In a new escalation of its war threats against Vietnam, Washington issued a bellicose statement January 13 warning that North Vietnam “must accept the full consequences of its actions” in “turning from the path of negotiation to that of war.” A State Department spokesman declined to elaborate on what the “full consequences” might be, but more concrete indications of Washington’s intentions were soon provided.

Following the liberation of Phuocbinh, capital of Phuoclong province, by the forces of the Provisional Revolutionary Government on January 7, the hawks in Washington came out in force. Not only did they issue threats, some veiled and some not-so-veiled, but the White House and the Pentagon have set to persuade Congress to step up allocations for the war.

Under the impact of the worldwide economic crisis, a new wave of struggles broke out in Asia in 1974. No country remained insulated, but the effects of the crisis could be seen most dramatically in the semicolonial countries. Already ground down to a subsistence level by imperialism, the workers and peasants there have been hardest hit.

For millions in Asia the spiraling inflation and developing recession meant not merely hardship but starvation. Famine on a massive scale threatens whole populations. On the Indian subcontinent hundreds are already dying each day.

“What is involved here is simply a desire for putting a little ‘gas station,’ if you will, down here in the center of the ocean... – Samuel S. Stratton, U.S. House of Representatives, April 4, 1974.

In the weeks preceding President Ford’s visit to South Korea, scheduled for November 22, opponents of Park Chung Hee’s dictatorship intensified their protests.

Two thousand Catholic demonstrators, who assembled for a march from the suburb of Tan Sa Chau to the Supreme Court building in Saigon October 31, were beaten back by Thieu’s police and plainclothes goons. About seventy-five civilians were reported injured. Two opposition deputies were seriously hurt, and a Catholic priest was knocked to the ground and bloodied, the November 1 New York Times reported.

Huge protest rallies throughout Japan on international antiwar day, October 21, demanded the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons and the cancellation of Ford’s scheduled November 18 visit. The sponsoring organizations, which included the Communist and Socialist parties and the major trade unions, reported that 2.2 million persons had taken part in 456 demonstrations.

Seoul and Tokyo have worked out a deal at the expense of South Korean exiles in Japan. After weeks of anti-Japanese demonstrations in South Korea and speculation that President Park Chung Hee might break diplomatic relations with Japan, Japanese special envoy Etsusaburo Shiina flew to Seoul September 19. He brought expressions of regret over the August 15 attempted assassination of Park by a Korean resident of Japan. Park’s wife was killed in the shooting.

Protesting the corruption of the Thieu regime, several thousand Catholics marched through the northern city of Hue on Sunday, September 8. It was the first Catholic antigovernment demonstration to be held in the former imperial capital. Police attacked the demonstrators with tear gas and clubs, confiscating anticorruption banners and dispersing the march. Hundreds of demonstrators later regrouped in a Catholic church, where a document denouncing Thieu was read.

In the last few months South Vietnam has undergone the heaviest fighting since the “cease-fire” agreement went into effect in January 1973.

In the Iron Triangle area north of Saigon, clashes have occurred since May 17, when three militia outposts near Bencat were captured by the liberation forces. Two have still not been retaken. Skirmishes have taken place only sixteen miles from the center of Saigon, and Bienhoa airfield, the largest military airfield in South Vietnam, was said to have been threatened at one point.