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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08213 to 363-08218.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08213 to 363-08218
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Title
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Part two of an eight article series on Danang
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Description
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Original title: "enemy- article 2 of 8 - article series", Keever's title: "The Face of the Enemy", Part two of an eight article series on Danang, for an Unknown Publication
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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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- Page 1
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deepe
enemy--article 2 of 8 article series
page 1
THE FACE OF THE ENEMY
DANANG, SOUTH VIET NAM--This is the story of how the
Communists are controlling the villagers and hence winning the
war in Quang Nam province--where 9000 American Marines are
defending a jet airbase.
The story was told vividly and graphically last week by
a Vietnamese Catholic who literally escaped from a Communist-
controlled village in the province. The name of the village and
the escapee can not be disclosed.
The problem started in 1959, the escapee explained, when
in the beginning there were only a small group of two or three
secret Viet Cong a terrorists who came to the village in the
night-time. They started their terrorist activities to make the
people frightened. Then they tried to murder a certain number
of government officials and the village chief. Then in 1962,
the Catholic priest was murdered--by a new Catholic convert who
was a Communist. Then in 1963, after the overthrow of President
Ngo Dinh Diem, there was a change of all the village chiefs and
district chiefs and the Communists got their man or a man more
or less favorable to them into the government positions.
(More)
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- Page 2
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deepe
enemy--article 2 of 8 article series
page 2
The escapee continued:
the purpose of the terrorism
is to scare the people and to neutralize everyone who collaborates
with the governement. Soon, no one dares to become a government
official so the Communists get their man into the government job.
Now, in 1965, only the district center and a few outposts
are in the government hands because they have troops there. All
of the villages in the district are lost, he said.
"Even within three weeks--and without troops--the
Communists can seize control of a village.
Even with only armed
secret cells of men still working in the underground they can
organize the population into associations and seize control without
even the governmnet village chief knowing it," he explained.
"So how can we expect the American Marines to know it--or to
stop it?"
"Now there's no more hope in the villages. Now it is too
late. The situation is like a bowl of rice filled with ants--
one can not separate the ants from the rice. Maybe the only
way is to destroy both the rice and the ants.
"Can the American Marines re-conquer the villages? We
still do not know. When the American Marines come to the villages,
the Communists withdraw all the young men from the village. They
leave behind the old men and children. When the Marines move to
another village, the Communists return to the village. The Communist
use the young men as fighters and the elders and children to
produce food.
(More)
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- Page 3
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deepe
enemy--article 2 of 8-article series
page 3
"Sometimes the Communists use the provocative tactics of
shooting at the government or American airplanes and then the planes
bomb the population. Once, I saw a Communist sniper fire at a
plane and the plane bombed the Catholic Church. Thirty six
Catholics died--but the Communist sniper didn't.
"Even if the American Marines do re-conquer the village,
oan the population be made anti-Communist again. I doubt it.
Even Catholic priests could never trust their Catholic flock again.
"The Communists even use the women as fighters.
To go
paper;
from Village to village, the population must have a Communist
eventhe Catholic priests must have one. And who does.
the Catholic priest have to present his paper to? The Children.
The Communists organize the little children as guards to check
the papers.
It is a shame for a Catholic priest to present
Communist identity papers to be checked by children. Even the
children watched where the priests went and who they talked with
and reported everything to the Communists.
village.
The escapes was asked how the Communists organize the
(more)
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Deepe
enemy--article 2 of 8 article series
page 4
"First they have cells of a few men," he explained.
"Then they will try to organize associations. They have
associations for the youth, for the women, for the children,
for old people and for the peasant. So everyone becomes a
member of at least one association. The Communists get the
young men by using either propaganda to win them over or else
threaten them and the young men have to join the Communists
and be trained by them. The Communists sometimes allow the
old people to move out of the area to the government side,
but the never allow the young men or bigger children to move.
The work very hard with the young, especially the 10-11 year
old children.
"The most effective weapon of the Communists," he
continued "is to sow suspicion among the people, so everyone
distrusts everyone else. Even people in the same family
distrust each other. The use Buddhists to spy on Buddhists
and Catholics to spy on Catholics. They use the new Catholic
convert to go to confessional--not to genuinely confess to
the priest but to know more about the thinking of the priests--
then even the Catholic priest does not know which one is a
true Catholic and which one is a false Catholic. They
infiltrate their men into every organization--into the
government, into the national army--everywhere.
(More)
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deepe
enemy--article 2 of 8 article series
page 5
"Of course,
the Communists never said officially and
openly that they are atheistic and are against the freedom of
religion. However, in practice, it is impossible to practice
the religion. They say that all the Catholics can go to Church
and the priests can hold mass. However, at the time of mass
they would think of some collective activity so the Catholics
do not have free time to go to mass. They tell the priest it
is dangerous to go out of the Church to visit the Catholic
masses, and that if the people, such as the sick or the dying,
need his services, then the Communists will bring them to the
priest for the rites. But, in practice, the Communists never
bring them.
"The Communists never let the people have any free time--
they always keep the minds busy," he explained. "Work during
the day; study in the night. Sometimes the people study from
8 in the evening until 4 in the morning. They study Marxism-
Leninism. The first theme the Communists use it against the
Americans, saying that the people must be liberated from the
Americans and must be independent and self-sufficient. They
say tu luc canh sinh--we live by our own energy. The Communists
always urgen the people to do that--never to rely on outside
help from another province, region or country.
(More)
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- Page 6
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Deepe
enemy article 2 of 8 article series
page 6
Through terrorism and propaganda, once they get hold of
the people, then they use the second theme of social injustice
to denounce poverty, then a tenant turns against his landowner
and a servant against his master. All former bonds of the past
are broken. They set the poor against the rich and say everyone
The Communists distribute the Catholic
must work for himself.
Church lands and refuse to let the people give the Catholic
priests alms, so the priests have no way to live. Within three
weeks they have a new society.
"Of course, the true Catholics welcome the American Marines
because they are against the Communists who are atheists. But
for the non-Catholics, there's no reason why they would not be
Communist. The Communists are against social injustice, for
independence, for hard work and no corruption.
They are for
the poor.
The Americans have given so much aid to Viet Nam--
but the people do not get the rice, money and clothing. It's
like the Americans were pouring the money in the river."
The Catholic escapee was asked whether or not it was too
late tore-gain the people and win the war.
"If Jesus Christ says Vietnam will not be Communist,"
"then maybe South Vietnam will not be Communist.
he shrugged,
It would be a miracle. But we do not know what Jesus Christ
will say."
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Date
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1965, Aug. 10
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government
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Location
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Da Nang, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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16.0545; 108.0717
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B5, 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, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
