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Part of Red Tape Snarls Viet Farm Aid

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Red Tape Snarls Viet Farm Aid
By Beverly Deepe
A Specia.l Correspondent
SAIGON.

American bureaucratic redtape and in-fighting have
caui;ed serious delays in
President Johnson's pet project of low-cost rural electrification for Vietnamese peasants.
The program, announced
by President Johnson last
June as part of his Southeast
Asia aid plans, is at least six
months behindi schedule, one
source said. A $5 million Congressional appropriation earmarked especially for the
three - province cooperative
electricity project has been
diverted elsewhere, the source
added, while fWlds for the
project
itself "are
Just
trickling in."
In addition, the villagers
are incensed. One American
said peasants threw stones at
him in An Giang "Province,
here a promised cooperative
s still to be built.
Vietnamese villagers also
ave sent letters to President
Johnson-unrelayed by aid
officials here-and to the
Vietnamese Chief of State
both protesting the delays in
the rural electrification project, though expressing future
hopes for it.
Most American and Vietnamese officials have fought
tooth-and-nail for the project,
designed to bring low cost
electricity to 250,000 villagers
in Tuyen Due, Bien Hoa and
An Giang• Provinces.

'NIT-PICKING
One of them explained:
"We have the approval of
the President, the Washington
officials, the Vietnamese government, Ambassador Henry
Cabot Lodge-but the middlelevel American bureaucrats
didn't get the word . They
caused us delay after delay.
Those bastards have caused us
to lose at least six months
time.
"I didn't think nit-picking
bureaucrats could subvert
Congress and the President,
but, sister, they sure can. We
got two lines in the Honolulu
Declaration (about rural electrification)-maybe that will
shut them up. And maybe Mr.
Humphrey will ask enough
questions to get things mov-

ing ."

I

The Vice-President visited
South Viet Nam last week.
A-s envisioned by President
Johnson, construction was to
have started on the projects
last November, with completion sc'h 'll d for tiqis April.
The ,t hree
evinces involvid
are Tuyen Due, 150 miles
northeast of Saigon with
72,000 potential electricity

THE RURAL-ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAM in South Viet Nam bogged down
in red tape would help peasants like these, shown using a centuries-old technique
-a 6ieve-like basket and makeshift tripod-to thresh their rice for harvest.
users; An Giang Province, 90 aboµt. My job is to watch the
m!les southwest of Saigon, rules."
with 150,000 users and Bien
<A recent management surHoa Province, 30 miles north- vey team has recommended
east of Saigon, with 60,000 the reorganization of the U. S.
Agency for Internal Developusers.
ment. (AID) in Saigon.)
QUESTIONS
One American became so
angered by bureaucratic delays
"But the middle - Jevel • he considered resigning - but
bureaucmts threw up block didn't. Another debated writ•
after block and then counter- ing to his congressman, "but
blocks ,to stop the program. these bureaucrats even have
The bw·eaucrats ask thou- Congress under their thumb."
sands of questions-and it The in-fighting once became
takes ·t housands o! hours to so intense that Amer,i can ofanswer the questions. So we ficials threatened each other
lost time day by day,'' one with calling in congressional
irritated official said.
investigations.
"So you write a memo to exSINCE APRIL '65
plain the project arid some
The program began in April,
bureaucrat hides it in his bottom desk drawer !or a week 1S65, when President Johnson
and you have to go persuade sent a six-man group to Viet
Nam, to analyse the feasibility
him gently to pull it out.
"Then he refers it to an- of low-cost co-operative power
othe, department, for signa- in the countryside and how
tures or counter-signatures the development should be
handled.
and you Jose more time.
"Forty six days later the
"The American agencies all
have manual after manual de- President had announced the
fining ·t he relationship of projects and we .were floored,
things were moving so fast,"
everyone to everyone else so whenever someone wants to one ot:t:icial e~p!ained. "Then
do sometbing, there's alway a we got the $5 million congresrule to stop you," the source sional appropriation earmarked for the three-province
continued.
"One American bureaucrat project in Viet Nam andi it
pulled out the manual and really looked like things were
pointed to the rule prohibiting flying high.
"All we had to do· was to
me to do something. I said,
'I don't care ,a bout the rule&- get our engineers material tin
! want to help win the war here and we could begin conhere.' •The Saigon bureaucrat struction in November. Then
told me, 'I do care about the the President announced we'd
rules - and that's all I care begin construction in Novem-

ber and the Vietnamese v,iJ.
lagers were also told that."
He continued:
"But what we were too unsophisticated to realize was
the skilled shrewd, vicious opposi tionists, who with backkniving, with asking questions, blocked us for months
after month.
"We're still going to win
this war, but we don't deserve
to win the way we're operating now."
The first step in establishing
the rural cooperative requires
discussions and meetings with
village leaders, and then the
population. The most work
has been done in Tuyen Due
province, where it was reported that the first day 41
per cent of the people in five
selected hamlets were lined up
to sign the application and
become shareholders !or 100
piastres.
Some of them had to wait
in line for more than an hour
to get up to the desk. That
was about 41 per cent of the
11,000 families in the area. The
village chief said he expects
80 per cent could be signed up
shortly. But one official said:
"We've had to stop signing
up people. Once they sign up
and pay their 100 piastres they
want the power immediately.
They can not understand the
delays ·t hat we're having.
We're sitting on.a powder keg
because these peoJ;J,1e are driving me crazy. Once they pay
their 100 piastres they want
electric power 1ight now."