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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-03992 to 363-04002.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-03992 to 363-04002
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Title
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Article about the increasing size of the South Vietnamese Army
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Description
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Original title: "arvn", Keever's title: "Saigon Government Hikes its Armed Force Size." Article draft written by Keever concerning South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's increase of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (AVRN) to 805,000 men in 1968 and its consequences on the already beleaguered civilian administration. The article includes a postscript message to Hank (Editor) about a future article on North Vietnamese Bombing. Written for the Christian Science Monitor
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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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ᎩᎩ ljp
arvn 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, MARCH 29 President Nguyen Van Thieu's
recent announcement increasing his armed forces to 805,000 men
appears here to be South Vietnam's last military chance and last
political resort.
The net increase of 135,000 men during 1968 is the
biggest one-year jump in stronth strength in the 14-year history
of the Vietnamese armed forces, reliable sources report.
==more reuter
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- Page 2
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
arvn 2 (normass/deepe)
The dramatic move is President Thieu's response to the
Communist Tet offensive--and to the prevailing view here that he can no
longer expect huge in influxes of American troops to re-establish a
forces
favorable balance of power with the Communists.
Barring a letha an over-powering Communist second offensive,
American troop level within South Vietnam is expected to rise no
higher than the 550-man mark during the remainder of this yea
American strength within the country is currently
511,000.
Present
==more router
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vy 1jp
arvn 3 (normass/deepe)
Reliable sources report President Thieu's move was
made after he received the approval of General Earl Wheeler, Chairman
of the U. S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his recent trip here. Prior
to Tet,
Th President President Thieu had announced a 65,000-man increase
during all of 1968, and the U. s. government had reportedly agreed
to item pay for the cost of training, equipping and sustaining
them. Last week, President Thieu announced the 65,000 these 65,000
would be trained and in the battlefield by mid-year and that an
additional 70,000 would also be drafted. During the Wheeler visit,
the U. s. government agreed to fine the financing of the ingr
but the funds have yet to arrive here,
increase,
70,000 MA
reliable sources report.
ore reuter
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2020 90g
yy 1jp
arvn 4 (normass/deepe)
the call-up,
Politically, the magnitude of disruption caused by
on the heels of the destructive Communist offensive
in the cities, might be compared to the impact of World War II
on the American society, with the even more
staggering difference
that the Vietnam war is being fought by Vietnamese on their own
soil and occasionally on the dor doorsteps of their own homes.
at the end of 1968, will have
Virtually every Vietnamese family,
sent their draft-age son to the battlefield, and many of their
FOTO American women in World War II,
daughters,
like the
are filling the non-military vacuum as typists, teachers, interpreters,
pet policewomen and afe few in non-combattant military positions.
The change is marked in Vietnam where women traditionally married young,
raised a family and stayed at home.
#more router
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- Page 5
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2020 386
yy 1jp
arvn 5 (normass/
ss/
deepe)
At the end of 1968, one out of every 2 roughly 20
Vietnamese is scheduled to be serving in the Vietnamese armed forces.
Southern-born
alone; this excludes the hundreds of thousands of young men and
a few women fighting full or part-time with the Viet Cong.
For President Thieu-and for the entire Allied side hero-
the move brings a criss-cross of advantages and disadvantages.
and especially in America,
Internationally,
the
South Vietnamese government can point to the call-up to Frove the
Vietnamese are carrying their share of the war and to dispel criticism
among President Johnson's political opposition that the Vietnamese
are letting the Americans do the fighting for them.
==more reuter
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- Page 6
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2020 g
yy 1jp
arvn 6 (normass/deepe)
framework,
Internally, within the Communist versus Allied
the Vietnamese government has inte entered and
a significant--and perhaps its last major-race with the Communists
N
for manpower. Since 1964, the depleting manpower base has been
a problem both for the Communists and for the government side-the
slack now being taken up by American and North Vietnamese interve
troop increments to reinforce their respective sides. In the wake
of the Communist Tet offensive, reliable sources here report
the Common Communists have succeeded in amassing large numbers of
recruits, as they seised control, at least temporarily, of large
HEL DICT
numbers of villages, and politically displayed they
were
at least momentarily, the upper hand against the government, and the
Allies. In the eight, provinces of the western and southern Mekong
Delta, Communist recruitment has been estime estimated by Vi
souro informed Vietnamese sources to have reached up to 30,000 repest
DE
30,000- by itself to replace their battlefield losses during the
Tet offensive.
rice area,
In Kien Hoa province, a heavily populated and economically
Communist reoruitment has been estimated by 10,000 as
many of the villagos slipped under their control and the government
presence she shrank and still remains holed up in a half dozen provincie
district towns and the provincial capital.
