2 g "UNDAY, MAHCH 10. 1963 MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON
Sonnftheasft Asia Subject .off Decisions droops
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SHOWS SOUTHEAST ASIA This United
Press International newsmap shows South
cast Asia and the three political entities
Effectiveness of U.S. Aid to
South Vietnam Raises Question
(Editor's note: The sixth
topic of discussion In the
Great Decisions program
this year concerns Laos and
Vietnam and whether
Southeast Asia Is in danger.
The following dispatch was
provided by the Foreign
association. New York,
which sponsors the pro
gram.) When a bipartisan .Senate
group headed by Majority
Leader Mike Mansfield (D
Mont.) threw doubt recently
on the effectiveness of t h e
$400 million a year U. S. com
mitment to South Vietnam, it
raised a question that Is likely
to be a hot issue in the 1964
presidential campaign.
As the Mansfield group saw
it. the U. S. has little to show
for the $2.1 billion in eco
nomic and military aid It has
pumped into the beleaguered
Southeast Asian republic
since 10SS. Mansfield noted
that South Vietnam still has
"substantially the same diffi
culties" It had In 1D55, "If
Indeed they have not been
compounded."
In addition to financial aid,
the U. S. has stationed 12,000
noncoinbat special forces in
South Vietnam to backstop
the country's defense, U. S.
troops are assigned to "advise,
observe, support and assist"
the 205,000-man regular army.
Though theoretically noncum
bntants they may fire only
when fired upon one-third
of the troops arc regularly
exposed to the shooting war.
More than 50 have been kill
ed. Casualty figures will mount
In coming months If the U. S.,
as it has pledged, stays In the
war until the Communist de
feat is assured. How long that
will be no one knows for cer
tain but officials, both U. S.
and Vietnamese, guess 10
years, possibly longer,
Protraclod Conflict
This pessimistic estimate Is
based on the recognition that
in guerilla warfare it takes
more than Just so many
rounds of ammunition and so
many men to win. Political
and psychological factors arc
Important loo. The rebels
have proved adept at all three.
The 10,000 pro-Communist
Vivlcong guerrillas, support
ed by 10,000 15,000 North
Vietnamese troops and sup
plied with Soviet. Czech and
Chinese arms, have used not
only main force but political
Crater Lions Set
'Fun Fair' Here
The Crater Lions club will
sponsor a major event again
this year In conjunction with
the annual Pear Blossom fes
tival, Gene Barlow, publicity
chairman for the club, has
announced.
The spring project will be
"A Gigantic run Fair," ac
cording to Barlow. Dates are
April 10, 20 and 21. The lair
will b held at the Mcdford
Armory.
Co-chairmen Ted Gerow
and Abb Gressclt will co-ordinate
plans for a square dance
Jamboree, art exhibits, sport
ing events, fashion shows,
hobby and home exhibits and
continuous stage entertain
ment. Contests and oilier projects
are tentatively scheduled.
Anyone Interested in ex
hibiting at the Crater Linns
'Tun Fair"' is askud to contact
the I'viubit .'iixiinirfi; I Inflicted heavy casualties on
Franklin, at 772-6278, Barlow i the Vietnamese troops de
said, 'spite their 10 to 1 superiority.
kitntt uihhk-
Communist,
(UPI)
persuasion to gain control
over half of South Vietnam's
16,000 widely scattered ham
lets. They have indoctrinated
the peasants and then recruit
ed them as couriers, spies and
part-time fighters.
Because the guerrillas can
move in small bands and en
dure indescribable physical
hardships, they place the gov
ernment's regular troops at a
severe disadvantage.
In numbers and supplies
the government forces have
the logistic edge. A 72-000-man
regional civil guard and
an 80,000 -man self-defense
corps both effective local
weapons against the rebels
supplement the regular army.
U. S. arms and 150 U. S. heli
copters have greatly increased
the striking power and mo
bility of these forces. Where
the government is weakest is
in Its ability to mobilize pop
ular support.
Not Running Contest
Ngo DInh Diem, South Viet
nam's 62-ycar-old bachelor
president, is not running a
popularity contest or a de
mocracy. He and the few peo
ple whom he trusts mostly
members of his family run
the country by decree. There
is no freedom of assembly,
speech or press. Political op
ponents are either Jailed or
exiled. "Freedom in an un
derdeveloped society," Dicm's
brother has said, "is some
thing that can be achieved
only through militancy and
vigilance."
ViRilanco, Diem has found,
is difficult in a country with
the rugged terrain of South
Vietnam - Impenetrable jun
gle, mountain and swamp. De
fending isolated villages
against Communist infiltra
tion in the past has been an
almost Impossible task. A
village liberated by day would
be back in Communist hands
by night.
