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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-05455 to 363-05462.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-05455 to 363-05462
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Title
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Article about corruption in South Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "Scandal", Keever's title: "U.S. Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Corruption in South Vietam", Article about a multi-million-dollar corruption and theft in South Vietnam that resulted in American money and supplies disappearing, published for The Australian
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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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Beverly Ann Deepe
64A Hong Thap Tu
Saigon, Vietnam
November, 30, 1966
Scandal--page 1
SAIGON, VIETNAM-A multi-million-dollar epidemic of cor-
ruption, rake-offs and theft is sweeping Vietnam, well-informed
sources have revealed. The official American position regarding
these malpractices is now being openly questioned here since the
victim is the American taxpayer.
Reports of the epidemic, which have been dribbling in, are
RES
expected to gain more headlines in the wake of the American Con-
gressional election
American officials here, speaking
privately, predict Republican oppositionists will become more
critical of the Johnson Administration on the over-all manage-
ment of the war in Vietnam, using specific scandals as evidence
To cope with the mounting probelms of keeping track of the
($60-million-a-day war, the individual American military services
Army, Navy and Air Force brought in their own auditing teams in
September. A team from the General Accounting Office, which
reports directly to the American Congress, has already been de-
living into records for the past several months. Staff members
of a Congressional committee recently visited Vietnam.
(More)
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- Page 2
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Deepe
Scandal-page 2
red:
These are some of the malpractices that are being unceve-
1. The American officialdom here, with the knowledge of
Washington, have been allowing the Viet Cong Communist to be
indirectly paid off on American-funded projects. Private Ameri-
can construction firms, which hold more than one billion dollars'
worth of contracts for the American government, have collected
stacks of Viet Cong tax receipts in their confidential files
which drive up by a small percentage of the total cost of such
American-financed projects as building of airfields, port facili-
ties and communication sites. Most of these payments are made by
Vietnamese sub-contractors who include Viet Cong taxes as part
of their original cost estimates then pass on the cost to
the American government. Some of Viet Cong taxes are paid by
Vietnamese subcontractors for the use of the roads; the Viet
Cong impose enough control over almost every major road in Viet-
nam to collect their own taxes. In other cases, Vietnamese bu-
siness-men who hold sub-contracts to supply sand or agate for
American construction firms also regularly pass on the Viet Cong
taxes. These taxes--paid in Vietnamese piastres or goods--are
used to finance the Communist war effort.
American military road convoys do not pay Viet Cong taxes;
they are continuously subject to Viet Cong mines, grenades and
ambushes; American military engineering units do not pay Viet
Cong taxes for locally-secured construction materials.
(more)
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- Page 3
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Deepe
Scandal--page 3
The indirect use of American funds to pay Viet Cong taxes is
not a new trend, but is one that has gained importance as the war
budgets including construction and transport have increased tre-
mendously since the buildup of American combat forces last year.
In 1964, aviation fuel transported by Vietnamese firms paid Viet
Cong road tares at two major checkpeints along the 125-mile drive
from Saigon to the provincial capital of Soc Trang in the Mekong
Delta, according to reliable sources. The aviation fuel was then
used by American helicopters to fight the Viet Cong guerillas.
Building
Even when the American advisory effort accelerated in Viet-
nam in 1962, American engineering advisors reported to their
superiors that American funds from the Military Assistance Program
(MAP) were used to pay Viet Cong taxes in order to get wood from
the Communist-dominated areas. This wood was then used to provide
the lumber for Vietnamese military installations, such as training
centers and division headquarters. This practice has continued
since 1962; last year during the hectic build-up of American
combat forces, large quantities of this lumber on which Viet Cong
taxes had been paid were purchased by American military units for
constructions of cantonments and other buildings; this year, however
most of the lumber used for construction by American units is im-
ported. But, lumber for construction by the Vietnamese government
for bridges and schools, for example--is still Viet Cong taxed.
(This Vietnamese government spending is directly or indirectly
American funded). In some cases, near the resort city of Dalat
northwest of Saigon, Viet Cong forces even cut down the trees for
Vietnamese businessmen, who are under contract to the Vietnamese
government. The Vietnamese contractor then pays the Viet Cong for
their labor as well as their economic taxes. One unofficial Viet-
namese syndicate dealing in wood-cutting told this correspondent
they paid the Viet Cong five million piastres for economic taxes
alone
last year, but they still made profit of six million piastres.
(More)
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Deepe
Scandal--page 4
(Last year the official exchange rate was 73 piastres per U.S.
dollar; 89 piastres for Australian dollar this year the rate is
118 piastres per sank United States dollar or 133 piastres per
Australian dollar. This year, however the Viet Cong have demanded
from the syndicate payment not only in piastres, but also in rice
salt and fish to supply their troops.
戸
2. American officials in Vietnam, on instructions from
Washington, are not discouraging--or are tolerating--payoffs and
rake-offs by the Vietnamese government officials they are suppor-
ting, which drives up the cost of American construction projects,
leaving the American taxpayer to foot the bill. Last year, when
American tempuyuction projects attempted to keep pace with the
build-up of American combat troops, private American construction
firms, under contract to the Department of Defense, noted that
locally-hired Vietnamese employees had to pay the equivalent of
month pay to "local Vietnamese politicians", such as province
chiefs and security officials, in order to obtain their jobs of
working for the American firms. The Vietnamese complained and
wanted to be reimbursed by the American construction firms, who
then found that construction costs were exceeding substantially
their original estimates. The firsm asked for advice from
Washington and were told officially to allow the pay-offs in
order to continue to main good relations with the local officials
in the provinces, according to highly informed sources.
