reasons for the purge. Party Documents (or proverka) in of socialist society itself (his inabili- Party meetings at which each 1935 and the 1936 Exchange of Par- ty to understand the contradictions) member would be examined were to ty Documents (obmen pqr- meant that he often did not unders- be open to non-Party people who tidokumentov). These movements tand howto carry out the class strug- were called upon to raise their were originally aimed at restoring gle. When one reads, for example, criticisms and the official purge an- order to the Party's membership the six criteria for the 1933 chistka nouncement called for "open and records and, in the process, weeding cited above one notes that the target honest self-criticism by Party out the non-negligible number who definitely seems to be bourgeois members." had fraudulently obtained Party elements but there is little further Lest one try to argue that all of the membership cards. The conduct of clarity. In fact, one is reminded of above was merely a smokescreen to the proverka also seems to have been the statement attributed to Mao's hide something more sinister, the of- an important realm of struggle. In close comrade Chang Chun-chiao, ficial directives seem to have been 1935 the central leadership found it "what is the use of criticising foxes translated into practice. An impor- necessary to directly criticise the when the wolves are in power?" In tant eyewitness account by Anna Western Region authorities for other words, it is correct and Louise Strong entitled The Stqlin bureaucratic obstruction of the pro- necessary to criticise the bourgeois Era describes a number of these verka and called on the rank and file elements and the rightists in the par- mass "purge meetings" marked by to carry out criticism. ty but what about "the leading per- vigorous and uninhibited criticism Far from being aimed at the sons in the Party taking the capitalist of Party officials by rank and file political opposition the purges (and road" that Mao warned against? members and non-Party workers. (It here we are talking specifically about The seemingly contradictory is unfortunate that Getty does not the aforementioned mass movement statements and attitudes that Getty refer to Strong's account. Written and not the subsequent trials) seem cites from Stalin (alternating calls right after Khruschev's attack on ' to have been an effort to address real for more vigilance and opposition to Stalin, The Stolin Era remains one problems of the organisation, com- local bureaucracy with concerns of the most important non-Soviet position and functioning of the Par- about "excesses," etc.) are mainly a sources. The credibility of the book ty separated to a large degree from result of Stalin's own lack of clarity is all the more reinforced given the the ongoing struggle over political on the vital problems of the socialist fact that Anna Louise Strong herself line. The period under study was, revolution. As Mao put it in a war- had been falsely accused and im- after all, a period of intense class ning to the Chinese Party shortly prisoned for espionage.) struggle in the Soviet Union that was before his death: "you are making 69 { I llt socialist revolution but you don't appear to have been, in general, aim- "The radicalism of the thirties did know where the bourleoisie is. It is ed at the same targets as the previous not last. Although ritualized right in the communist party." purge movements. In this case, krit i ks / sqmo k rit i ku (criticism/self- m Getty senses that Stalin's laun- however, a particular effort is made criticism) became a regular Party = ching of the slogan "cadres decide to connect the politicat opposition practice, it would never again have ! everything" in 1935 has important with different forms of criminal ac- .he impact it did in 1937. Although o political significance, but Getty's tivity, particularly espionage and :litics in the thirties were often z own limitations keep him from get- sabotage. Much of this is to be ex- populist and even subversive, the ex- o ting to the heart of the matter. Stalin plained by the prevailing interna- igencies of World War II combined 'n specifically put forward the slogan tional tension right on the eve of the with the practical demands of run- "cadres decide everything" in op- Second World War which Getty ning an increasingly complicated t.) position to the previous slogan sloughs off as a factor (again, economy meant that radicalism and ? "technique decides everything" Strong's account is better on this anti-bureaucracy would fade and be which he viewed as outdated. Stalin point). It is certainly truethat terror replaced with a new respect for = is in- Stalin was a links this slogan to a criticism of an aspect of any dictatorship, authority. In the thirties, a bureaucrats who had learned "to cluding the dictatorship of the pro- a populist muckraker, and his im- value machinery" but that failed "to letariat, and that under certain con- age, as Avorkhanov remembered, value people, to value workers, to ditions this aspect may take on more was of someone who hated neckties. = value cadres. " This important prominence. Nevertheless, the The real petrification of the Stalinist recognition of the decisive role of Yezhovshchina seems to have been, system set in during and after the man in constructing socialism, at least in large part, an effort to war, when commisariats became however, was also separated to a substitute terror for a more ministries, when the Party leader large extent from politics as if thorough and deeper going struggle became premier, and when the man bureaucracy was simply a question- against the bourgeois line that who hated neckties became the of method and not of line. This kind sought to restore capitalism. Not generalissimo. ' ' of understanding seems also to have surprisingly, many Party officials weakened Stalin's efforts to combat sought to protect themselves by ac- A.S. bureaucracy during the purge cusing others. Within months the movements. It is interesting in this situation was way out of control and respect to contrast Stalin's slogan Stalin and the Central Committee "cadres decide everything" with the were forced to take stringent slogan Mao and the Chinese revolu- measures, including the arrest of tionaries were to insist upon during Yezhov himself. Getty calls this a the Cultural Revolution: "the cor- hypocritical effort on Stalin's part to rectness or incorrectness of the shift the blame to others. Actually it political and ideological line decides is once again the sometimes clumsy everything." It seems that the and contradictory actions of a great parallel construction of the two leader who was striving to wage class quotations is hardly accidental. struggle and bring about com- Getty relegates to an Epilogue munism but was not clear on the what is commonly understood as the nature of the very enemy he was "purges," that is, the arrests and combatting. trials of opposition Party leaders The Origins of the Great Purgesis and the widespread removal of a very useful examination of Soviet middle-level officials after 1937. society in the 1930s. The author's Again Getty argues that the Yezhov- avowed effort to take "a political" shchinu (or time of Yezhov, the Par- approach to the problem is useful, ty leader responsible for state securi- but, unfortunately, he remains ty) "was not the result of a petrified wedded to an outlook and method bureaucracy stamping out dissent which often lead him to pick up on and annihilating old radical revolu- secondary factors while ignoring the tionaries. In fact, it may have been essence of the matter. He talks of the the opposite. It is not inconsistent contradictions between the "centre with the evidence to argue that the and the periphery" or between Yezhovshchins was rather a radical, "moderates and radicals" but even hysterical, reaction to misses the conflict between the pro- bureaucracy. The entrenched of- letariat and the bourgeoisie! Getty's ficeholders were destroyed from combination of often insightful above and below in a chaotic wave observations with a non-class (which of volunteerism and revolutionary we know to mean bourgeois) ap- puritanism." proach is revealed in the last In fact, the Yezhovshchina does paragraph of his work: