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Part of America's Frozen Policy- Vital Political Power Unused

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America's Frozen Policy- ·tul Political Power Unused
The dramatic mi:litnry nct i011s token hy
the United States and Vietnamese a,_qainst the
Communists in South Viet Nani ha1•e 110
grand political co-unterpart. As a result, U. S.
strategy is snn solely (LS anti-Co111111uliist
rather than pro-something. As one Western
rnilitary expert put it: "Nothina ne_qaU;;e hrrn
ever prevailed over somrthi ng pos-i'.t-i.ve."
The Herald Tribu ne's Beverly Dnµe r.r plai11.~
these fn.ilures of U. S. pr,hcymakers in the
second o.f a 3i:i:-part serie& on Vfrl Na,m.
r!Of>M!i>l...tMJ.Wt.t!iW!N.O#J)I %..~

By Beverly Deepe
.A. Special Correspondent

SAIGON .
Unlted States policy 1n South Viet Nam Is frozen In
a necative PO!lture that concentrates on mlllta.ry victory
while falllni' to produce the sort o! dramatk politic~!
atrate&"Y that would make &uch victory possible.
Thia, at least, 1s the opinion o! hiihly placed sources
In Saicon who have watched the American involvement
here rrow steadily tor more than a decade .
In their view, the U . S. attitude is ~ssentlally an tlCcmmw1ut rather than pro-something. The ovenvhelm!ng
lmpreNion 111 t hat the American policymakers are atiemptlnr "to item the tide of Communhlt 11.nresslon" or "to
teach Ha.no! & lesson ." But thls implies a political statu.~
quo In a country that is changtnr in It~ past-colon 1al
development, and Is, Indeed, tightlng tor change.
"Nothing negative has ever prevailed over something
positive," the Western military expert commented . "One
of the most frequently asked questions by VietnamrsP
captains a.nd maJora on the battlefront is 'What are we
ft1rhtln, tor?' M they look at the poUtical tmmoil in their
· rear area at Salion."

'HOLLOW WORDS'
While some Americana In Sa.ii'On pay lip service to
the principles ot freedom and . democracy, these are . as
one American ronrnment emplone noted, "hollow words
that mean little In A!la ."
·
A Western diplomat arruu that the Western concep!..!I

~! democracy and freedom have never been 1impll11ed and

codifi ed a.s have the Communi ~t ideology. There are no
Am~rican pi iir,ers for democracy as there are Commur\ist
primr r~ for revolution.
:'
"Ont ca!lnot undn., tan d these .>.merican pri nciples
unless he ha.s reaped the bc1wfits nf t!1,, m. or seen ~h(!m •
fir n hand," the dip lomat exµl a i1,ed. HPnce , he said, t{le
principles in which Americans bel ieve must be tra nslated,
dPm ,mst:·a lcrl and 1•isual ized for lhe Virlnamcse-by U,e
Vietnnmf"oe governmcnt.--and this !la,: vrt to be done . ',
T '1e main poli tical problem during the past dec& de
1>rem~ 1.0 i1ave been to realize there is a political proble'lll
--and to aet positively.
T i,e Am,' rican polic ymakP;-s, howeve r, view i;he batUe
in Viet Nam a~ principully, if not solely, a mi:itary opera ·
t.1011 2gain~t armed Co mm :., nlst guerrillas. They are ope'!·,
atlng <trnmat1cRlly on one front while the Communists at"
opera r.ln1s on six fronts-political , econo mic . social, cttl·
t ural. psycho logical and military, a l: integrated into on,.
p011·ufu! Gtrcarn of warfare.
"Suppo~e yo,i lose your billfl>ld in a dark pJac;,"
one Vielnamcse pro\'incial offi cia l explained. "But y~u
insist on !nuk ing for it wh ere th r re is light because It l.1<
eas!Pr . Well, you are now looking for the Communists in
the light place--the military fl el d---but. you never, neVtt
!lnd the:n all- t.hey a re also where you refuse to look'.,."

·ECONOMIC AID'

tii~

During the pa st decad e, $1.1 b!llion was spent on
Military Assistance Program for weapons. tan':s
a nd amm un ition for t.he Vietnamese armed forces. In addition. $2 .l billion was spent, in ' id NRm from Americ~"'l
economic ale! funds . But 75 per cent or t he economic a!d
was f or the pu r ::iose of payin g expensrs or the national
army throug·h the commercial lmpart program.
These fl1rnres excl ude the salaries of Am erican strvk ome n and government officials. , and all the ir opr rntmg
costs. as wcli as 1s asolir.c. parts and ammunition /o r
Am erican urn t ~
The re ls also the fact, 1hai th e Vietnames" nation ::-:
a rm y was built to counter ,i conve1,I Iona! Jn vasio n instead
of a guerrilla wa r. Once •the "slow-morion inv a:;ion" began
e. year ago. the a rmy \1· as slow in reacting .
Th ere is l'O grand. d ram at ic political ~trate,:y for
winning the political war lil South Viet Nam comparable
to the dramatic military actions .
The bom biu,: raids on North Viet Nam ha ve not 11nd.
cannot win the Political war within the South . But without
them the war could never have been won- or contained
--because of the sustai m•d influx of North Vietnamese
troop~. wrapons. and the much more signi ficant po1!1tcal
leadership cad re . If tile raids have not won tl1e war,
U. S

