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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-05428 to 363-05431.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-05428 to 363-05431
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Title
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Article about failing Frech economic control in Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "French", Keever's title: "French Economic Interests in South Vietnam Dim, Pleasing Americans", Article about the Frech economic toe-hold in South Vietnam rapidly slipping, published for North American Newspaper Alliance
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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 A. Deopo
64A Hong Thap Tu
Sai Ong Tlother
October 10, 1966
Fronch-pago 1
Doldang
Rewri
Newsday
slipping.
SAIGON The French economic too-hold in South Vietnam is rapidly
Tonsions between the French, on the one side, and the Amorican-
Saigon alliance appear to be roaching a now poak, in the wake of General
Charles De Gaulle's Cambodian speech in ep September calling for the
withdrawal of Amorican forces from Vietnam. Two prominent Fronch
businesoon were arrested following that speech and held several days without
charge before being released.
Reliable French and American sources substantiate that the
war
in the countryside has seriously battered the main rural French economic
interests rubber, coffee and tea plantations. And, at the commercial-financial
level in the cities, the Vietnamese economy is slowing being goared to rely
on the "American dollar instead of the French franc."
Most observers here agree, howevers it would be a mistake to think
that the French oultural and political influence is slipping as quickly as
their economic position-in fact, some sources believe the French political
influence is gaining among Vietnamese intellectuals. As the war becomes
more intone, "thore is a growing middle ground that rejects both the Communist
one Vietnamese politician
side and the pro-American, anti-Communist side,"
explained.
(More)
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- Page 2
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Deepe
French page 2
"More and more Vietnamese want an end to the war--and that means
De Gaulle's proposal for noutralization of Vietnam looks more and more
attractive to them," another politician oxplained. Many older-gonoration
schooled and cultured in Fronch, are still "gentimentally"
Viotnomone,
closer to the French than to tho Amoricans.
Oddly enough, "all the French hereare French-but not all of them
Somo of the economic firms
favor De Gaullo," one source explained.
It are headed by former French officers who served in Algeria and feel
De Gaulle "cheated us from victory" by making his political settlement there.
Official Fronoh sources revealed her there are roughly 14,000
* French citizens currently in South Vietnam, broken into four categories:
4,000 Frenchmen from France, 4,000 Eur-asians, 4,000 Vietnamese with
French nationality and 1500 Fronch citizens of Indian stock from the French
city of Ponticherry in India. Those dark-skinned Indians, many of them shop-
keeprs in the major cities, generally the middlemen in black-market currency
operations.
The four thousand French from France includes diplomatic officials,
four hundred young, good-looking teachers in French-operated schools, members
of a sophisticated cultural mission, sixty exports in a technical mission and
twenty doctors in Saigon's elite French-run hospital. Others include old
Cotons
French colonialistosome born and raised in Vietname- roughly two hundred
of those old-timors a year sell out their economic interests and return to
France, according to French officials.
(More)
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- Page 3
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Doepe
French-pa o 3
French commercial activities in the cities aro gradually boing
pushed out by the increasing "tide of Amorican dollars" flowing into Vietnam.
WERE
of the/principal foreign banks in Vietnam, three are Fronch/managods two
B BANK,
now Amorioan banks-the Bank of Amorica and Chase Manhattan-opened up this yoor
to squeeze into the financial market. In January, 1964, in roply to
Goneral De Gaullo's first proposal for the neutralization of Viotnam, the
Saigon military regimo bennod all imports from France. While French
00
import firms still continued to operate (and some French goods was smuggled in),
thoir commodities are now imported from free world countries other than France.
Froncheornod garages in Saigon aro now selling Japano so or American cars;
French-designod Pougots and Renaults are still imported--but only those
manufacturod or assembled in Brazil or Milan, Italy.
French-owned restaurants, bars, boor plants and hotels are doing
a booming business--but American or Chinese financed rest businesses are also
moving into this soctor.
In the countryside, whore the battlefield is often a rubber plantation
as well as a junglo stronghold, the French economic interests are hardest hit.
"But, French plantations and Vietnamese rice paddies have been
damaged with oqual ferocity," one French plantor quickly pointed out.
not an anti-French nove--it's part of the war."
"It's
American field commanders suspect--and French managors concede-that
the French rubbor plantations are havens for the Viot Cong Communists.
planters oven say their own plantations workers are Viet Cong, but are unable
Some
to control thom.
(More)
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Deope
French-page four
The three major French-owned and operated rubber plantations
which account for sixty per cent of Vietnam's rubber export have beon significantly
affected either by military oporations, including Viet Cong attacks,
American
air and artillery, or by Amorioan defoliation of the jungles in which the
fringes
non-lethal spray is blown into the fringes of the plantations.
In 1905 1964, rubber production was 69,000 tons; in 1964 1965,
56,000 tons-a drop of thirty per cent. A reduction of at least twenty
MORE
percent is
predicted for 1966.
French managers complain that in some
cases the houses and processing facilities of their rubber plantations have
been closed either by Viet Cong mortars or have been occupied by American
troops.
The
American governmont finances a 175 million piastre fund
(US$1.5 million) to indomify those individuals or firms for destruction caused
A
by the war (up to fifty percent of assessed value) or by defoliation (100 percent
of assessed value for each rubber tree). But, French plantors complain they
Very
are not getting paid/fast by the Vietnamese government, which is responsible
for the indomification fund.
-30-
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Date
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1966, Oct. 10
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; International economic relations; United States--Foreign economic relations--France; France--Foreign economic 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, F6
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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
