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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08044 to 363-08047.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08044 to 363-08047
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Title
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Article about American aid to Cambodia
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Description
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Article draft about US economic aid to Cambodia, for Newsweek Magazine
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Deepe
Cambodia, where the history of the ancient Khmer Kings
hangs heavy over the country, is an area of aid competition
between the blocs.
The U.S. aid programme is unspectacular but in the
main, effective.
forces
one third of
The U.S. pays the salaries of the Cambodian armed
and provides much of their equipment,
although the U.S. does not provide a military advisory
programme in the general Asian pattern.
Cambodia still has strong ties with, and a general
strong affection for, France, and France provides the military
advisors for the Cambodian Armed Forces. The U.S. military
mission has a principally logistical role, and also provides
instruction in new U.S. weapons for the French military
advisors, who then train the Cambodians in the use of the
weapons.
The most grandiose U.S. aid project has been the
Khmer-U.S. Friendship Highway running between the capital
of Ihnom Penh and the port of Sihanoukville. Although this
road is vital to Cambodian communications, the project has had
its troubles. (Please see Congressional inquiry into the
collapse of part of the road).
Much of the U. S. aid programme is an underwriting of the
Cambodian economy through an import programme.
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Deepe
The most impressive U.S. aid project is the irrigation of
15,000 hectares of land around the ruins of the seat of the
ancient Khmer dynasty at Simreap
The project took two and a half years to complete
but from the beginning it has been favoured with fortune, and
if unspectacular, it is effective, practical and of assistance
to the subsistence farmer, surely the person the aid programme
is designed to help most.
The Communist Chinese aid programme to Cambodia has met
with very mixed fortunes, and, in general, has not been
effective.
Red China's aid to Cambodia began in 1956 when the
Cambodian Head of State, Prince Norodom ihanouk, paid a visit to
Peking. The Sino-Khmer trade agreement was signed on June 1, 1956.
The major part of Chinese aid to Cambodia has been
devoted to the erection of four factories- a paper mill,
a textile mill, a plywood factory and a cement factory.
The paper mill, the plywood factory and the textile
mill all began production in 1960, and, in general, neither the
Chinese nor the Cambodians are happy with the results.
The cement factory is still not in production because
of production and raw material difficulties.
The paper mill uses x bamboo and rice straw as
raw materials, but the quality of the paper is very poor, and
much is insuitable for use in anything more important than
packaging.
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Deepe
The plywood factory has been troubled by production
bugs since the start. The glue used in production by the
Chinese is very inferior in quality and so is the plywood.
The poor quality makes it impossible to secure an
export market for the plywood, and there is little internal
demand for the product.
The textile factory also produces a low-quality
product, but it is cheap and generally popular. This is the
most effective of the four factories in fact the only really
effective Chinese aid project.
Even if the troubles besetting the
cement factory are overcomem, there remains one great
problem. The factory will use coal as fuel and since there
is no coalmaine in Cambodia, it will be reliant on supplies
from China.
Other Chinese aid has included small-scale irrigation
projects, animal husbandry centres
small-scale agricultural
centres and the construction of a new building for the
Cambodian Parliament.
Western observers regard Chinese aid as most effective
when on a small-scale and when concerned with agriculture.
Russian aid to Cambodia is on a specific project basis.
The main item of aid has been the erection of a 500-bed
$U.S. 10,000,000 hospital in Phnom Penh.
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Deepe
This has been generally effective, but there is
a snag for the Cambodians, as there often is with Russian
aid projects.
Each month the Cambodian Government must pay $2,000
towards the maintenance of the hospital and the salaries of
the Russian doctors and nurses. Prince Sihanouk is
reportedly not very happy about this.
Cambodia is an excellent showcase for aid from a
variety of areas, and one senior Western diplomat summed
up general Western thinking on the matter with the comment: "There
is a tendency among many Americans to be self-denigrating about.
U.S. aid programmes.
"There are not many complaints heard from the
Governments of the countries concerned.
We must get out of the way of thinking Russian and
Chinese aid experts are 10 feet tall- they don't work any
faster or more effectively than we do, and in general less so."
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Date
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1963
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Cambodia--Relations--United States; Economic assistance
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B2, F4
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
