Article about a Vietnamese refugee village

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derivative filename/jpeg

363-07589 to 363-07601.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-07589 to 363-07601

Title

Article about a Vietnamese refugee village

Description

Original title: "refugees", Keever's title: "Refugees is a bucket of worms problem - 'and each worm is a different problem'", article about a Vietnamese refugee village, for the New York Herald Tribune

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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

deepe refugees--page 1 march 24, 1966 BAN ME THUOT, SOUTH VIET NAM--During his inspection trip to Vietnam last week, John W. Gardner, American Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, whizzed in his motorcade past a Vietnamese refugee village of 75 houses, each laid out in precision with a 30 foot frontyard like a low-cost, bamboo-made Levittown housing project. The Secretary’s reaction to the [insertion: small] Asian housing [deletion: project] scheme: “They had some very nice thatch houses, but there were no toilet facilities and the children had open sores.” This observation, which seemed to dovetail with a similar one made by Senator Edward Kennedy during his trip here last fall, seems ridiculous even to the most educated Vietnamese. “Why do the refugees need toilet facilities,” one American-educated Vietnamese laughed. “They have the whole outdoors.” deepe refugees--page 2 march 24, 1966 In the past, many [deletion: an] American economic health technicians, military advisors--and more recently American commanders in their military civic action programs--have attempted to implement programs in which cement, hygienic toilet facilities would have been constructed--and utilized--[deletion: in] by the Vietnamese villagers. “It has never worked because the Vietnamese do not have the same fetish as the Americans about sanitation,” one Vietnamese-speaking American civilian explained. The essential problem in the refugee program, despite inspection trips by American Senators and do-good statements by Administration officials, is that there are no “quick fix” solutions. For what must be done is to change the homeless rural elements of an Asian society--not to mirror a Western nation--but to reflect an escalation in time from the 15th [insertion: century] medevial period to the modern 20th century. deepe refugee--page 3 “You go around some of these refugee centers and you will see the children with sores,” one harried refugee-official explained. “It doesn’t do any good to give them soap; some of the children would just eat it. You have to teach them how to use it. We can do alot of work teaching home improvements to mothers--with very little cost in money--but that takes alot of time and organization. We’re just now starting to do that.” The refugee problem seems to be a microcosm of the tragic series of vicious circles facing [deletion: in] Vietnam. The war itself--from Communist attacks to American-South Vietnamese counter-attacks and bombing raids--has created a large influx of the refugees, mostly in the northern provinces where North Vietnamese units are based and where the war is most intense. Because of the war, the roads are cut; refugee supplies are [deletion: hard] difficult to [deletion: receive] transport--and then at an inflated price. American airplanes can rush in emergency goods--but not all the essentials, for ammunition must still be given the foremost priority. deepe refugees--page 4 The Vietnamese government at the central level, and on downwards, has the enormous difficulty of fighting a military enemy on one hand, plus attempting to counter him politically; the weakness, inefficiency and corruption of government officials have been [deletion: mirroed] reflected in the refugee program--but the refugees themselves are now magnifying the government’s troubles. “Even the question of ‘What is a refugee?’ is a mean one,” one official explained. “The war has been going on here for so long that this is a whole nation of refugees. How many people came to Saigon of their own free will--and how many came from the pressures of the war or economic circumstances?” The latest refugee totals are 868,912--or six percent of the 15 million population. Of these, roughly half, or 458,194 are located temporarily in refugee camps; 94,424 have returned to their native villages once government security was [deletion: again] [insertion: re-] established; 316,394 have been resettled elsewhere in new areas, generally near a major city which can provide them security. But, even these statistics are taken with a grain of skepticism. Some “refugees” migrate to an urban city to live with relatives, others have enough capital to move to the secure areas to begin their own small means of livelihood, and neither grouping would register with the government and hence would not be counted as a refugee. deepe refugees--page 5 On the other hand, American sources in the provinces report that some unscrupulous provincial officials fudge their refugee figures--one is thought to have doubled his--so that the funds allotted to “phantom” refugees can be pocketed. In some cases, Americans in the provinces have taken