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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04768.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04768
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Title
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Viet View: Little, Late, Negative
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Description
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Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about Vietnamese opinions on President Johnson's order to increase American troops in Vietnam, page unknown
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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Viet View: Little, Late, Negative
8/1/65
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
President Johnson's order to boost American combat
troop strength in South Viet Nam was interpreted here as a
means to conventionalize the guerrilla war.
But the address of President Johnson brought little
consolation to the Vieanamese in Saigon and the saunch
pro-Victory members of the American community.
In general, they viewed the address as too little, too
late, too negative.
"President Johnson said we must show the Communists
we cannot be defeated and that they cannot win,"
explained one source close to the highest ranking Viet-
namese government officials. "What kind of negativism
is that? Nobody is saying that we, the anti-Communists,
can and must and should have a policy for victory."
But one American, who has traveled widely in Viet
Nam, held the view that "victory" to him was almost
impossible.
"Recently, a high-ranking Communist official predicted
that before this war was over, there would be 2 million
American troops in Viet Nam," he said.
"But the Communist leader was 50 per cent off. It
will take 4 million American troops. We'll have to have
an American Marine behind every tree in the country to
win this war."
One non-American counter-insurgency expert ex-
plained, "Yes, we must have American troops-we should
have had them a year ago when we caught the first North
Vietnamese prisoners. But now is the time Washington
should be bringing a competent political apparatus to
administer and govern the country. By the time they get
ready to do that it will be too late-the Vietnamese govern-
ment is already on the verge of collapse."
Within South Viet Nam, Communist cadres are esca-
lating the political war by tightening their grip on more
and more villages, district towns, provincial capitals and
even within Saigon itself.
"The only thing the Communists do not control in the
provincial capitals is the traffic," one Western diplomat
explained.
"I've
A Vietnamese-speaking American explained.
visited a lot of the villages that are supposedly government-
controlled. I call them the near-empty hamlets. It makes
my American bosses mad, but none of the government
villages have the number of people in them they should."
Even within Saigon, the simmering, underground
political situation is expected to erupt within months.
Within this context, President Johnson's reference to
holding free elections in South Viet Nam virtually terrified
the anti-Communist Vietnamese.
"If a free election were held in South Viet Nam now,
the Communists would win hands down," one said.
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Date
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1965, Aug. 1
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Subject
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Vietnam (Republic); Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973; Public opinion; Vietnam War, 1961-1975
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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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Container
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B4, F6
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Format
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newspaper clippings
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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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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
