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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-05774 to 363-05785.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-05774 to 363-05785
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Title
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Article about Le My village protected by American Marines
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Description
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Original title: "Le My - American Tears", Keever's title: "U.S. Marines gamble on 'people-to-people' program to gain villagers' support", article about Le My - a complex of Vietnamese villages protected by American Marines
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Transcript
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deepe
tears article 5 of 8-article series
page 1
LE MY AMERICAN TEARS
LE MY, SOUTH VIET NAM- The English translation of Le My-s complex
of Vietnamese villages protected by an American Marine battalion only seven
miles from the strategie Danant Danang airbase--means literally "the most
majestic of the beautiful."
By coincidence, the same Vietnamese words of Le My also meam
"American Tears. " This is the name used by the Vietnamese-language newspapers
in Saigon.
(More)
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deepe
tearrs
tea rs-article 5 of 8-a rticle series
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Here at Le My, a Marine battaliom is conducting a significant
experiment in civic action, or people-to-people program,
to win the hearts and minds of the people."
according to fofficial reasoning,
im am attempt
If the experiment succeeds,
then this might be the nation-wide
the most
answer to winning the war. A full squad of American generals and i d
influential dignitaries have visited the complex of villages;
prominent was Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara on his recent trip
to Viet Nam. The most recent dignitary was an admiral from the Thai Navy.
(More)
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"If we study this concept in depth, it might be a means of
winning the war in Vietnam,"
one high-ranking Marine Corps source explained.
The experiment is not a complete flop, but it is, in fact, far from
being a compoe te co total success. The experiment in peope- people-to-
people program may at best be described as the first, but meagre step
which would
towards a full-scale x American political strategy,
include economic and agricultural experts, political analysts and
sociologists--but so far, this far out of the reach of official
American thinking or planning.
(More)
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When the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment of the III Marine Marine
Amphibious Force arrived in the Le My complex of village, they began full-scale
night patrolling to ward off Viet Cong units, plus more sporadic day-patrolling.
In addition the young Marine troops, without mandatory orders, but also
almost on their own because of their sponteious spontaneiou spontanious
generso generosity, xm sta rted attempts to win over thepeople to their
side. The Viet Cong political and military cadre had told the populatiom
that the Marines would only kills the peoples at first the Marines met with
only lukewarm is apprehension. Then the young troopers began to give
candy to the childrens today six-year-old Vietnamese girls wear sergeants
insignia on their sun somberos; small Vietnamese boys wear Marine corps
caps. The Marines gave some their C-rations to the children and to the needy
reguee refugees. More Cokes, wash basins, flimsy pillows began to be sold
in the drab, straw-roofed market placing, providing some economic uplift
the to the villages. The Marines fixes repaired two the bridges blown
thus connecting for marketing
out by the Viet Cong guerrillas months ago,
and communications the village areas to the city of Danang.
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page 4
Marine Corps units in Hawaii sent clothes to be destr distributed to the
needy Vietnamese,
"sometimes that got to be pretty laughable,"
company commander explained.
one American
"The ExIx clothes turned out to be coats and
evening dresses. It was a panic to see the peasant girls getting dressed
in an evening dress."
Perhaps, most important, as one Village Vietnamese village chief
explained,
A mumber of
"The Marines didn't tease the girls." The number
Eura s Eurasian orphans still in the village were an every-ay every-day
reminder that the French troops a decade ago did not behave so admirable.
admirably.
But, the heart of the Marine Corps program people-to-people program
was the medical aid pax services. Marine corpsmen accompanied
each military patrol and treated 30-40 cases a day in the outlying villages.
Then the battalion x established a statis static aid station near the market
place in the village.
"At first we were getting only 70-80 persons a day,"
doctor explained explained.
the Marine Corps
"Then for one month the total rose to 200
caseax cases a day. At firstmany refugees came to see us daily. There was alot
of sion sickness, espoi especially among the children from eye and skin
diseases, mostly because of filth.
We handed out 1000 bars of common
bath soap a month, a nd alot of the disease diminished.
Now we treat
about 150 cases a day. Most of the poel s people say nothing to us,
but several old women bring us bananas and pineapples in an attempt to
re-pay us."
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deepe
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the Marines received better
As the confidence of the people grew,
intelligence information from them-old men in black pajamas began to
the Marines of Viet Cong grenades, boobytraps,
warn
of Viet Cong who infiltrated
inot th into the hamlets overnight or of la rgc Viet Cong units in the area.
Still,
if the people were pro-money or pro-medicial medicine, they were
not necessarily pro-marine or pro-Vietnamese government or anti-Communist.
To answer the question of whether to the Marines are losing or
winning the people, one must examine the population statistics.
statistics from Vietnamese government sources are impric pi imprecise--
sometimes one Vietnamese village chief contradicts another--but they serve
in a crude way to measure the population trends.
These
(One of the first things
the Viet Cong do when they seize control of a village is to organize
the population into associations by age groups and labor forces--but neither
the Vietnamese government non United States Marines worry much about a census
of the population).
(More)
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deepe
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pa co 7
First, Le My is a mi name for a military outpost, but not for a political
or administrative division of the Vietnamese government. The Le My village
complex is composed of three villages. One of these is Hoa Thanh, with a
population of _ 95, of whom have been Catholic for generations.
The Marines neither won nor lose lost the Catholic population, but ene entered
into a no natural alliance with them. "We were against the Communists because
they are athie ta ht ah atheists,"
one Catholic explained. "We were against
the Communists before the Marines came and we will be against the Communists
when the Marines leave-even though we know it means death."
