Article about the unpopularity of American Marines with Vietnamese villagers

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363-05798 to 363-05806.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-05798 to 363-05806

Title

Article about the unpopularity of American Marines with Vietnamese villagers

Description

Original title: "The Subterraneans", Keever's title: "Communists; invisible political campaign encricle U.S Marine defenders of jet airbase," Article about the unpopularity of American Marines with Vietnamese villagers

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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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deepe subterraneans--article 7 of 8-article series page 1 Aug. 25/65 THE SUBTERRANEANS DUONG SON I, (SUN HILL), SOUTH VIETNAM--The small Vietnamese boy in a floppy-doppy U.S. Marine Corps cap stood in the shade of the typical [XXXX indicating deletion] village shack and explained, “I’m not afraid of the American Marines. But they do steal our ducks. When they see the villagers watching them steal the ducks, they put them back in the rice paddy waters. But when we’re not looking, they go ahead and steal them.” (More) deepe subterraneans--article 7 of 8-article series page 2 august 25, 1965 A group of eight other Vietnamese villagers, both men and women, watched the youngster and then began reeling off their own grievances against the American Marines. “We can’t buy enough rice and shrimp paste in the district market,” one of the women chewing [XXXX indicating deletion] blood-red betel nut explained. “If we buy too much, the police confiscate it and say we are supplying the Viet Cong.” She used the word for Viet Cong--cac ong giai phong--which means literally, “Mr. Liberator.” “The Marines cut down our bamboo trees,” one of the younger housewives explained. “In one case they cut down more than 30 bamboo trees--and [deletion: each of the trees] I can sell each of those trees for [deletion: 35 pi] 25 piastres in the local market.” An older man in tattered shirt and baggy pajama-like pants continued the conversation with, “the Marines eat our bananas--[XXXX indicating deletion] they cut down one clump of bananas which would sell for 80 piastres ($1) in the market.” Another chimed in, “Yes the Marines cut down our bananas, beat up the women, beat up the people and stop us from going to our rice paddies.” He was asked whether had had seen this with his own eyes. “Yes, I’ve seen the Marines cut down the bananas,” he [XXXX indicating deletion] explained nonchalantly. deepe subterraneans--article 7 of 8-article series page 3 Continuously, the complaints rolled on. “Life is so miserable,” one of them complained. “We have to work in the daytime; in the night-time we have to stay in the house or we will be shot. We [XXXX indicating deletion] even [XXXX indicating deletion] have to urinate inside our own house in the night-time; our house is our jail. We are so unhappy--we work all day for only enough to eat--just like the water-buffalo.” The discussion in the village is the Communist political struggle, which [XXXX indicating deletion] is always of more importance, and in fact determines, the Viet Cong military tactics. The villager’s [XXXX indicating deletion] conversation reflected elements of the truth--[deletion: but] with large doses of untruth added. The grievances are part of the Communist political struggle, which illustrate the [deletion: total] totality of the war now engulfing and encircling the American Marines--and [insertion: which] they don’t even see or comprehend [deletion: it]. [deletion: For, as] Young Marine troopers sat in sandbagged foxholes to protect this former Viet Cong [XXXX indicating deletion] combat hamlet after the [deletion: armed forces] Viet Cong units had been driven out. Yet, nightly, the marines received sniper fire from within the village; which is part of the small-scale military action, but simultaneously, the villagers themselves had unleashed a tornado of dangerous political [deletion: indictments] agitation, which were much more dangerous than the [deletion: sniper fire] bullets. deepe subterraneans--article seven of 8-article series page 4 The simple fact is that the most pro-Communist elements fled the village before the arrival of the American Marines to secure this village several weeks ago. This village, which once contained a population of 1,200, was reduced to a maximum of 500 before the arrival of the Marines. A few of the [deletion: village million] equivalents of [deletion: a] the village millionaires fled to the city; the youth, wives of Communists and able-bodied men fled with the Communists to the jungled mountains. But, [XXXX indicating deletion] even those who had remained behind have both physically and politically gone underground. Through a labyrinth of tunnels, the armed military snipers can easily sneak under the American Marine foxholes and enter into the heart of the village to terrorize the population at night and to fire at the backs of the Marine troopers. But, politically, their underground activities are much more dangerous, for some of the remaining villagers are considered--by the villagers themselves--to be secret Viet Cong agents. Other Viet Cong political agents [XXXX indicating deletion] have already surfaced in the village which the Marines protect--they are seen by the villagers, but not by the Marines [deletion: of] or the Vietnamese village chief, who visits the village only with a heavily armed squad of troops. deepe subterraneans--article 7 of 8-article series page 5 These [insertion: villagers’] indictments were designed to manufacture the most dangerous weapon of all--hate--to give to the villagers all the justifications to hate the Americans