The Soviet Union, China and Vietnam - Charges and Countercharges

The latest exchanges between the Soviet Union and China over the question of aid to Vietnam, becouse they took place over the Christmas period, had very little publicity in the West. The Chinese were stung tc reply when the Moscow weekly Abroad reprinted a dispatch of the New York Times to the effect that China demanded - accordin’ to its regulations soverning freight charges ~ payment in dollars for the shipment of Soviet military and medical aid to Vietnam. This accusation followed many others. over the question of Soviet aid to Vietnam, including the notorious charge that the Chinese deliberately obstructed the passage of arms. However, the Chines, in their reply, made a telling point when they asked: "If the facts are like those siven in the weekly Abroad, why should Soviet journals have recourse to quotations from American journals instead of coming out themselves to make their remarks with a clear conscience?" And, as could be expected, the Chinese reply went on to make several points abovt the character of Soviet aid to Vietnam. Their first point was that the post-Khrushchov leaders of the Soviet Union had changed from a policy of disengagement to that of sending arms so that they "could have e say" in the Vietnam question and thus be in a better position to do a deal with the Americans. The © second point they made was on the quality of the arms supplied by the Soviet Union to Vietnam. They claimed "a great part of the Soviet military equipment supplied to Vietnam consists of obsolete equipment discarded by the Soviet armed forces or damaged weapons .+eeeboth in quantity and quality" (these arms are) ",.far below the aid the Soviet Union has given to the Indian reactionaries," The reply ends with a challenge to examine the records of the arms shipments, claiming that China makes no charge whatsoever for their transit.