on the function of a detective to track down the cases of misappropriation of refugee commodities and funds. In one province, the province chief was fired for taking two million piastres, from all funds, including refugee allotments. A small group of 50 Montagnard refugees in his province laughed at one American civilian who asked if they were receiving their seven piastres a day refugee allowance from the government. In another province, incoming cement for refugee housing was used by the province chief to build a tennis court. “There’s a terrible numbers game with refugees,” one official explained. “You don’t know what you have; it’s difficult to plan and you don’t know what you’re dealing with. You never know the numbers here. You know some people are dispersing in one place and you try to settle them and you generate others--that’s a terrible word to ‘generate’ refugees--but it all is a jack-in-the-box effect. deepe refugees--page 6 This whole problem is a bucket of worms--and each worm is a different problem. The main problem is still security and underneath that you have a long list of others--transportation and logistics, education, medical facilities. We are attempting to devise programs that seek solutions while the situation is still fluid,” the veteran social welfare expert continued. “In World War II, we knew where the frontlines were and so we knew where the refugees were. But here the war is all mixed up; the lines are around you, in front and behind you and the situation is much more fluid. The plan is to get the people back to their land--but we can’t plan what land, when and to what people--that’s an oversimplification of the problem in it’s barest elements.” deepe refugees--page 7 The remainder of the Secretary Gardner’s trip through this dusty, plateau division headquarters only _[insertion: 160]_ miles north [deletion: east] of Saigon telescoped some of the peripheral problems in dealing with refugees, who are the focal point of [insertion: the] under-developed elements of the population. On the medical side, he visited one hospital ward reserved for Montagnard refugees. An American Special Forces medic regularly visited the 40-some civilian male and female patients in one long room. The windows were non-existent; no screens had been fixed; the room was filled with flies. Yet, it has the cleanest floor in the hospital, even though one newsman practically crashed through the rickety rotten floor boards. Another surgical ward resembled pictures of the Crimean War, with Vietnamese war wounded--including a wounded Viet Cong--laying on rice mats on the floor, while the sixty-some beds were filled with at least two and sometimes three sick per bed. Again, flies were everywhere in the hot ward; bathing facilities were non-existent. “This isn’t unusual, sir,” the Secretary was told by a high ranking American official from Saigon. “This is all over the country.” The Secretary replied: That ward is something to see. deepe refugees--page 8 The surgical suite with the finest of American operating equipment was spotless, “because they so seldom used it,” one American military doctor explained. An American military [deletion: unit] medical unit had accompanied the U.S. Army 25th Division on a military operation outside Ban Me Thuot; the American doctors voluntarily pitched in to help the over-worked [deletion: medical staff at the] Vietnamese medical staff at the hospital. One American doctor was already in the midst of performing surgery exploratory abdominal surgery--and found a malignant tumor in the patient--as the Secretary’s party inspected the hospital. The on-rush of Vietnamese war wounded, plus several hundred suspected epidemic of [deletion: ploque] plague, had overwhelmed the two Vietnamese doctors at the hospital which was built in 1926. Some of the patients had been moved into dirt-floored, tin-roofed garage. The city’s electric power current was in insufficient to operate the X-ray machines. deepe refugees--page 9 On the education side, the Secretary and his party visited an impressive $100,000 American-funded trade school, with clean double-deck beds for students to live in, a mess hall, showers, electrical equipment for teaching cabinet-making, forging welding, sheet metal [insertion: [illegible]] and auto mechanics. However, until last year, the electrical equipment had been untouched for two years [deletion: .] --Until several American GI’s took a day off and hooked up the current. Beside teaching students, the government had also set up instruction for 120 refugees in such jobs as driver training, forging and lathe work and auto mechanics. Most of the students were of tribal Montagnards, who are now in a state of semi-dissidence against the Vietnamese government for lack of equal opportunities. The Montagnards are more primitive than the Vietnamese and have equal disdain for each other. The school was being used to teach at only one half of it capacity--150 students instead of 300. “It’s very simple,” one high-ranking Saigon official of the Secretary Gardner’s party was told. “This school is for the Montagnards and they can’t see any reason to be educated if they can’t get a job afterwards. You have to change the whole economics as well as the education for