To protect the villages and
cut the guerrillas off from
their major source of rice and
recruits, Diom two years ago
launched "Operation Sunrise"
-- a program which calls for
the construction of 8.000 stra
tegic hamlets. Trenches, mud
walls, barbed wire or sharp
ened bamboo slakes surround
the hamlets and the Inhabi
tants arc armed for self-defense.
At U. S. urging and with
U. S. help. Diem Is supplying
the hamlets with public health
and education teams and per
mitting the local population a
degree of independence they
have not known before. Such
reforms, U. S. officials be
lieve, are as important in win
ning the war as military vic
tories Guarded U. S. Optimism
The success to dale of Ihe
experimental strategic hamlet
program is one reason why
U. S. observers view the fu
ture with "guarded opti
mism." They arc also encour
aged by statistics: the increas
ed rale of guerrilla defections,
tile ratio of casualties which
now favors the government
5 to 3. and the higher propor
tion of guerrilla weapons cap
lured to those losl by govern
ment Iroops.
Despite the statistics, the
future of the war Is still very
much in doubt. The battle
fought at Ap Bac last Jan. 2
was the bloodiest single battle
of the war. It took three Amcr.
lean lives, downed five out
of 15 U. S. helicopters and
neutralist and pro-western.
U. S. officers in the field com
plained afterward that their
advice had not been heeded,
that the Vietnamese com
manders lacked decisiveness
and leadership.
If the U, S. abandons Us
advisory role and turns com
batant, as some people believe
it should, it runs the risk of
full-scale armed intervention
by North Vietnam, possibly
Red China. If it continues to
advise without any control
over military planning and
execution, it may invite more
Ap Bacs.
Two oilier alternatives are
for the U. S. to pull out of
South Vietnam and Southeast
Asia, which the Mansfield re
port warns "would open the
region to upheaval and chaos"
or push for a negotiated set
tlement along the lines of the
Laos truce.
Deterioration in Laos
The Laos truce, signed In
Geneva last July, is an un
easy one. The right wing-neutralist-Communist
coalition,
headed by neutralist Premier
Souvanna Phouma, is an In
effectual three-headed mon
ster. It has been unable to
accomplish any of the three
tasks it set out to do eight
months ago: integrate the ri
val military forces, merge the
independent civil administra
tions, hold general elections.
In fact the situation has de
teriorated. The pro-Communist Pathct
Lao troops stationed in t h e
North are reportedly trying
to starve out the 12,800 neu
tralist troops in order to force
them to Join up or give up and
clear the way for a take-over
of central Laos.
There have been two major
violations of the truce: for
eign troops some 2,000 of
the 10,000 Communist North
Vietnamese striking force
were to have withdrawn from
the country by midnight, Oct.
6. They arc still around, and
no attempt has been made to
force them out. Furthermore,
they have been reinforced by
fled Chinese, ostensibly de
tailed as armed "guards" to
protect work ganj-s building
roads between China and
Laos.
The truce In Laos, many ob
servers believe, Is an object
lesson for those who propose
a negotiated settlement in
South Vietnam. What are the
alternatives? should the U. S.
be prepared to Intervene di
rectly? Should be prepare to
pull out? These questions are
likely to figure large in the
upcoming presidential cam-paign.
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Corner 8th and Fir Sti.
Communist Guerrillas Practice
(Editor's Note: The fol
lowing dispatch it a team
report prepared by United
Press International corre
spondents Arthur J. Dom
men of Hong Kong, Neil
Sheehan of Saigon and Ray
F. Herndon of Vientiane.)
By United Press International
Driving along the roads of
Indo-Chir.i at night, one used
to round a bend and suddenly
see glowing in the darkness
ahead the bright eyes of
tiger.
On seeing the approaching
car, the cunning beast usually
gave a quick bound and dis
appeared into the jungle foil,
age overhanging the roadside
Occasionally, however, hypno
tized by the glare of the head
lights, the tiger would remain
transfixed to one spot and he
would then become easy prey
for a hunter s gun.
The Communist guerrillas
of Ho Chi Minh's Lao Dong
party, like tigers, make a prac
tice of eluding detection
whenever possible. But some
times, in their 16-year history
of continuous jungle warfare
in southeast asia, they have
allowed themselves to become
dazzled by some action of
their enemy.
Unable to Dislodge
For instance, after months
of tedious effort, they have
been unable to dislodge the
sturdy Meo tribesmen from
fortified positions deep with
in Red-held territory in north
ern Laos. And in South Viet
Nam, guerrillas have in re
cent months begun attacking
the so-called strategic ham
lets in which the Saigon gov
ernment is hoping to isolate
the war-weary peasants from
the insurgents.
