Sanders was running for governor as candidate of antiwar Liberty Union Party

He made comment during lecture at a junior high school in Rutland, Vermont

Remarks were unearthed by right-leaning website Washington Free Beacon

Sanders told students that the North Vietnamese 'are not my enemy'

In years past, video has surfaced showing Sanders praising Cuba's Castro

Bernie Sanders told a group of Vermont high school students in 1972 that the United States' actions in Vietnam were 'almost as bad as what Hitler did.'

Sanders, the 78-year-old senator who is currently surging in the race for the Democratic nomination for president, made the remark when he was running for governor of Vermont.

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The comment was reported at the time by The Rutland Herald. It was unearthed recently by the right-leaning web site Washington Free Beacon.

Sanders, who was 31 years old at the time, was running as the candidate for the Liberty Union Party, which was an offshoot of the antiwar movement.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose campaign for the Democratic nomination for president has been surging in recent weeks, told a group of ninth graders in Vermont in 1972 that what the United States did in Vietnam was 'almost as bad as what Hitler did'

He told a group of ninth grade students at a junior high school in Rutland that the North Vietnamese 'are not my enemy'.

Sanders continued: 'They're a very, very poor people. Some of them don't have shoes. They eat rice when they can get it.

'And they have been fighting for the freedom of their country for 25 years.

'They can hardly fight back.'

According to the report in The Rutland Herald, Sanders also supported a proposal to grant amnesty to those who evaded the draft.

Students reportedly pushed back against Sanders' position on amnesty, saying it would be unfair to the parents of those whose children were killed fighting the war.

The Vietnam War was a conflict which began in 1955 and ended with the fall of Saigon in April 1975.

The US intervened militarily to prop up its ally, the government of South Vietnam, against the communist North.

The American effort, which included bombardment of Cambodia and Laos, proved unsuccessful as Vietnam was reunited under communist rule.

Sanders made the comment during his unsuccessful run for governor of Vermont in 1972. He is seen above in 1972

More than 58,000 American soldiers died in the conflict.

It is estimated that a total of three million Vietnamese - including soldiers and civilians - were killed during that period.

Sanders' campaign for governor of Vermont was a failure. He received around one per cent of the vote.

He ran again as the Liberty Union candidate for both governor and for senator, but lost in those races as well.

He eventually won office as mayor of Burlington, a position he held from 1981 until 1989.

In 1991, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as the candidate from Vermont's at-large district.

He held that position until 2007, when he defeated incumbent Jim Jeffords to become a US senator from Vermont.

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The senator from Vermont is a well-known - and self-described - democratic socialist, and has remained independent in the Senate even though he caucuses with Democrats.

Sanders, who has emerged in recent weeks as the most serious threat to defeat longstanding frontrunner Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic nomination, has made controversial statements in years past about America's Cold War enemies.

The Vietnam War was a conflict which began in 1955 and ended with the fall of Saigon in April 1975. The US intervened militarily to prop up its ally, the government of South Vietnam, against the communist North. The American effort, which included bombardment of Cambodia and Laos, proved unsuccessful as Vietnam was eventually reunited under communist rule

Last April, video surfaced online showing the then-Burlington mayor praise Cuba's late communist ruler Fidel Castro during a lecture in 1986.

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'I remember being very excited when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba,' Sanders is seen telling students at the University of Vermont in 1986.

'It seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against ugly rich people.'

Sanders told the students how he became so disillusioned by John F. Kennedy when he ran for president in the early 1960s that he wanted to 'puke' because of his hardline anti-communist stance.

Last April, video posted to social media showed Sanders praising Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution during a lecture to students at the University of Vermont in 1986. Sanders was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, at the time

'Kennedy was saying Nixon was too soft on communism in Cuba,' Sanders said.

'For the first time in my adult life, what I was seeing is the Democrats and Republicans ... clearly that there really wasn't a whole lot of difference between the two.'

During his unsuccessful bid to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary in 2015-16, a video from 1985 was dredged up in which Sanders is seen heaping praise on Castro.

The grainy 1985 interview footage from Chittenden County, Vermont, shows Sanders praising Castro's policies on education, health care and society in general.

At the time, Sanders had been on a recent trip to Nicaragua to observe the sixth anniversary of the Sandinista regime.

He compared Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega - who is now president of Nicaragua - to Castro.

'In 1961, [America] invaded Cuba, and everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world,' he said.

'All the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro.

'They forgot that he educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed society.

'You know, not to say Fidel Castro and Cuba are perfect - they are certainly not - but just because Ronald Reagan dislikes these people does not mean to say the people in these nations feel the same.'

Indeed Sanders was sharply critical of Reagan, who had just been overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term the year before.

Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2008, when he turned over control of the country to his brother, Raul. A Cold War foe of the US, Castro’s government imprisoned dissidents and imposed one-party rule on the island nation. He is pictured above in 2000

'If President Reagan thinks that any time a government comes along, which in its wisdom, rightly or wrongly, is doing the best for its people, he has the right to overthrow that government, you're going to be at war not only with all of Latin America, but with the entire Third World,' Sanders said.

Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2008, when he turned over control of the country to his brother, Raul.

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A Cold War foe of the U.S., Castro's government imprisoned dissidents and imposed one-party rule on the island nation.

Ortega has ruled Nicaragua for more than four decades. The Sandinista movement of which he is apart has also been accused of widespread human rights violations in the impoverished Central American country.

In November 2016, Sanders appeared on ABC News' This Week, where he was asked about his comments praising Castro.

'No, of course, [the Cuban] economy is terrible,' he told host Martha Raddatz.

'You're right, it is a dictatorship. They did have a good health - do have a decent health care system and a decent educational system.

'A lot of people have left Cuba for better dreams, to fulfill their aspirations.

'So, no, the Cuban economy is a disaster. No, I do not praise Fidel Castro.'