Reds Aren't Sole Problem in Viet

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363-04747.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-04747

Title

Reds Aren't Sole Problem in Viet

Description

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the increasing threat of Montagnard militias as the US and allies begin to fight in highland areas, page unknown

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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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Reds Aren't Sole
Problem in Viet
By Beverly Deepe
Of The Herald Tribune Staff
High
fear an
SAIGON.
Vietnamese
officers
American political
take-over in the strategic
plateau bordering Laos fol-
lowing the recent arrival of
the 15,000 1st Air Cavalry
Division.
As the Americans dramati-
cally expanded their military
power in the strategic high-
land area, the military contest
immediately was set between
the division, supported by
Vietnamese government forces,
and the Communist Viet Cong
who use the jungled highlands
as military bases and infiltra-
tion routes from North Viet
Nam.
However, a third para-
military force exists-the in-
digenous Montagnards, who
have been trained, equipped
and financed by the Ameri-
can Special Forces.
mu-
A year ago some of these
Montagnard tribesmen
tinied in five military camps
against their Vietnamese su-
periors, massacred 31 Viet-
namese and established a dis-
sident political movement
called the Unified Front for
the Liberation of the Op-
pressed Race.
Vietnamese officials threat-
ened to bomb their own tribal
troops, and the dissident
movement was temporarily
quiet until last month, when
two Vietnamese Marine Bat-
talions encircled 300 of the
armed Montagnard dissidents
and forced their surrender..
Two of the dissident units,
however, evaded encirclement
and are still at large.
was
This year, the name of the
dissident movement
changed from the Liberation
of the Oppressed Race a
Communist-sounding name-
to Struggle for the Oppressed
Race.
U. S. POWER
The question arose whether
the Americans would expand
their political power as well
as military-to gain increas-
ing control over the Monta-
gnards.
Vietnamese officials during
the past year have charged
that the Americans are trying
to seize political control of
the Montagnards and mill-
tary command of the high-
lands, squeezing the Saigon
government off the plateau
and shrinking the authority
of the Vietnamese command-
ers.
The Montagnards, who for
years have hated the Viet-
namese, are friendly to the
American troops and the
French plantation owners
and Catholic missionaries,
who wield a great deal of
French cultural and economic
influence over the primitive
tribesmen.
The Vietnamese govern-
ment charges, dating back to
last year's rebellion, indicated
that the Americans and the
French are inciting the move-
ment to increase its demands
upon the Vietnamese govern-
ment, such as appointment
of Montagnard commanders
for Montagnard irregular
units. It also asks for Mon-
tagnard province chiefs and
wants a high-ranking Mon-
tagnard to be included in the
Saigon administration.
The Americans, speaking
officially, hotly deny this; a
few, speaking in private, ad-
mit they eventually will take
direct control of the Monta-
gnards because the Vietnamese
government is unwilling or un-
able to meet their demands
and is forcing the Monta-
gnards into the hands of the
Communists.
The Montagnards have been
a sore point between the Viet-
namese government and Amer-
ican officials since the Ameri-
cans first proposed training
and equipping them in 1962.
President Ngo Dinh Diem
refused to allow the arming
of the Montagnards, even to
fight the Communists coming
across the Ho Chi Minh infil-
tration routes, fearing that
one day the Montagnards
would rebel against his central
government. Eventually he re-
luctantly allowed the Ameri-
can Special Forces to train
them, but kept personal watch
on the program and his Viet-
namese Special Forces com-
manders, working with the
Americans, reported directly
to him. Less than a year after
murder in November, 1963,
President Diem's fall and
the Montagnard rebel move-
ment he feared was already
revolting against the new Sai-
gon government.
POLITICS
not
Reliable observers indicate
that the introduction of the
elite, mobile American division
into the highlands is
enough. Without adequate po-
litical controls, the American
combat division might defeat
the Viet Cong hard-core bat-
talions and regiments and
then lose the tribal popula-
tion to the Communists be-
cause of dissatisfaction with
the Vietnamese government.
and
In a move to increase its
control in the highlands, the
U. S. military command in
Saigon announced in August
the formation of Task Force
Alpha, which has since been
made a
corps headquarters
renamed headquarters,
Field Forces. It would com-
mand American military op-
erations while the Vietnamese
corps commander in the area
would command Vietnamese
operations. According to reli-
able sources, part of the plan
also calls for the Vietnamese
commander, Brig. Gen. Vinh
Loc, to move his headquarters
from the highlands to the
coastal plains. He has refused
to do so, privately charging
that the Americans are grab-
bing control of his area.
OPIUM
The highlands are a famous
rout for opium smuggling,
which has traditionally pro-
vided sizable chunks of illegal
income for a number of Viet-
namese government and mili-
tary officials. If Vietnamese
officials are pushed off the
highlands they will lose this
source of income.
One Vietnamese govern-
ment official, speaking pri-
vately, admitted the Viet-
namese government has taken
inadequate steps to satisfy the
demands of the Montagnard
population, but insisted that
the Americans should work
through the Saigon govern-
ment, rather than seizing di-
rect political control.
Reliable observers indicate
that the short-term interests
of the Americans and the
French run parallel in having
the Communists as a mo-
mentary common enemy for
the American troops would
protect the French economic
interests in the highlands as
the Viet Cong were pushed
back. The French would no
longer have to pay taxes to
the Viet Cong. And some of
the French who have fled the
insecure highlands would be
able to return to manage their
plantations.

Date

1965, Oct. 10

Subject

Montagnard (Vietnamese people); Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Campaigns--Central Highlands; Strategy; United States. Army

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