Red Tape Snarls Viet Farm Aid

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363-04749.pdf
Digital Object Identifier
363-04749
Title
Red Tape Snarls Viet Farm Aid
Description
Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about domestic disagreements preventing the US from sending farm aid to South Vietnam in a timely manner, 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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Red Tape Snarls Viet Farm Aid
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
American bureaucratic red-
tape and in-fighting have
caused serious delays in
President Johnson's pet proj-
ect of low-cost rural electrifi-
cation for Vietnamese peas-
ants.
The program, announced
by President Johnson last
June as part of his Southeast
Asia aid plans, is at least six
months behind schedule, one
source said. A $5 million Con-
gressional appropriation ear-
marked especially for
three province cooperative
electricity project has been
diverted elsewhere, the source
added, while funds for the
project itself "are just
trickling in."
the
In addition, the villagers
are incensed. One American
said peasants threw stones at
him in An Giang Province,
where a promised cooperative
is still to be built.
Vietnamese villagers also
have sent letters to President
Johnson-unrelayed by aid
officials here-and to the
Vietnamese Chief of State
both protesting the delays in
the rural electrification proj-
ect, though expressing future
hopes for it.
Most American and Vietna-
mese officials have fought
tooth-and-nail for the project,
designed to bring low cost
electricity to 250,000 villagers
in Tuyen Duc, Bien Hoa and
An Giang Provinces.
'NIT-PICKING
One of them explained:
"We have the approval of
the President, the Washington
officials, the Vietnamese gov-
ernment, Ambassador Henry
Cabot Lodge-but the middle-
level American bureaucrats
didn't get the word. They
caused us delay after delay.
Those bastards have caused us
to lose at least six months
time.
"I didn't think nit-picking
bureaucrats could subvert
Congress and the President,
but, sister, they sure can. We
got two lines in the Honolulu
Declaration (about rural elec-
trification)-maybe that will
shut them up. And maybe Mr.
Humphrey will ask enough
questions to get things mov-
ing."
The Vice-President visited
South Viet Nam last week.
As envisioned by President
Johnson, construction was to
have started on the projects
last November, with comple-
tion scheduled for this April.
The three provinces involved
are Tuyen Duc, 150 miles
northeast of Saigon with
72,000 potential
electricity
THE RURAL-ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAM in South Viet Nam bogged down
in red tape would help peasants like these, shown using a centuries-old technique
-a sieve-like basket and makeshift tripod-to thresh their rice for harvest.
about. My job is to watch the ber and the Vietnamese vil-
rules."
lagers were also told that."
He continued:
users; An Giang Province, 90
miles southwest of Saigon,
with 150,000 users and Bien
Hoa Province, 30 miles north-
east of Saigon, with 60,000
users.
QUESTIONS
"But the middle level
bureaucrats threw up block
after block and then counter-
blocks to stop the program.
The bureaucrats ask thou-
sands of questions-and it
takes thousands of hours to
answer the questions. So we
lost time day by day," one
irritated official said.
"So you write a memo to ex-
plain the project and some
bureaucrat hides it in his bot-
tom desk drawer for a week
and you have to go persuade
him gently to pull it out.
"Then he refers it to an-
other department for signa-
tures or counter-signatures
and you lose more time.
"The American agencies all
have manual after manual de-
fining the relationship of
everyone to everyone else
so whenever someone wants to
do something, there's alway a
rule to stop you," the source
continued.
"One American bureaucrat
pulled out the manual and
pointed to the rule prohibiting
me to do something. I said,
'I don't care about the rules-
I want to help win the war
here. The Saigon bureaucrat
told me, 'I do care about the
rules and that's all I care
(A recent management sur-
vey team has recommended
the reorganization of the U. S.
Agency for Internal Develop
ment. (AID) in Saigon.)
One American became so
angered by bureaucratic delays
he considered resigning - but
didn't. Another debated writ-
ing to his congressman, "but
these bureaucrats even have
Congress under their thumb."
The in-fighting once became
so intense that American of
ficials threatened each other
with calling in congressional
investigations.
SINCE APRIL '65
The program began in April,
1965, when President Johnson
sent a six-man group to Viet
Nam, to analyse the feasibility
of low-cost co-operative power
in the countryside and how
the development should be
handled.
"Forty six days later the
President had announced the
projects and we were floored,
things were moving so fast,"
one official explained. "Then
we got the $5 million congres-
sional appropriation ear-
marked for the three-province
project in Viet Nam and it
really looked like things were
flying high.
"But what we were too un-
sophisticated to realize was
the skilled shrewd, vicious op-
positionists, who with back-
kniving, with asking ques-
tions, blocked us for months
after month.
"We're still going to win
this war, but we don't deserve
to win the way we're operat-
ing now."
The first step in establishing
the rural cooperative requires
discussions and meetings with
village leaders, and then the
population. The most work
has been done in Tuyen Duc
province, where it was re-
ported that the first day 41
per cent of the people in five
selected hamlets were lined up
to sign the application and
become shareholders for 100
piastres.
Some of them had to wait
in line for more than an hour
to get up to the desk. That
was about 41 per cent of the
11,000 families in the area. The
village chief said he expects
80 per cent could be signed up
shortly. But one official said:
"We've had to stop signing
up people. Once they sign up
and pay their 100 piastres they
want the power immediately.
They can not understand the
delays that we're having.
We're sitting on a powder keg
on because these people are driv-
"All we had to do was to
get our engineers material in
here and we could begin con-
struction in November. Then
the President announced we'd
begin construction in Novem-
ing me crazy. Once they pay
their 100 piastres they want
electric power right now."
Date
1966, Feb. 15
Subject
United States--Economic assistance--Vietnam (Republic); United States--Relations--Vietnam (Republic); Vietnam (Republic)--Relations--United States; United States. Agency for International Development
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