-
derivative filename/jpeg
-
363-06030 to 363-06037.pdf
-
Digital Object Identifier
-
363-06030 to 363-06037
-
Title
-
Article about American advisors' desire for government reforms
-
Description
-
Original title: "THE MONOPOLY SAME", Keever's title: "U.S. Military Machine Rests on Vietnam's Political Quicksand", article about American advisors telling President Ng� ?�nh Di?m that unless he radically reformed his government, he would undoubtedly be overthrown by a coup d'etat, article 4 of 7-article series
-
AI Usage Disclosure
-
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.
-
Transcript
-
--------------------
- Page 1
--------------------
deepe
article 4 of 7-article series
page 1
May 19, 1965
THE MONOPOLY GAME
SAICON--In 1962, as American advisors and Helicopters
first arrived en masse of Viet Nam, President Igo Dinh Diem
was told by a close American friend that unless he radically
reformed his government, he would undoubtedly be overthrown
by a coup d'etat. The American had simply taken a poll of
Dion's former supporters and found that of more than 150,
only 30 wore still sticking with the chubby little mandarin.
"But Diem vound't listen and the American weren't
"More
interested in hearing it," the American lamented.
American troops and helicopters came; but reform did not,.
The Americans built a beautiful war machine and placed it on
political quicksand."
Despite the American military built-up, the lack of
reform by Diem provided the political fuel on which Viet Cong
strength mushroomed.
More than a year later, Diem was overthrown.
Diem had built a political Maginot Line for political
trench warfare with the Communists. On one side of the line
was the Communist ideology, the National Liberation Front and
the cloaked behind the Front, the Communist Party called
People's Revolutionary Pary.
--------------------
- Page 2
--------------------
deepe
article 4 of 7 article series
page 2
Dien had built his own counter-idoology, his vague concept
called Personalism; his National Revolutionary Movement corros-
ponded to the National Liberation Front; his brothers secret
party, the Can Lao, corresponded to Communist Pary.
When Diem was overthrown, his counter-ideology and
counter-machines were washed away. Since then, no one
a person has been in total command of the anti-Communist
sector long enough to build a similar machine or ideology.
Since then, the country has been in a conspicious
state of politica 1 crisis. Sources in Saigon now arguo
that it would be a mistake to re-built a counter-ideology--oven
12 it could be done--but that instead the Saigon government
must now reform itself and "out-revolutionize the Communists--
but do it ten times better and 50 times faster than the
Communists themselves."
The last time the American-backed Saigon government
seized the political initiative was with the strategic hamlet
program. The concept of fortified hamlets, with announced
dramatic economic and social advantages, was officially
launched by Dion in April, 1962.
But it was doomed before it started.
One American,
who spoke fluent Vietnamese, had visited a pilot project in
Cuchi, only 20 miles from Saigon, where the peasants told
him that the hamlet program, instead of being an economic
revolution, was an economic disaster.
--------------------
- Page 3
--------------------
deope
series--article 4 of 7 article series
page 3
The peasants said the government forced them to
construct hamlets instead of working on their cash crop of
tobacco; they could produre only 10 per cent of what normally
raised. They were forced to cut their bamboo trees,-their
cushion crop,-for the construction defense stakes and fences.
A leading American general was told this by the American,
he replied stiffly "Thank you"
The
The plan was cast; noither the American command
nor Diem would make any reforms or revisions in it.
program virtually crumbled whon Dien was overthrown the
Viet Cong swiped the concept and implemented their own im
"combat hamlet" program.
The dilemne of American policymakers is the schizo-
phrenic nature of the Vietnamese society itself. The governing
class is generally urban-based, French-educated with an
aristocratic position based on oither family background,
money or land@owning. This elite minority attempts to govern
the masses in rural areas and cities about which it knows
little and is concerned loss. "There's a time gap of centuries
between our two societies," one Vietnamese intellectual
explained. "There's the Republic of Viet Nam and the Republic
of Baigon--and the two never meet.""
--------------------
- Page 4
--------------------
deepe
series--article 4 of 7 article series
page 4
The lack of concern and compassion by the elite
minority was illustrated by the wife of a Western embassy
official. The wives of embassy officials had voluntarily
presented furniture,
and toys to a local orphange.
"Several days after we handed over the goods, one of
the embassy wives returned to the orphanage," the lady explained.
"We were astonished to find the officials had even taken the
toys out of the hands of little orphans. The toys were no
where to be found."
In contrast, cadre wanting to join Communist Party
are sent to the live with the rural masses and practice "three-
togetherness"; eating, living and working with the peasants.
Cadre are invited to join the Communist Party--which has an
exclusive, and not mass, membership--when they are prepared
to govern.
"The Americans had to play with the cards that were
dealt out and they weren't very good cards," one Western
diplomet explained. "In Vietnam, nationalism went the Communist
way. We saw alot of Vietnamese in the South that are the
political forces in the country...they are the bourgeois, the
landowners, the Catholics. They believe in the same ideas as
SUPPORT
we do; we support these people and they/us. But these people
in an Asian country in the throes of political-social upheaval--
they are not in the mainstream.
