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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-01473 to 363-01485.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-01473 to 363-01485
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Title
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Article on Communist military activity and peace talks
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Description
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Original title: "LBJ Peace talks - people." Keever's title: "Peace Talk Fuels Communist Drive at Rice-Root Level." Original caption: "This is the first of a three-part series on the multi-faceted war in South Vietnam, as Washington-Hanoi peace talks begin." Article by Keever about Vietnamese people's concerns surrounding the 1968 Peace Talks and about Communist military activity
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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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Cac sag
yy 1jp
people 1 (normass/deepe)
CBJ
(This is the first of a three-part series on the multi-faceted
war in South Vietnam, as Washington-Hanoi peace talks begin).
The Evolution of
SAIGON, APRIL 10-As the world watches for high-level peace
talks on Vietnam, the Communists at the rice-roots level continue
to fuel up their people's war.
Even on the doorstep of Saigon, the Communists are re-organizing,
molding, sh twisting, bending the suburbanite and peasan rural
peasntry peasantry to carry forward their war to a more bloody and
bloodier andf fiercer dimension.
==more reuter
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- Page 2
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
people 2 (normass/deepe)
A two-line Vietnamese Communist jungle is hg racing like a
flash-fire through the population in the provinces outside of Saigon;
the English translation of the jingle is: "Blood will flow in May. Peace
will come in June."
"The third phase of the war will come soon and the people should
be ready for it," the Communists are reportedly telling the Vietnamese
peasants and suburbanites in Gia Dinh province, the donut-shaped
province surrounding saigon.
This Tet offensive is a six-month campaign in 1968," the
Communists are reportedly saying. "These six months of continuous
offensive is to prepare for the future revolutionary government by the
people."
==more reuter
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- Page 3
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2020 sag
by Imp
yy 1jp
people 3 (normass/deepe)
Reliable sources indicate the Communists are telling the
Vietnamese population in Gia Dinh that the first phase of the Tet
offensive was the physical attacks upong the cities beginning in
late January; the second phase of rocketing and shelling installations
has now passed; March ist was the month of 1 preparation for the
third phase and now the third phase, without descrit description of
the form it would take, is soon to begin.
==more reuter
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- Page 4
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yy 1jp
people 4 (normass/deepe)
These developments appear to be a Vietnamese enactment of
Mao Tse Tung's dictum that "political power comes out of the barrel of
a gun." si And, significantly, since the Tet offensive the Communists
have moved and maintained their guns closer to Saigon and other urban centers
without returning to their frontier base areas, reliable sources report.
The Western standard Western observation that "the Saigon government does
not have the support of the people," already appears ap passe, as the
goternmen government at the rice-roots level is either accomodating, in
in exile because of increased Communist military pressure, or is
accommodating with the Communists in a sort of state of co-existence,
or else has been outright executed strong hard-line anti-Communist
officials have been executed outright. Reliabel Reliable sources report
are attempi attempting with some success-to chopó
the Communists
off the Vietnamese government's organization and officialdom at the rie
rice roots level, and then handingman
a setting
2.
up its own administrative machine to bend the will of the population
to suit their purposes.
more reuter
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- Page 5
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zozo sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
people 5 (normass/deepe)
In other cases where the local Vietnamese government officials
still administer the edicts of Saigon, the population appears to get
caught in a corrs crossfire of between contradictary instructions
from the government on the one side and the Communists on the other.
One example current example is reported by reliable sources
NIPA
to involve the cutting of palm trees around canals and streamlets, and
clearing out the brush, where the Communists often seek cover.
Recently,
local government officials in Gia Dinh i province ordered the population
to clear out these vegetated areas, since these areas could not be
defoliated;
the Communists countered this one by ordering the
people not do it saying "we'll shoot anyone who dares to cut and clear
this area and in particular do not touch the nipa palm trees because
we have our men in theiz and there and they'll shoot you," reliable
sources report.
