Saigon's Precocious Pitfalls

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363-04803.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-04803

Title

Saigon's Precocious Pitfalls

Description

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about prostitution in Saigon and what it means for both men and women there, page 2

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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.

Transcript

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- Page 1
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Saigon's Precocious Pitfalls
THE WAR in
South Viet Nam
has brought many
changes in the way of
life for the country's
women, such as the
ones shown here in a
Saigon bar. Some have
joined up as WACS,
some have gone in for
black marketeering,
most have endured
increasing hardship.
Herald Tribune
special correspondent
Beverly Deepe, in the
last of five articles,
discusses the boom
in bars and brothels.
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
The build-up of American
forces has produced a plethora
of bars, brothels and cheap
hotels and battalions of pros-
titutes.
For the young Vietnamese
woman, the soldier's needs for
"entertainment" have given
her an unprecedented chance
to reach undreamt of social
heights.
To the American and South.
Vietnamese governments, the
bars and prostitutes present
not only an economic, social
and moral problem, but they
have affected the security and
political fields as well.
For instance, when Premier
Nguyen Cao Ky recently pro-
posed legalizing prostitution so
as to bring it under a meas-
ure of control, both Saigon
intellectuals and the Hanoi
radio attacked him as a "pimp
for the Americans."
The almost magical oppor-
tunities for a young peasant
girl to earn a luxurious liveli-
hood in the cities marks one
of the important social explo-
sions of Vietnamese woman-
hood. It means emancipation
from the family, from rural
or low-class life and from tra-
ditional cultural values. For
many girls it may mean the
first time in their lives they
can afford to own a dress.
Young Vietnamese women
from the provinces, who a
few years ago came to Saigon
as housemaids, began
re-
cently to work as bar girls
and waitresses in restaurants.
Middle-class Saigon house-
wives complain they can no
longer find maids, house-
keepers and baby-sitters.
A bar girl's ambition is to
become a bar owner-which
IN THE TUDO BAR in Saigon, American men dance with Vietnamese girls.
she calls being a business-
woman. For some, it's not
difficult. Reliable sources re-
port that one very successful
bar girl saved one million
piastres (roughly $10,000)
within a two-year period.
Less successful bar girls
complain, however, that by
the time they pay off the
bar owners and the police for
protection they have less than
5,000 piastres ($50) a month
left. "It's better to be a pros-
titute to one American man
for 10,000 piastres a month
until he goes home," one bar
girl said.
In the past three
years
a transformation has taken
place on Saigon's main street,
called "Tu-Do," which means
"
freedom. Garish hotels, called
"short-time brothels," and
bars have mushroomed. There
are 146 bars in one downtown
area. There are several thou-
sand throughout Saigon.
Whatever the economic
wonderland for Vietnamese
women, the bars and brothels
plague the Vietnamese and
American governments.
Politically, the problem
takes on three aspects.
If Premier Ky goes
through with his proposal to
legalize prostitution, he would
be criticized by the Viet-
namese in the urban centers.
Likewise, American officials
blanch at the thought of re-
percussions within the United
States.
In the words of one Amer-
ican official, "The American
GI is now competing with the
Vietnamese government sol-
dier for two of the scarcest
commodities in the country
women and booze. Obviously,
the American has more money
and wins-which doesn't en-
dear him to his Vietnamese
allies."
The American image has
been immeasurably tarnished
by the flourishing trade of
what the Communists call
"decadence." One American
official, witnessing the mad
rush of drunken GI's and
bar girls for cyclos and taxis
at the curfew hour in Saigon,
groaned "The American image
here is terrific! These poor
fellows lose the war in Saigon
but die to win it in the
provinces."
The security and intelli-
gence side of the problem is
considered as tangled as the
political.
"You must know the Viet
Cong have a cell in every block
in town, in every bar and in
every restaurant," one highly
reliable security source ex-
plained. "The waiters or the
doormen or the bar girls-
someone has to be Viet Cong
or the bar would not be allowed
to exist."
One bar girl confided, "Oh,
the Americans tell us every-
thing. They even tell us where
they'll build new airbases and
installations so we can buy up
the land in that section."
Often the American GI is
robbed. In some cases, the GI
loses his weapon; other times
his billfold, including his
American military identity
card. Some security officers
fear these cards are being
used by Communist Cauca-
sians to penetrate American
installations.
Medically, one official said,
"There is a high incident rate
of venereal disease-and that
rate is rising, but it is not
rising as quickly as is the in-
crease in the number of
American troops," In one ran-
dom catch of 44 bar girls in
the U. S. Marine Corps en-
clave at Da Nang, 21 had
venereal disease.
There is no compulsory,
government-sponsored or ap-
proved medical program for
the bar girls. But in some of
the remotest cutposts and
towns, American Special
Forces medics are known to
treat medically the women in-
volved. A Vietnamese govern-
ment program of medical
control is now under discus-
sion.

Date

1965, Nov. 25

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Brothels; Prostitution--Vietnam (Republic); Saigon (Vietnam); Women in war; Civilians in war

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Container

B4, F6

Format

newspaper clippings

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

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