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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08525 to 363-08528.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08525 to 363-08528
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Title
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Article about French-American relations in the Vietnam War
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Description
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Original title: "French", Keever's title: N/A, Article draft about French-American relations in the Vietnam War, for The North American News Alliance
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Transcript
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"--------------------
- Page 1
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Beverly A. Deope
64A Hong Thap Tu
Saigon, Vietner
October 10, 1966
French-page 1
Soldbay
Recounts.)
Newsday
slipping.
SAIGON-The French economic too-hold in South Vietnam is rapidly
Tensions between the French, on the one side, and the Amorican-
Saigon alliance appear to be reaching a new peak, in the wake of Coneral
Charles De Gaulle's Cambodian speech in
withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam.
September calling for the
Two prominent French
businessmon were arrested following that speech and hold 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, tho Vietnamese economy is slowing being goared to rely
on the ""American dollar instead of the French franc.""
Most observers here agree, howovers it would be a mistake to think
that the French cultural 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 intense, ""there is a growing middle ground that rejects both the Communist
side and the pro-Amorioan, anti-Communist side,"" one Vietnamese politician
explained.
(More)
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- Page 2
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Deepe
French-pago 2
""More and more Vietname so 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 explained. Many older-goneration
schooled and cultured in French, are still ""sentimentally""
Vietnamose,
closer to the French than to the Americans.
Oddly enough, ""all the Fronch hereare French-but not all of them
Some 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 Fronch sources rovealed her there are roughly 14,000
4,000 Vietnamese with
* French citizens currently in South Vietnam, brokon into four categories:
4,000 Fronchmen from Franco, 4,000 Eur-asians,
French nationality and 1500 French 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 Fronch-run hospital. Others include old
French colonialists-some born and raised in Vietname- roughly two hundred
colons
of these old-timors a year soll out their economic interests and return to
France, according to French officials.
(More)
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- Page 3
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Doepe
Fronch-pa o 3
French commercial activities in the cities are gradually being
pushedout by the increasing ""tide of American dollars"" flowing into Vietnam.
WERE
of the/principal foreign banks in Vietnam, throo dro Fronch/mana gods two BANK
now American banks-the Bank of America and Chase Manhattan-opened up this year
to squeeze into the financial market. In January, 1964, in reply to
Goneral De Gaulle's first proposal for the neutralization of Vietnam, the
Saigon military regime banned all imports from France. While French
import fimo still continued to operate (and some French goods was smuggled in),
their commoditios are now imported from free world countries other than France.
Froncheoned garages in Saigon aro now selling Japano so or American cars;
French-designed Pougots and Renaults are still imported--but only those
manufactured or assembled in z Brazil or Milan, Italy.
French-owned restaurants, bars, beer plants and hotels are doing
a booming business--but American or Chinose financed resta businesses are also
moving into this sector.
In the countryside, where the battlefield is often a rubber plantation
as well as a jungle stronghold, the French economic interests are hardest hit.
""But, French plantations and Vietnamese rice paddies have been
damaged with equal ferocity,"" one French plantor quickly pointed out. ""It's
not an anti-French move--it's part of the war.""
American field commanders suspect and Fronch managers concede-that
the French rubbor plantations are havens for the Viet Cong Communists.
Some
plantors oven say their own plantations workers are Viet Cong, but are unable
to control thom.
(More)
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- Page 4
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Deepe
French-page four
The three major Fronch-owned and operated rubber plantations
which account for sixty per cent of Vietnam's rubber export have been significantly
affected either by military oporations, including Viet Cong attacks, American
air and artillery, or by American 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 roduction of at least twenty
DIORE
percontine
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 Amorican
troops.
The
American government finances a 175 million piastro 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 planters 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
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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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B118, 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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Collector
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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