In Gia Dinh and other provinces, all dogs in the villages have
Ther
been ordered to be killed, to forestall the possibility they will bark
at strangers passing through the area the Communist troopers-passing
through the area. This practice was also empl ordered by the Viet Minh
during the French Indo-China War more than a decade ago.
more reuter
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- Page 6
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zcze sag
yy 1jp
people 6 (normans/deepe)
For weeks, the population win Gian wa Dinh was also caught
in another squed squeeze play in what amounted to a low-level rioe
battle between the government and the Communists. The Communists
had forbidden the population to seel the sell their rice unmilled
paddy
BLE
rice padi to the government, and the government had forbidden
the people to v/mill the un raw padi, which would make it edible not only
for themselves, but also for the Communist troops. The Communists
pushed the population and the rice millers to protest against the
government, saying their lives were being disrupted. But, the
Communists lost this round and then reportedly ordered the p various
by hand
to construct individual rice grinders from hardened clay slabs
enclosed in rattan siding. Evidently, this did not work; in early
the Communists advised to sell the peasants to sell their
the Comm
April,
padi for the government, since there was not shortage of rice
in the cities because of the American import program. However, the
By the
peasants were specifically forbidden to sell any other produce send
any other produce into the cities--their chickens, pigs, e vegetables, -
in order to strangle economically the government-held areas. And to
x placate the worried peasants, the Communists promised them
that when the Communists attacked the golememe-gedernment-
again, they would capture the American rice warehouses and distribute the
rice free to the people--a feat they a performed in the Chinese-held section
Saigon During the tot AHACKS.
R
te k
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zczo sag
yy 1jp
18
people 17 (normass/deepe)
In the other cases, however, the Communist policy and
are
the government's execution of its own program a programs are not in
direct conflict--in fact, they rather compliment each other. For example,
on the question of trenchlines besides dug by each family near their homes.
The government has ordered the people not to dig trenches in Gia Dinh,
knowing it indicates the government has failed to provide aaqua adequate
security-but. the local officials, knowing the population is afraid,
lenient in letting them dig shallow trenches. The Communists have then
BEGAN.
through propaganda and word-of-w word-of-mouth messages, begun a
sort of civil defense course, advising the people to dig zigzag trenches,
or L-shaped, or cross-shaped ones, which offer better protection.
Still following the government's within the government's allowances for
shallow trenches, the Communists have then advised the peansa peasants to stock
pile banana tree logs, mud and water nearby so that when fighting breaks out,
they can quickly build siding and a roof above the shallow trenche. The
Communists have also advised the people that they should watch for smoke grenades,
which signal American fighte bombing strikes,
wise they should not worry too much about American bombing and helicopter gunships.
and run for their holes, then--other-
Strike MiRcho
==more reuter
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- Page 8
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Bezc sag
ᎩᎩ ljn
people
normas
(
normass
/deepe)
Communist monthly and annual production taxes in Gian
a
Dinh province have also reportedly jumpe jumped in some villages from
fifty to seventy per cent since Tet on the surplus of goods after the
family's needs and expenses have been deducted.
milies
In pre-communist-hbla or contest areas of Gia Dinh, Communist
acadre have begun cal calling on the family of government soldiers
and officials, persuading or ordering them to have their relatives
working for the government "cf" "come back h home within ten days or
you will be punished." The puri sumen form of punishment was not
described, reliable sources report, and some leeway was given for
explanations if the family fall failed to carry out the order.
==more reuter
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zczc seg
ᎩᎩ ljp
people (norma ss/deepe)
However,
"American agents spying on the people"--the
revolutionary development cadre, provincial reconnaissance units and
the
census grievance team members--are to be "shot without discussion",
Communists have stated, according to reliable sourcess and as a consequence,
some of these operating even in provincial towns have begun sleeping in a
different house each night. In some of the poorly-defended division headquarters
cities, also,
still shook up after the Tet
government civil servants,
attack and informed of Communist orders, are also known to hide out at
night in different homes.