In the remain m other two villages,
least non-Catholio,
predominantly Buddhist, or at
are estimated in the words of one village chief to
"to be 2/3rda two-thirds pro-Communist and one-third sid sitting on the fence-
but even thone set sitting on the fence may be tilted towards the Communists
rather than the government."
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About six weeks after arriving in the Le My area, the Marines:
conduce conducted a 10338 a n operation to rescue 400 persons in a
Viet Cong-controlled villa ge across the vi river. The operation proved
to be controversial since the highest ranking Vietnamese commander,
Brig. Gen. Nguyen Chanh Thi, forbade the use of Vietnamese army units in
the opera tion until the incoming ant population had been seren screened to
Reep out the Communist elements. The Marines-ot with the Vietnamese Army
unit-conducted the operation anyhow; as a result the Vietnamese province
chief was fired by General Thi.
But, a breakdown of the 400 incoming refugees shows a trend of the
strength of the Marines and their civic action program. Roughly 100 of
the 400 were considered pro-Communists they fled the pro-government and
the Marine area and returned to their former village.
explained.
"These people had
sons or husbands or brothers with the Communists and regree g regretted having
left behind their homes and fields," one one Vietnamese village chief
This seems to indicate indicate, however, that the Marines
program is neither dynamic or comprehensive enough to attract and to hold
the pro-Communist elements--which now clearly comprise the majority of the
peasa nts.
The sevo second one hundred fled to thx a pro-government area closer to
Danang, because they did not trust the Marines," acor according to one
village chief. The second third 100 was settled in the one of the Buddhist
villages and are now existing on government relief goods.
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page 9
The fourth 100 were Catholics and were settled in the Catholic village
god
, Cabout; #)
of Hoa Thanh, where they were given daily give grams of
rice and
seven
piastres day from government refugee funds.
the
"But these emergency relief funds run out inx after six months,"
village chief of the Catholic village explained. "There's no land for them
to farms there's not much for them to do. They've got been on the relief
rolls two months now and they have four months to figure out what they'11
do. There's nothing we can do to help them after that."
Hence, while the Marine Corps program has not attracted and held
the left-wing pro-Communist elements among the 5 400 refugees,
assurance,
there's no
after the Vietnamese
at the other extreme of the sprectrum, that,
government is relief runs out in four months tiie time, that the Marines
will be able to hold the 100 right-wing, pro-Catho.io w pro-Catholic elements.
(More(
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deepe
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pa ge 10
one of
said he and his family came to the
In addition to the 400 refugees brought in from the Viet Cong-controlled
area, 59 other families have also come into the perimeter of the Le My
complex. One village chief said "they came by their own free weill";
the villager village refugees, however,
Marine-secured area when his village council warned him that the village
in which he x was staying would be bombed a nd shelled.
Vietnamese village chief, 40 of the families have been given seven piastres
a day a s as part of the Vietnamese government emergency relief goods, but
have yet to receive their five-grams-per-person daily aloo allotment of rice.
The remaining nineteen families have received neither rice nor money.
According to the
(More)
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deepe
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page 11
One of the most basic problems--but not the sole one--is the growing
desperation of the Vietnamese economic situation at the village level;
the war inhxam is increasingly bleeding the country white.
As one Vietnamese village chief in the Le My complex explained, "Most
of our people are very poor;
there's not enough fertile land and not
some of the land produces only
enough wat water. Each of our two rice crops a year produce enough to
feed the farmers for ono only two months;
three times the amount of rice we me must sow.
we
in the area own two hectares;
but most are land-less.
The richest people
some people own 1 one-tenth of a hectare
"Now we have to buy rice to import into the area-we buy it from the
government at black market prices. Mostly we buy the red rice--what we used
to feed to pigs. The white rice is am too expensive.
""Some people do labor work for each other;
some go out into the
forest to out wood.
and beer for thems we get some profit but not much.
Since the Marines have cme, sometry to buy soft drinks
"In the early 60's, alot of people used to cut wood in the forests.
We could send 500 to 700 people iht into the forests to cut the big trees;
they could make 200 piastres a day (about $3) and stay out in the forest
about a week.
"Even now with the Marines here, we can go only where the Marines go-
The patrols are temporary and afford no
a ma ximu of 4 kilometers.
protection to the woodcutters. Now only 30-40 people in the village are
woodcutters; they make at most only 50 piastres a day-even though the price
of lumber has risen, they can't get the big trees for the best lumber."
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pa ge 12
Hence, even with a full battalion of American Marines in the Le My
complex, the economic and security and related economic situation has not
been pushed back to the 1963 level--whom the Viet Cong strength was much smaller
than now.
Perhaps, the most telling incident of the impoverished economic situation
ha s been the grab-fest from all sides to get the Marines trash, the tim
cans of main and cardbor cardboard are re-sellable.
At first, the Vietnamese
the the Marines gave the
This angered the
army soldiers in the area usurped the right to have it]
right to the chief of the Catholic Hoa Thanh village.
Vietnamese troopers and t for several weeks the Marines had to send their
own escort with the garbage trucks. Last week, the unescorted Vietnamese
garbage trucks were stopped and the Vietnamese troopers threatened to beat up
the son of the village chief,
ImanabhomemammedxWietnameseinzighhinggxminxushxexaminesxem
hothxpanxhinidm
But still, even with a battalion of Marinesim the area,
funda mental problem of all is the establishment of security.
Tomorrow:
Le My--Fox Fort
the most
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Date
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1965, Aug.
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Villages--Vietnam (Republic); United States. Marine Corps; Defensive (Military science); Public opinion; Psychological warfare
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Location
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Lệ Mỹ, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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21.5043; 105.2868
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B187, F5
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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
