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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08460 to 363-08463.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08460 to 363-08463
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Title
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Article about Filipino troops in Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "Open Arms", Keever's title: N/A, Article draft about Filipino troops in Vietnam, for The North American News 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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Beverly Deepe...
64A Hong Thap Tu
Saigon, Vietnam
April 22, 1967
Open Arms-page 1
SAIGON Filipino counter-guerrilla experts have added their know-how
to the crucial Open Arms program here to lure more Communist defectors to the
Allied side.
45
The Filipinom, stationed in Vietnam's provinces, are all veterans
of the Philippine government's war against pro-Communist Huk insurgents some
fifteen years ago.
Most of these veterans are middle-aged, retired Army
officer who specialized in land reform, intelligence-gathering, psychological
warfare and community development to defeat the Huks. Some were thes
themselves guerrillas x fighting the mes Japanese with American
forces during World War II. In Vietnam, some have been so effective in their
jobs that the Communist Viet Cong have put a price on their heads.
(More)
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I ape
Open Arms page 2
The Filipinos are under contract to the U. S. Agency for International
Development (AID) and are paid from American funds. They assist Vietnamese
government civil servants working in the provinces on the Open Arms program,
which consists of welcoming Communist defectors in provincial centers,
feeding,
o and clothing them for their 45-day stay there, screening, classifying
and interrogating them and they then helping them find jobs in the cities or
them to build Open Arms hamlets.
The program,
called Chieu Hoi in Vietnamese, is viewed by officials
2
as a shortcut to victory--a shortcut that pi Philippine Prosident Ramon
coquin Magsaysay's
saysey used to defeat the Huk insurgents.
approach entailed an iron right-hand of military power while extending
simultaneously the
He- gentle, friendly left-glove of social justice.
He magnetized the Huks to the anti-Communist side with "land for the land-less;"
he sent military engineer units to clear large tracts of jungle to give
the peaceful ex-Huks home teads on easy payments if they would lay down their
weapon; .
since the Open Arms program began in 1963, more than 60,000
Viet Cong-roughly six of their divisions--have switched sides to accept
the Vietnamese government's offers of amnesty, full citizenship rights and
resettlement in South Vietnam's society. In 1966, 20, 242 Communists
defected and joined the Open Arms program; officials estimate more than
killed attempting to eliminate that
3000 Allied soldiers would have been
number on the battlefield.
(More)
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Deape
Open Arms--page 3
Typical of these Filipinosa is Roque ("Rocky") Rye Reyes, a
50-year-old retired military intelligence officer and community development
expert now serving as as advisor to the Vietnamese Open Arms chief in
Quang Ngai province, 250 miles north of Saigon.
DECEMBER
last fans
When Roque first arrived in Quang Ngai province
returnees packed into a small provincial Open Arms center;
he found 160
returnees acting
as security guards had not yet been armed. A week later, the Viet Cong
planted a satchel charge amidst the sleeping returnees, killing one and
Wounding 22.
Now three months later, three concrete buildings have been completed,
enough to house 600 returnees sleeping in double-deck beds. A ten-foot-tall
bamboo fence surrounds the center; returnees securing the shelter have been
armed. Some of the returnees are learning tailoring3B young girls are
learning embroidering; basket-weaving and fishnet-weaving have been
introduced.
Returnees who are skilled as carpenters and masons help construct
the Open Arms offices; a Vietnamese teacher holds adult education courses;
movies and medicine are brought in weekly. Roque and his Vietnamese
counterpart have more plans for the future-including a returnee-operated
barber shop, an Open Arms cooperative, a demonstration plot for improved
farming methods, an electric generator for lighting and an incubator for
hatching duck eggs. Attempts are being made to distribute small farming
plots fo to some returnees.
Because of the vast improvements in the
provincial program, the Viet Cong have put a price on Roque's head.
(MORE)
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Deepe
Open Arms--page 4
SPENT
But he is not worried.
During the Philippine war, the Huks launched
an all-night raid on his house and failed in three attempts to kill him.
Roque served with American guerrillas during World War II, then
served 11 eleven years in the Philippine Army, specai specializing in
int intelligence, and then moved into community development work.
He was
a member of the National Land Reform Council before volunteering to come
to Vietnam
The Filipino veterans said they saw many wink problems in Vietnam
similar to those thatf faced the Philippine government in fighting the
pro-Communist Huks. One of these problems is corruption and mismanagement
a few
on the part of ese government officials in the Open Arms program.
in which I had to raise my
"There have been several incidents
said
The
voice," one quiet, serious Filipino who did not want to be identified.
"Two weeks after I arrived, I went to the warehouse to get a blanket for
the Open Arms returnees and the blankets had big holes in them.
Vietnamese government people didn't care. I had to remind them that the
returnees had been their enemies and now you want them to be your friends,
so you have to treat them well.
Then two weeks later, a second incident happened.
The returnees
said the government officials were giving them only 150 piastres (roughly $1.50)
a month for pocket money, instead of the 200 piastros ($2) which is legally
allotted to them for that purpose. I made a report to the province chief
(A Vietnamese administrator roughly similar to an American overior). He
scolded the Open Arms chief.
County CHA
"Since then the Open Arms chief grew aloof.
G
There's a big gap betw
him and me now.
Someone must do something to make the Vietnamese governmer
officials more honest. We had the same problem in the Philippines. But the
Filipinos were amateurs when it came to corruption compared to the ✓ TNA”
30
.
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Date
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1967, Apr. 22
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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