In Gia Dinh, families of hamlet and village officials have been
told by the Communists that their relatives should resign from their government
post and u return home; Iif
not
the official will be killed;
led; I if he does,
he will be granted a "guarantee of safety" by the Communists without
any discussion of his past activities for the government. or "his orimes against
the people." As a consequences, an estimated seventy per cent of the
government's hamlet and village officials are considered "operating in exile,"
AREAS,
refusing to live in their assigned particularly at night; some return to te
their assigned areas during the day, some have, set up their village office
Com the Vil1AGE
several om miles away in the district headquarters.
sources report.
==more reuter
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zcze sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
people (normass/deepe)
Wherever possible in Cia Dinh, the Communists established six
months before the Tet offensive a people-ponti portering system, with
very precise organization and regulations. Since Tet, mouth-to-mouth
propaganda, as well as Radio Hanoi and Liberation Radio have praised
the people who acted as porters during the p their country-wide offensive.
The Communists have ordered that any family with five or more
persons or women or children-between the ages 15 to 50 should make
available
two persons each g night that the cadre asks for porter help.
Any family with four persons or fewer in the same age grouping should
contribute the services of one member of the family.
more reuter
S
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- Page 11
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2020 sag
Jy 1jp
people 10 (normass/deepe)
Those men, women,
or o children have been instructed to
and are to be on call,
be in their homes following the 6 p.m. curfew,
at the core when requested by the oad village cadre, to work
in six hour shifts,
midnight to 6 a..
the either from 6 p.m. to midnight or from
For security reasons,
those people-porter crews
are guided by a liaison agent and are not told where they would go;
after carrying the supplies for six hours, another relay force picks them
up and leapfrogs them-
on a progressos towards the destination, giving the Communists & tight
security.
OVER
Villagers
MASSES
ple.
4 have been specifically ordered that they can not hire
anyone to stand in for them; "you must do this yourself to contribute
to the revolutionary ceuse." reliable sources report.
more reuter
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2020 sag
yy 1jp 2
people I (normass/deepe)
In organising this people-porti pore portering syston, the
Communists have reportedly a laid out very precise regulations.
For example, women are given lighter loads--generall a 22-pound case
of ammunition. Men, whether 15 or 50, are instructe instructed to
carry roughly 50-pound loads-four AK-47's or AK-50's hidden under
a stack of rice straw, carried on their bek backs. or each person,
man or woman, is assigned two .60 mm. mortar rounds or B-40 rocket rounds.
Heavier and longer 122 mm. rocket shoe shells are carried by two persons
per shell.
These portering orews,
maximum of 50 persons per crew, have been
instructed to wear black jap pejema thetra traditional black-pajama costume
and to walk along the top of a dike near the foliage cover covering in
the area. If they hear American fighter aircraft or helicopter bh gunships,
Fame
or if they become illami illuminated with American high-powered flares,
the porters are ordered to drop down on the top of the dike, and form
a single line to melt into the line
'configuration of the dikes.
Ret
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zcze sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
13
people 12 (normass/deepe)
"If by chance an af airplane swoops down and just starts shooting
at you,
just take it,"
"No one is to move%3
don't break the line.
the Communists have reportedly told the villagers.
no one is to break the line. Even if you're hit,
bill Be
If you do, you can be punished."
(Hank: I had intended to query you about this three-part series
The
on the operation piece, but the military didn't release this operation
until today. It was supposed to be released Monday, It. Anyhow,
I've tried to put in a series the three major components of the situation
here, since we can't cover negotiations. Next piece will be on Communist
military strategy countrywide, based on my weekend interviews,
#
which I
mentioned in my letter-memo to you.
Third article, is Thieu and Vietnamese
PIECES
to be run as a ser can be run
I've
political side. But, these don
separately,
though I think the series gives more of a framework.
gotten some high-level quotes on Khe Sanh, but am waiting for our weekly
military briefing,
50,
which was supposed to be Tuesday,
but now is Thursday.
I'll file Khe Sanh interpretive Thursday, as well as second article
Will CABLE
FRIDAY
of sfere series,
third article sent Tuay vebied fitua
Regards
and some focus pieces over the weekend.
==end reuter
Regards Bev).
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Date
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1968, Apr. 10
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Peace; War--Public opinion; Diplomatic negotiations in international disputes
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6297
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B11, F7
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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
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Language
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English