--------------------
- Page 5
--------------------
doopo
series article 4 of 7 article series
page 5
They're on the edges--we're supporting then and the mainstream
is elsewhore--in the nationalist movement of the Communists.
The mainstream eloments got into the hands of Ho Chi Minh
in North Viet Nam and Mao Tse-Tung in China. Chiang Kai Shek
didn't have the nationalist issue; he was helped by the
United States-and this in turn made it more likely he'd lose."
An example of the lack of justice and the lack of
equal opportunity is perhaps best reflected in the medical
profession in Vietnam, which one American-educated Vietnamese
doctor called "The Medical Mafia." Two elite groups of
doctors--the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Saigon
and the private organization called the Medical Syndicate--
decide which doctors will be licensed for private practice.
Virtually all the members vote groupe come from Hanoi and
favor licensing only northerners.
"Those seven older-generation mon in the Faculty
of Medicine are capable and dedicated, " one American
official working in modical field explained. "They just
happan to be partisan,. They represent the old Mandarin
system; they choose, select--and limit the leaders of the
future. It's the tradition in the East for more than 1000
years that leaders of the next generation are always choson
by those in power . This gives rise to the mandarin system
and an-un-do amount of nepotism.
--------------------
- Page 6
--------------------
deepe
series article 4 of 7 article sorios
page 6
The young students are in revolt against this phase of
their culture--that's why they demonstrate on the streets
of Saigon. We have difficulty placing
finately our U.S.
educated medecal students if they aren't chosen by this
elite loadorship; so American aid is re-inforcing the
corruption & nepotism-and financing it."
After a presence of 10 years,--and administering
the largest USAID medical program in the us--American
officials here still have little influence on Vietnamese
AFFAIRS.
medical
One American-trained Vietnamese doctor
said that a medical decree from American medical school
still is readily recognized in Viet Nam,
while
on the other hand a "parachute degree"--a degree that
is virtually bought with money from a second-rate medical
school in France-is easily acceptable by the "The Mafia."
"Everyone in Saigon knows that medical graduates
from American institutions get the inferior jobs," one
American official working in the medical field explained.
One Vietnamese medical specialist returned to
Vietnam late 1958 with a medical degree and professional
license from first-rate American medical school. He brought
with him surgical equipment from from the United States
which he would use once he set up his own practice.
--------------------
- Page 7
--------------------
doope
series-article 4 of 7 article serios
page 7
The Customs department said it was illegal to bring in
the equipment; that he would have to take out an import
license-which would take one year. Despite intervention
of American friends, he got the equipment back to Amorica
and started the difficult task of getting the necessary
license to practice in Viet Nam. There was had but one
m Viet Na
other practicing specialist in his field. But he was
consistently shuffled from office to office; as the time
passed before his licensing, he began charity work without
fees to help persons who otherwise could not be cured.
The Medical Syndicate called him in; reprimanded him
sharply for practicing illegally and threatened if he did
not stop he would be sent to jail. He stopped; but his
charity patients--nore than 80 of them then threatened to
demonstrate on the streets of Saigon, waving banners in
More than two years
protest. He asked them not to do so.
after his arrival in Saigon, he still has not been licensed--
and has no patients in a country where disease is prevalent.
He's talking of going to Fiji Island to do missionary work.
"we are the forgotten young man," he explained.
"We are never counted by the Mafia."
--------------------
- Page 8
--------------------
deepe
series--article 4 of 7 article series
page 8
The two best hospitals in Saigon are French
operated--they are also the most expensive; there is no
good American hospital in Saigon for the Vietnamese
population (although in France there are two American-
operated hospitals in France). Requests by the American-
operated Seven Day Adventist Missionary Hospital to
expand their 30-bed clinic have repeatedly been refused;
Western doctors practicing there have may also
frequently had difficulty in getting licenses to
practice in Viet Nam.
American officials in Saigon have not effectively
pressured the Saigon government to correct "this rot within,"
in the words of a Vietnamese anti-Communist; instead they
have superimposed upon "the rot" a spectacular medical
program in the provinces, which will be discussed later.
"The Americans think we should fight for democracy,"
one young Vietnamese intellectual explained. "But in fact
the Viet Cong fight because of the lack of democracy."
-30-
-
Date
-
1965, May 19
-
Subject
-
Vietnam War, 1961-1975; United States. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam; Vietnam (Republic)--Relations--United States; Diplomacy; Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government; Vietnam (Republic)--Reform; Political corruption
-
Location
-
Saigon, South Vietnam
-
Coordinates
-
10.8231; 106.6311
-
Size
-
20 x 26 cm
-
Container
-
B187, F5
-
Format
-
dispatches
-
Collection Number
-
MS 363
-
Collection Title
-
Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
-
Creator
-
Keever, Beverly Deepe
-
Collector
-
Keever, Beverly Deepe
-
Copyright Information
-
These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
-
Publisher
-
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
-
Language
-
English
