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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-02074 to 363-02080.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-02074 to 363-02080
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Title
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Article on the effect of Viet Cong guerrilla warfare on civilians
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Description
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Original title: "Hamlet." Article by Keever on the effect of Viet Cong guerrilla warfare on civilians in a South Vietnamese hamlet
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Transcript
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Beverly Deope
loi Gong l
Saigon
Hamlet-1
apil 30
(Note to Editors I've intentionally changed the names of these
people and decided not to send pictures of them to prevent their
getting in trouble).
AN BINH (VILLAGE OF PEACE), SOUTH VIET NAM-Mrs. Nguyen
Van Thi patted the dirty face of her seven-month-old daughter and
sighed, "Sometimes the Viet Cong (Communist guerrillas) come and
raise a typhoon over our hamlet."
For the past six months a turbulent storm has raged in
this tiny hamlet, ironically sem nemed the Village of Peace.
Located only thirty five miles south of Saigon, it was held by the
government until six months ago, then lost to the Viet Cong comrol
and now the government is desperately again attempting to regain control.
The sleepy hamlet of 43 families is sinut situated in
cratic crucial Long An provinces showplace province for U. S. aid
and Vietnamese military energy visited by American Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara andxinenkman former Vice President Richard Nixon.
W
Long An is among the seven key provinces around Saigon which U. 3. Ambassador
Henry Cabot Lodge has advocated the government comtr concentrate
their efforts.
(More)
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Doope
Hamlet--2
But progress is minimal and the joint civilian-military
effort has largely bogged down.
During the six months following the overthrow of the regie
reging of Bresident Ngo Dinh Diem in November, the Viet Cong shot
the hamlet chief, beheaded his two assistants, burned the hamlet
office, peppered the austere, dirty-floored schoolhouse with rife
rifle bullets and out the long hamlet's long barbed wire fence into
foot-long strips, which American officers call "Vietnamese sph
spaghetti." (These strips are now being used to reif reinforce
conorate for a goverament-sponsored hamlet privy program.) The
hamlet milita militia pretended they were farmers and refused to
defend the area, when goven government forces did not reinforce it
Now, to counter this typhoon, Mrs. Thi's stiegl straggly
bearded father has built an underground "a Vietnamese air-raid
shelter murrounded by a fashion doubly thick brick wall.
And Mrs. Thi in her poorer home has built a mudwall around hathe
the slab of hardwood sh serving as her bed. All the other families
in the village have fakhawat taken the same precaution.
Z
(More)
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deepe
hamlet-3
"We never saw the Viet Cong," Mrs. Thi explained eng
evasively. "They came at night, or put guns in our backs when we we
were working." But she admitted the rich farmers-"Those with coron
cement floors and tile-roofed homos"-paid taxes and gave them rice.
But besides the Viet Cong typhoon, Mrs. Thi's 66-year-old
father explained,
stem fungi and leafhopper took 90% of
dyn
the rice crop last year on his 2-acre plot, forcing his son to work
on house construction and his daughter to do manual work-carrying
10 gallons of water for half a mile across parched paddy fields for
one and half cents (U. S.). (Actually one piastre.)
10
"We will be hungry this year," he said nonchalantay. "But
when we get too hungry, we'll kill a dog to eat."
far away,
Furthermore, Mrs. Thi lemented, she had long ago married a
government trooper and bore him four children. But now he's stationed
has his own concubine and rarely bothers to give her any money.
For this uneducated, isolated Vietnamese family, the conflict
is simply a continuation of the French Indo-China war which began
in 1945 and has never stopped. When asked the difference between the
government and the Viet Cong guerrillas, the old man replied, "Oh,
the two groups have a difference of concepts and invade each others
country. But my brain is too small to know the difference."
mes, the
When asked about the big nation of China to the north, he
replied, "My mind is close to the market-I have no time to think about
China.
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deepe
hamlet
The government has made a desperate attempt to counter the
Viet Cong typhoon and regain control of the hamlet. Twenty cadre
visited thin An Binh to take a consus and advise on security.
cement floor was laid in half of the school (so the kids won't lose
their pens in the cracks of r dirt, Mrs. Thi's father explained.)