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5020 Sag
Jy 1jp
arvn 7 (nroma (normass/deepe)
✓order
In a secret message, the central government has
reported/ordered Vietnamese battalions sweeping through contested
friendly, eenteste contested or even Viet Cong-controlled areas
to seize any young ment within the draft age of 18 to 33 years old.
GOVERNMENTS'
While these national training centers and
(boot camps
are currently overflowing with tries trainees, these young men
can be held as sort of an apprentice private
the-job military training from the battalion,
op
to
receive of
either in base camp
on operations, until the heeen they can be shipped off to
receive formal training.
samore reuter
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5020
Jy 1jp
arvn 8 (normass/deepe)
One of the net results of this will be a quantity increase
in the Vietnamese armed forces without much hope of a quality increase
in the performance while the Americans government,
after the recent
visit of General Creighton Abrahms to confer with President Johnson
in Washington, has promised the Vietnamese troopers better,
more
modern equipment, which they their officers have for two years waid
they badly need, there seems little possibility the Vietnamese
army wii will receive much in the way of political indoctrination
and motivation, which they also have needed for years.
more reuter
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2050 396
yy 1jp
arvn 9 (normass/deepe)
A major, and highly crucial disadvantage, of the
troop increase for President Thieu is that the some of the troops
are going to come out of the government itself-from the ranks of
the civil servants.
This seems especially ill-timed, for in the wake
of the Communist offensive, the goternment's a government's administrative
apparatus, always sluggish and bureaucratic, has had more and
more demands placed upon it--demands for refugee housing, relief
as well as attempting to regain
its balance in the countryside. Simultaneously, the Communists
June thrust into the cities, and their continued presence in the
outskirts, have made the Thoi Thieu government its opecial target,
and recovery measures in the oities,
as they accelerate their attempts to t destroy it from its rice-roots.
level upwards.
More reuter
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- Page 10
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2020 sag
yy ljp
arvn 10 (normass/deepe)
Reliable sources report the government's civilian
apparatus oe country-wide now totals 240,000. This is
reportedly double its civilian personnel total of 120,000 in late
November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown.
ahr 1963,
During
Since then, the number of aiili servants, functionaires,
and unskilled personnel inoreased dramatically as the government
sought to expand its services to its own people, and sought to fight
such as information, psychological
the Viet Cong on non-military fronts,
warfare, public works, dramatic increases in education and
health.
Now, thes these same sources report,
the number
Part of this is for strictly
of civilian government employees will again be reduced to the 1963
level totalling only 120.00 a 120,000.
economic reasons, part of this is that draft-age empl government
no matter how critical their
employees will no longer be deferred,
services are demanded in for the government to contest the Communists
in the non-military field.
Hence, will the while the Vietnamese army is expanding
actions, is
dramatically, the Vietnamese government, by its own
shrinking, perhaps disasterously.
Likewise on the U. S. side here,
== MORE Re
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2020 986
Jy 1jp
arvn 11 (normass/deepe)
B
Likewise,
on the U. S. side here, while more American
troops are enroute to Vietnam, the American economic aid mission, which
supports the Vietnamese government apparatus, is also shrinking, outting
ten per cent of its peron personnel 11 other like other missions
throughout the world in the wake ofCongress Congressional budget
reductions.
(Hank: I'll file another piece over the week-end, Monday,
I'll spend the day at the airport for some airforce briefings. I hope
next week to file on the escalation of North Vietnam bombing--but this
If you want that
will not be a report on the political reasons for it.
suggest Pentagon also work on it.
kind of piece about escalation,
Mine
will be more of a chronology military rationale and military results type
thing.
BR 9
Other pr
I've in
Tor next week include
briefing on USAID personnel outs, some delving into Tet refugee and
housing development. Would you want a zeepager on Tet refugges refuggee
refugees, foousing on big hou
temporary housing area for them
in Saigon? Friday and 1'11go to Bien Hoa for major briefings
and to take a look at miracle rice and Long An province. and the big
Saigon mi military operation.
Regards Bev).
end router
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Date
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1968, Mar. 29
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Subject
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Nguyễn, Văn Thiệu, 1923-2001; Vietnam (Republic). Quân lực; Manpower; 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; 106.6297
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B10, F2
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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