TAN
One result was a significant, but undisclosed increase in
the over-all construction costs of the American projects, which
total more than a million dollars.
(More)
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Deepe
Scandal-page 5
Another significant result has been poor security checks of
Vietnamese employees hired by American private firms on government
since
contract as well as by official government agencies,
Vietnamese employees were given security clearances on the
basis of their payoffs to the Vietnamese government security official
rather than on the basis of their non-Communist political loyalties.
In the $100-million American airbase and logistical installation
of Cam Ranh Bay, which President Lyndon Johnson recently visited,
American construction officials estimate that ten per cent of
the 5000 Vietnamese employees are either Viet Cong or
sympathetic to them.
Even this estimate is considered low.
3. There is a growing suspicion that some American military
AN
and civilian officials are involved in malpractices--on allegation
that has been the talk of Saigon's diplomatic corps, even at the
ambassadorial levels, since mid-1965. One American businessman
attempting to secure a million-dollar contract for plywood was
reportedly told by an American sergeant in the purchasing office,
M.S
"You'll get the contract if you give me $40,000." (The
businessman didn't pay--and he didn't get the contract, although
he represented one of America's foremost plywood manufacturers
).
another case, one Vietnamese businessman reported he secured a
contract to repair American air-conditioners, typewriters and
refrigerators by giving to the American civilian contracting
official for the Agency for International Development (
AID)
birthday presents of jade pins pins and diamond rings for his
wife and daughters.
In
In another case, an American businessman said
that one U. S. Naval officer, responsible for PX and commissary
purchasing, had set up his own "dummy" company in Hong Kong,
and made a number of puru purchases through that without
letting competitive contracts.
(More)
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Deepe
Scandal-page 6
4. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky and American
officials admit that the pilferage of goods passing through Saigon
port and the other major ports in the country is high, but
monetary amounts are beyond calculation. (One American labor
official last year told a Congressional committee he estimated that
US$1 million a day was stolen from Saigon port, but that estimate
is now considered out of date). Prime Minister Ky has publically
accused--and Vietnamese businessmen have admitted to this
correspondent--that some of Saigon's businessmen have organized
their own gangs to thieves to steal their own imported goods off
the docks of Saigon port--as a means to circumvent the high
customs duties.
In another case,
one Vietnamese is businessman confided
to an American observer that he had been taken to a dock in Saigon
port and was shown the American generator he could purchase. The
destination on the generator for an American installation in the
provinces had been marked out with black paint.
In far more serious cases, however, organized gains gai gangs
of thieves--Prime Minister Ky said recently they were suspected of
operating in collusion with some Vietnamese government employees--
have adeptly stolen large quantities of low-priority military and
commercial goods imported by Vietnamese businessmen and the American
government. In at least one known case, Vietnamese security
officials report a U. S. Army lieutenant was under investigation
for driving truckloads of civilian goods from the port to the
hideaout of the Vietnamese thieves. Special spu squads of porters,
operating within the organized theft gangs, are assigned the
delicate job called no bung xe "to open the abdomen of the
trucks" and to remove the stolen products from the vehicles
into pre-designated caches.
b
(More)
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Deepe
Scandal-page 7
The center of this special Saigon network of thieves hubs
around the small village of An Khanh (The name means "New Peace),
which lies across the Saigon River from one of the leading hotels
in the heart of the capital. Formerly part of Gia Dinh province,
the donut surrounding Saigon city, the little village of thatch-
roofed huts is now part of the first precinct of the capital city.
This village is suspected by American security officials to have
been used by the Viet Cong when they unleashed recoiless rifle
fire into the heart of Saigon on the November 1st National Day.
Vietnamese intelligence reports indicate that the thieves have
made an accommodation with the Viet Cong guerrillas and political
cadre in this village and hand over to them a slice of the stolen
American goods.
Virtually all of this stolen goods excludes high-priority
military items, such as weapons and ammunition, which is handled i
in a separate docking areas and is unloaded by American military
logistical units. Most of the stolen goods includes low-priority
military or civilian goods such as PX items, which have been sold
in abundance along Saigon's main streets. It was not uncommon to
see American liquors being sold next to Chinese Communist ball-point
pens,
which had been smuggled into Vietnam from Cambodia.
(More)
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Deepe
Scandal-page
The mayor of Saigon has ordered the open air markets to stop
selling "illegal and stolen" goods, but many Western observers
believe the PX items will simply be black-marketed clandestinely.
Prime Minister Ky recently announced these thieves--and even
government officials--caught red-handed in stealing from Saigon
port would be "executed." Vietnamese police authorities
theft network.
have recently organized special police units to crack down on the
Secretary of Defense Robert . McNamara gave
special attention to the port problem during his last visit here
in late October.
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Date
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1966, Nov. 30
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam (Republic); Political corruption; Military supplies; United States--Foreign relations--Vietnam (Republic)
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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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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B188, F9
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Format
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dispatches
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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