the Montagnard.” The American official sputtered, “What do you mean? There’s a big demand for mechanics in Vietnam.” “Not Montagnard mechanics, sir. It’s like trying to get a Negro elected mayor of Selma, Alabama.” deepe refugee--page 10 While some of the refugees are in temporary shelters [insertion: throughout Vietnam], they are also given vocational training in five technical schools where they are taught sewing, auto mechanics, electrical wiring, welding and forging. A total of 1200 are planned to attend these classes during this year. The [deletion: total] American [deletion: eon] economic aid [deletion: budget] estimated expenditures for refugees totalled $20.3 million, for the [deletion: FY] fiscal year 1966, ending June 30th. Most of these [deletion: funds] expenditures were in the form of commodities, such as tin roofing, agricultural surplus goods, cement, blanket cloth and waterproof burlap. The Vietnamese government ministeries have also spend piastre funds for the refugees. In the past nine [deletion: min] months, the Vietnamese [XXXX indicating deletion] Welfare Department spend 190 million piastres--$1.6 million--to assist in the resettlement of refugees, to assist [insertion: a] Buddhist pagoda to build two new classrooms, to build a culture-house [deletion: and for] to furnish commodity assistance to refugees, and to build 273 provisional resettlement centers. (More) deepe refugee--page 11 In addition, an increasing number of Western [deletion: vol and internal] and international social welfare and voluntary agencies are beginning to come to the assistance of the [insertion: needy] Vietnamese [insertion: which includes] refugees. By August of this year at least one hundred [deletion: voluntary] [XXXX indicating deletion] professional social welfare personnel are expected to arrive, compared to only ten of August last year. These agencies include: Catholic Relief Services, which distributes U.S. government PL 480 surplus agricultural commodities. CARE, their contributions from Americans buy rice for distribution to refugees and other needy persons; are now working with U.S. Agency for International Development in (USAID) in Saigon to supply 300,000 refugee school children with paper, ink, pens and other school supplies. Also working with refugee weavers to get them set up with looms and [deletion: ten] then trying to bring cotton yarn for them to weave. This project still in formative stage. International Rescue Committee. Also buying 50 looms to serve about 100 refugee families. Also helping to [deletion: training] train classes of 25 [deletion: nurz] Vietnamese nurses who will work with refugees; some of the nurses are also refugees. The second class of 25 is now in progress. deepe refugees--page 12 Vietnam Christian Service. This includes the Mennonite Central Committee, which for years has been doing the work of the Protestant agencies to assist the under-privileged, plus the addition of the Church World Service, Lutheran World Relief. The scope of their program will be enlarged to include up to 50 trained technical personnel. The Mennonite Central Committee had worked mostly with institutions, such as orphanages, [deletion: but will] but the larger organizati will branch out into vocational training for Vietnamese, including refugees. Foster Parents Plan. [deletion: Arranges] Has arranged through the years for more than 5,000 Vietnamese children to receive monetary support from American contributions, but the child remains in his Vietnamese family. Christian Children’s Fund. A protestant organization assisting 430 children, mostly refugees, in three [XXXX indicating deletion] orphanages. International Social Services. A small program which arranges for the adoption of Vietnamese children to other [XXXX indicating deletion] families in other countries. Also working with child welfare agencies, attempting to upgrade the training of Vietnamese orphanage personnel and improve child care. deepe refugee--page 13 Asian Christian Service of the East Asian Christian Conference. This service arm of all the Protestant churches of South East Asia, supported by the World Council of Churches, is scheduled to send in ten to a dozen middle-level technicians, who will work in health, education and community development. The British-sponsored Save the Children Fund has already sent in a British social worker to assist in orphanages; the American Friends Service Committee and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee are currently doing a study of training requirements for future programs. “What we need now is a centralized (Vietnamese) policy of refugees,” one official explained. “There hasn’t been time to pull all this together yet.” But, the current political crisis in Saigon and the anti-government [deletion: attacks,] strikes and demonstrations in the northern provinces may only serve to paralyze the central government, making [deletion: it’s] its already difficult task of governing virtually impossible. 30-

Date

1966, Mar. 24

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Refugees; Villages--Vietnam; Civilians in war

Location

Bu�n Ma Thu?t, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B188, F3

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