however, they have in effect won time-they have provided
the time to act politically.
Sources In Saigon now hope for a dynam ic poli \.i cal
m a neuver to reverse the adverse polit ical tide . They feel
the military operations then would not be considered an
t>nd · in themselves, as is now the ca se. but the mPans
<to an end-an honest. efflci~nt governmen t. a land reform
program fo r the peasants, a smashing medical -educational
prog ram that would li ft the nation C'conomkally and
politically into the 20th century .
These sources argue that the elaborate and effective
mllltary battle pla11s have in effect given the nation tirnr
to formulate and implement a m ass i1•c blueprint for the
political-cconomic:-rncial developmenc of Vii'l N<1m . Tn ~tf'ad of Viet Nam being simply a rnilit.ar.v b:ctttlegronnd. ll
could also become s polit ical showplacP tl1PY maintain.
"But we lack any political ima i, \nation .·• or.e ~·oungAmerlcan governme nt emplovce sn id . "We are fighting
against revolution. How can we expPcl to win'' It's like
advocating the murrlrr of mother •·
One Western ambassador says as a1, ,:xample that it
was "politkally inJ.clmissible " that 200 .000 rdugees in
tLe central part of the countrY---1•ic\1ms of a n a ulu :nn
flood , Communist terror and friendly bombing raid 'i--were ·not made a symbol of non-Communist revolmio n
by the Vietnamese governme nt. "They are gi ven charit y
rife and propaganda lectures." he said. ''Thr-y ~bould br
p t in factories and apartment houses lo show the world
·, ,the benefits of fieei1,g t he Communist side . Some anti. Communist refugees are no t giH n help by lhc ~01•p rn. i men t. and return to Viet Cong areas."
Another source cri ticized the Ameri can officialf for
not forc ing the Diem r egime years ago to establish "centers
' ot prosperity" in which the Vietn am ese people an d . the
outside world could see the results of 1he American
presence .

'"i()(j LD INTJlOlHiCE T\'
A high-ranking Western offlcial sug~e.sts that, t elevis ion should have been widely i nt.rodu cPr:i in \' ic t. N;un

to relay government propaganda t o the vll!a lo(CS. to educate
the children and to show adult fi lms on be tter farmrng
methods.
More t han three years ago , p:·lvat.e Japanese comp 11 nies made such proposals for this. and _ the Ja_p anP, r
gove rnment has tentatively ofl errd tech nical assistance
and funds . A television .,tation woul d ro, t. $5 00 .000 .
But successive Vietnamese ;;o,·ernments have post J><,n ed a decision on t.his project and Amrrican auth ori ti r~ appear cool to the lde:i. Econom ic planners are mor~
!n,eresied In Japan's cont.rlbut1011 to a $9 m1lllon bndg e for
the Mekong River .

The U.S . has political power ln Viet Nam, but chooses
not to use it . Yet a t, this tlme the Saigon regime is too
weak to act wlth poli tical dynamism and effectlveness.
"We have the power to take names and to punish,"
one American explained . ''But we don't do it. We are still
timorous about interfering in a n<itlon 's internal affairs ."
A W!'stem ambassador ag-reed. "The first basic fault
In the system," he ~aid. "is you are too respectful or Viet
Nam -,se independence . ., o yo11 do nnt interfere in makingdecisions on great i,sues-and ln my opinion· you shouldwhile instead you are very particular, you pester them on
sm<lll things nf almost no importance. This rreate5 the
wrong impression and does not get the results . Your instructions shoul d bP mor e articula te but fe wer. "
_American i;:enerals, colonels and ca ptai ns P dmit they
do not talk politics with thdr Vietnamese mili tary conntf'f pa rt.,; and n o _other Amerlcan a;2e ncv has hPen given
t Ile responsibility of cemrnting all the fighting Vietn amese
political factions together.
This is m contrast. t'1 th e Vif't Con!! and t.li e Communist ap;)ara tu- -a guerrilla ls first and foremo~ t a political
r~dre, and aft.er that a soldier. The Commu nist r0 1H1cal
ca dre--prrhaps ,.,ith onb· the rank of sern ea nt-r!ecid es
what villages will be attacked and the military commander,
with a rank of major, follows hls orders.

C.O:\l'.Vl'VNISM FIRST
Thi" Vif't C 0n g millt :t'.·y apparatus is n! a secondary,
s11pportmg 11ac111 e to the Communist pol!tical. m ac !1ine.
Henc-e American effo rts to · defeat thf' guerillas ~t1'l !l a ve
1,ot def Pa ed th polit:cal subvrsive. Americ an advisers in
the pro·,·inres adm ,t tl-iat even when the Communist
,.'uerrillas arc defraLed r.1ilitarily, the Communist political
cPll system in the village L, r arel y destroyed.
The appearance of nPW French fac es on the main
street of Sai;ron. t hr a rriv al of increasin g num ber of
pro -neutral ist Virtna mesc fr 1m Pa ns. and the re leRse o!
tho us and s of pro-nPuti alist a11d pro- Commu nist \"ietnam cse from prison vn th in ~hr last 18 months 1:, more important in t he s a bvnsive field than th G in troduction , of
American combal Ma r ines and paratroopers is in the
r nunter-AUf'!Tllla m1li tH,' 1it'ld.
·w1t.11 t.hr 2mount of money you are ~p,.nding· Ill the
military field." one Vietnamese ma.i or sa id. "you could
b1 ;y all tile la1~d from the landowners and glve it to the
peasa!1tS. You C'lUld pave Viet Nam with QO!d .,
A 155-mm . Jio·~·\tzer shell costs $70: a !JOO-pound
.:eneral purpose bomh rosts $180-?.nd tons of the:n are
expe nded da ilv and ni:;:htly in Viet Nam.

T om orrow: Corrupt ion in Sout h Viet Nam .