The elderly father will be emong 10 families to receive fast-fattening
T
A
hybrid pigs even the years to repay the government for them.
village health worker will be trained to dispense 13 basic drugs from
USAID medical ohost and will maintain an office in the planned
community hall. A now bridge is propose proposed and a new road will
connect An Binh with other hamlets. Military engineers rebuilt the barbed
wire fence, paying village children more than a penny to carry the poles.
But Mrs. Thi's father explained, the fence was to protect them
against the government-not against the Viet Cong. Outside the fance,
the government can kill us," he explained. "I used to go to the movies
in Tan An (provincial capital one mile away). Now I must swing my lantern
when I come back to An Binh late at night or the Marines will shoot mo
without asking any questions Now we're not free. I can't even go
outside my house to the toilet. I lurve to keep a pot inside."
Yet, the villagers know when the Marines leave the area-as they
often do-The Viet Cong will come again. The hamlet council is so frightened
they sleep each night in the provincial capital a mile away,
(More)
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deepe
hamlet-5
Nine months ago, 219 strategic hamlets were listed on the
statistical charts of the province. Then during the November offense
the Viet Cong systematically wiped them out.
last year,
"I could stand on my rooftop and see the Viet Cong burn
down all the houses from here southward," one Tan An resident explained.
"But we don't have that trouble now. The Viet Cong controls them all."
In early December three battalions of airborne troops came
to s hold the areas still under government control, and ond
January 15th the government launched the pacification program designed
to clear the area of Viet Cong guerrillas and then to devoop develop
social, economic, educational and medical programs to win the hearts and
minds of the people.
But progress has been slow. Long An now lists only 15 p
hamlets xhhahm under government control--but the dits schedule calls
for 30 to be secured. During the next six months $100,000 repeat U. S.$100,000
will be spent in a massive program including: free fertilizer, insectic
insecticide and rice seed for farmers, two maternity clinics, adult
education under kerosene lanterns, pig programs, and a wide range of othe
other projects.
(More)
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deepe
henlet-6
"Yet we're getting only 50% of the value out of each bridge
"The Viet Cong promise
we build, "
one American observer explained.
the people everything, but give then nothing. The government does alot
to elp help the people, but does not exploit it or publicize it."
One of glaring signs of loma government prestige among the
people is the government's inability to recruit militis. The province
is already understrength 3,000 paid paramility ir paramilitary troopers.
In them sua 15 pacified hemlots From the 15 pacified hamlets--obviously
lacking many of the younger, able-bodied men-the government sorepped up
66 trainees and sent them to a nearby militray military center. Throe
weeks tog ago, in the battle of Go Den, all 66 were killed when the
Viet Cong overran the post.
"We had trouble recruiting these 66 trainees,"
one American
7
officer groaned. "How will ever convince any more to come to our side."
One of the central problems of the pacification program in
Long An is the lack of coordination between vietnamese
The province chief who commands the pacification plan, does not
control the troops necessary to secure the area.
"We've had so many changes of command and so many changes of
troops," one advisor explained, "we don't know who's doing what.
There's a general snafu while we're playing military musical chairs. For
Last month, we had a troika ruling the province-with the province chief
hip om deputy-in-charge-of-security and
fighting the commander of the airborne.x
out and we have the Marines in there."
Now the airborne has moved
(More)
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deepe
hamlet-7
The civilian cadre,
who must be protected by military units
in the hamlets, are also "have not been well trained and oriented for the
job," one observer explained.
among the civilian leadership."
"And there's a great deal of inertia
In short, one American observer explained,
"We're going through
the motions doing everything-but their hearts aren't in it."
Or, as another explained,
but we're not going anywhere."
"Everyone is on the march and moving-
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Date
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1964, Apr. 30
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Strategy; Mặt tráºn dân tá»™c giải phóng miá»n nam Việt Nam; Psychological warfare; Villages--Vietnam; Guerrilla warfare; Tactics; Civilians in war
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Location
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An Bình, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.3125; 105.1610
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B3, F7
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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
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Language
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English