who, as one intellectual explained, “will always be a stranger in the villages, like the spirits or the devils. The villagers can’t get used to the American’s nose, their clothes, their looks. They will always be like phantoms or demons; but more than being a stranger, they will always be foreign.” It was the explosion of hate in the Indo-China War more than a decade ago that lead to the defeat of the French troops. The Communist political struggle is divided into three inter-related [deletion: compartments:] aspects: the legal political struggle, the [deletion: il] semi-legal and the illegal. [deletion: the] [XXXX indicating deletion] All three [deletion: compartments] aspects can be clearly illustrated by such a simple item as Coca-Cola--which is the symbol of Americana in Vietnam--[insertion: some of these incidents happen repeatedly in the marine area.] deepe subterranean--article 7 of 8-article series page 6 The legal, direct, face-to-face political struggle--to sell Coca Cola to the Marines, but to be sure the young Vietnamese vendor haggles about the price, thus creating friction between the Marines and the Vietnamese. The semi-legal--to sell cokes to the Marines, but [deletion: ,] to accept [XXXX indicating deletion] payment in nickels and dimes, instead of [deletion: in] piastres (which the Marines are not issued), which [deletion: creates] created such a violent insult to Vietnamese nationalism that [deletion: the] Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky mentioned the phenomenon in a Saigon press conference. While technically it is illegal to accept foreign currency in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government, because of the immensity of the problem--which has yet to be solved--has in effect closed [deletion: their] its eyes on the matter. Another example of the [deletion: il] semi-legal struggle is to sell cokes to the Marines, [deletion: to] in an isolated outpost, to sit down and talk with them for sometimes--and then [XXXX indicating deletion] the vendor--usually small boys--have a head-ful of intelligence information and can return to draw sketches of the Marine defenses. This happened [XXXX indicating deletion] in the Marine outposts only 5 miles from the center of Danang city. The illegal political struggle--to sell cokes to the Marines, but to have the cokes poisoned. [deletion: In one,] The coke of a Seabee was filled with acid--his stomach burned out. [deletion: In another] Another coke was filled with powdered glass; the buyer died. In another example, small boys selling cokes carried cokes in small baskets and [deletion: (More)] and followed a Marine patrol---the vendors dropped in the Marine footsteps Viet Cong leaflets reading “Hail to the Liberators of the Danang Airbase.” referring to the mortar and [illegible] deepe subterraneans--article 7 of 8-article series page 7 Other examples of the Communist political struggle: the night before the Marines arrived in one small [deletion: town] district town less than five miles from [deletion: Saigon] Danang, the Viet Cong political agents called a meeting of villagers, told them not to cooperate with the Marines--and raised the Viet Cong flag as the government district chief and his platoons slept only three blocks away. In another case, the Marines [deletion: the] began to be accepted by one village by the use of their medical corpsmen; three Viet Cong appeared to be treated and told the villagers that anyone who accepted the Marines medical help would be [deletion: help] killed. The number of sick in the village dropped drastically. (More) deepe subterraneans--article 7 of 8-article series page 8 One incident in this small village illustrates how military actions by the Viet Cong may be [deletion: done] effected for political ends. Shortly after the Marines had secured this village, several aircraft were [deletion: on] flying overhead to bomb a neighboring village totally controlled by the Viet Cong. Suddenly, a red smoke [deletion: bomb] grenade--[deletion: the] used to signal the target--puffed out of the heart of this Marine-controlled village; the plane swooped down and unleashed .20mm. rocket fire. Fortunately, the flight was aborted before the 500-pound bombs were expended--nonetheless, three Vietnamese villagers were wounded. “Imagine, we almost bombed our own village,” the Marine regimental commander explained. “We still can’t understand how it happened--no Marines had any red smoke grenades in the village; none of the [deletion: popular force] government forces did either. There must be a Viet Cong in our village who [XXXX indicating deletion] monitored our radio.” deepe subterraneans--article 7 of 8-article series page 9 Even as Marine troops sit in sandbagged positions around the this village, the disgruntled citizens and Viet Cong propaganda agents are still in a state of total [deletion: declared] invisible war against them. “The Communist political arguments are designed to arouse emotion--to control the heart, [deletion: which] the heart is the subconscious and another kind of underground, which unfolds in dreams but not when you’re awake,” [insertion: one Vietnamese explained here.] So far, neither the American Marines nor Vietnamese government have even become aware of this--and haven’t begun to counter it. -30-

Date

1965, Aug. 25

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Civilians in war; Villages--Vietnam (Republic); Public opinion; United States. Marine Corps; Psychological warfare

Location

DÆ°Æ¡ng SÆ¡n, South Vietnam

Coordinates

22.0620; 106.0794

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B187, F5

Format

dispatches

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Collector

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English