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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04753.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04753
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Title
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The Mission: Big Goal vs. Past Failure; Humphrey's Mission - A Big Goal
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Description
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Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about Vice President Humphery's visit to Saigon and its goal of promoting "nation building", pages 1 and 8
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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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The Mission:
Big Goal Vs.
Past Failure
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
The visit of Vice-President
Humphrey is awaited here
with a great deal of skepticism.
The far-reaching plans an-
nounced in the Honolulu Dec-
laration which the Vice-
President will help launch-
have all been heard too many
times by Vietnamese religious,
political and civic leaders to
be accepted at face value.
2/14
Honolulu
Conferm
The Vice-President has been
assigned the task of giving a
new look, or new direction,
to a vital side of the war-
a side that has become in-
creasingly snarled by ineffi-
ciency, petty jealousy and
mounting corruption among
Vietnamese officials and bit-
ter interagency fighting among
American bureaucrats.
This vital side of the war
is currently called pacifica-
tion or rural construction, or
more generally by Ambassa-
dor Henry Cabot Lodge-na-
tion building. It is an attempt
to win political battles against
the Communists as well as
military ones.
Communists are the "or-
ganization men" in this war.
Even American generals admit
this. The Reds' dictatorial
party machinery is met on the
American side by so much
interagency infighting that
one Western diplomat moaned
recently, "This isn't so much
More on MISSION-P 8
Bureaucracy
New York Herald Tribune
Humphrey's Mission-A Big Goal
(Continued from page one)
an American war. It's an
American civil war."
In one glaring example, the
American Central Intelligence.
Agency refuses to sit on a
co-ordinating council in the
Marine Corps enclave of Da
Nang along with other United
States agencies: U. S. Agency
for International Develop
ment; Joint U. S. Public
Affairs Office; American Mili-
tary Command; American
Embassy officials, and the
Marines, who are fighting in
of his corps commanders to
settle a government problem.
But the corps commander be-
came angry and later sent
troops into Premier Ky's office
in Saigon to arrest the envoy,
who quickly fled by scrambling
over the concrete wall.
Later, the corps commander
summoned the Premier's envoy
by radio and ordered him to
appear at a special trial before
a field military court.
PROTECTED
Intrigue and counter-in-
the front lines only five miles trigue by Vietnamese official
from the city.
Even the senior colonel
representing the Military Com-
mand snubbed the Co-ordinat-
ing Council and sent his deputy
instead. And then, the Marines
complained, the Public Affairs
officers were leaking "almost
subversive, anti-Marine" in-
formation to foreign corre-
spondents.
On the Vietnamese side,
a startling incident happened
recently. Premier Nguyen Cao
Ky sent a special envoy to one
dom, however, is taking on
serious proportions. Corps
commanders are again at-
tempting whirlwind changes
of their 43. province chiefs.
Even as the greatest Allied
operation of the war-20,000
American, Korean and Viet-
namese troops-attempted to
rout the Communists from
Binh Dinh Province, reliable
sources reported that both
the competent Vietnamese
province chief and his able
deputy were fired on the whim
of their superiors.
American provincial offi-
cials have often expressed the
belief that changes of Viet-
namese province chiefs result
in a loss of at least six months
of effective time in prosecut-
ing the war.
the urban front, ambitious
programs were drawn for the
building of low-cost housing
-on the installment plan-
for the "black people" (labor-
ers) of the cities.
But lack of administration
and embezzlement of U. S.
funds ruined the program
once President Diem was over-
years, later, the area is pro-
tected by an American brigade.
The first large-scale, pilot.
case was called Operation
Sunrise, only 30 miles from
Saigon. Today two American
brigades operate in the same
area.
The need for nation-build-
ing, for a progressive, dy-
namic non-Communist social
revolution, has been seen for
years, and plans for it have
long existed. Under the regime thrown in November, 1963. and was followed by the Min-
of the late President Ngo
Dinh Diem there was an am-
bitious program of "strategic
hamlets" which were supposed
to be havens of peace and
models of prosperity.
The architect of the plan,
President Diem's brother, Ngo
Dinh Nhu, heralded the ham
lets as the "true social, eco-
nomic and political revolu-
tion." His aim was to beat
the Communists by adopting
their methods and applying
them more effectively with
American funds.
Then there were progressive
plans to clear vast tracts of
jungled land and give title
to the tillers of the soil. On
Each village had & rural
health worker who was sup-
posed to be paid 600 piastres
($8) a month. The health
workers and American offi-
cials said the salaries were
never paid.
CHANGES
Of the 12,000 hamlets in the
country, about 8,000 were se-
cured in the Diemera. After
he fell the number slipped to
less than 2,000. One of the
first small-scale, pilot proj-
ects on strategic hamlets was
initiated in February, 1962, in
the Cu Chi District, 15 miles
from Saigon. Today, four
The Ministry of Pacification
took over after Mr. Diem's
ouster. The Ministry of Rural
Reconstruction succeeded that
istry of Rural Construction.
But last year, the mounting
Viet Cong-North Vietnamese
military pressure and the fail-
ure to supply pacification
funds to the province chiefs
until August virtually stran-
gled the program before it.
was reborn.
This year, the Ministry of
Rural Construction met the
Jan. 1 deadline for plans and
budgeting. It was a ma-
jor achievement which was
marked in a wild celebration.
But many more achievements
will be necessary to defeat
the Communist "Organization
Men."
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Date
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1966, Feb. 10
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Subject
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Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978; Saigon (Vietnam); United States--Relations--Vietnam (Republic); Visits of state
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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