In almost all cases the
guerrillas have been unsuc
cessful in their attempts to
gain the food and intelligence
which these hamlets contain.
Often they have come away
badly mauled.
Strange Sort of Battle
This is why the Communists
prefer a mobile war to a static
one - a war which has no
visible front and in which an
attacking force can melt away
into the countryside in com
parative safety.
To most Americans, the
warfare being waged in South
east Asia today is a strange
sort of battle. It takes getting
used to. The rapidly stepped
up American commitment in
South Vietnam is now a little
more than one year old, and
the Geneva-guaranteed coali
tion government in Laos is
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The library has subscribed
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This brings to this area the
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RESOLUTION APPROVED
Salcm-ilTC-Thc Ways and
Means committee Friday ap
proved a resolution which
would release $75,000 from
building funds for purchase
of property needed by Port
land State College for expan
sion.
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MOVE ACROSS PADDY Combat-armed
Vietnamese troops move out across rice pad
dies during an offensive against Communist
jusl a little more than six
months old.
Deeper American involve
ment In South Viet Nam has
produced testimonials from
visitors to Saigon of the pro
ficiency, daring and tenacity
of the Viet Cong guerrillas
facing President Ngo Dinh
Diem's government.
world," according to an artl
cle by D. B. McCruden in
the Christian Science Monitor,
"the five annual Moody's
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and foreign company in which
the Investing public in the
United States might have an
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McCruden is president of
Moody's Investment service
and the article was written
at the request of The Chris
tian Science Monitor, an in
troductory note states.
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American officials engaged
in advising and training the
government troops do not at
tempt to gauge how long the
war will go on, but are offici
ally optimistic about even
tual success.
Will Take Time
Official view in South Viet
Nam is that it will certainly
take time to break the hold
of Ihe Communist-dominated
Vict Cong on the peasants, but
repeated military victories
will accomplish this in the
end.
The North Vietnamese gov
ernment view of the position
is entirely different. The
North Vietnamese says they
are fighting a war to reunify
their country, not to defend
one-half of it. Moreover, as
long ago as 1951, the platform
of the Lao Dong parly pro
claimed the interrelationship
of Viet Nam, Laos and Cam
bodia: "The people of Vict Nam
must unite closely with the
peoples of Laos and Cambodia
and give them every assist
ance in the common struggle
against imperialist aggression,
for the complete liberation of
IndoChina and the defense
of world peace."
Basically, the view express
Eluding Detection If
Vict Cong guerrillas in a recent picture
taken after being dropped into the march
land from U.S. flown helicopters. (UPI)
ed by the North Vietnamese
Communist leaders in Hanoi
is that:
They are riding the wave
of nationalist sentiment In
Indo-China.
The forces which rid the
land of French rule almost
a decade ago will also rid
the land of the Americans
and their allies.
In Laos a significant mile
stone in this direction has
been achieved with the forma
tion of a coalition govern
ment. Not Nationalist Figure
South Viet Nam Presi
dent Diem is not a national
ist figure to match North Vict
Nam's bearded "Uncle Ho"
and, therefore, the more U.S.
aid Diem receives, the more
his people picture him as an
American puppet; and, con
versely, the more independ
ence he shows, the more the
Americans will be tempted
to override his bureacratic
apparatus in order to achieve
military results.
The North Vietnamese arc
convinced that the war in
South Viet Nam will last as
long as the American Con
gress is willing to finance it
year after year.
If the Communists feel Ihcv
can bide tneir time in aouin
Viet Nam without fear of
having the war spread to the
industrial heartland of North
Viet Nam, they have been
actively consolidating them
selves in Laos.
Refused Permission
Thanks to North Vietna
mese help, the Pathet Lao
to this day have refused oer
mission even to Prince Sou
vanna Phouma to visit the
Laotian town of Sam Neua.
The shifting Communist guer
rilla organization in South
Viet Nam, on the other hand,
has not yet been able to af
ford the luxury of a base area
within the country which
would be completely secure
from attack.
According to American in
telligence sources, the Plain
of Jars shows this pattern of
zonal control in Laos. The
neutralist forces are dominat
ing the plain. At strategically
located roadblocks along the
main channels of communica
tion, the Pathet Lao have de
ployed their own units, which
are theoretically allied with
the neutralist forces. Then, in
a wide circle stretching for
hundreds of miles, staunchly
anti-Communist Mco tribes
men hold fortified positions
menacing the Pathet Lao,
completing the jigsaw puzzle
like pattern.
The training of the Mcos
by American special forces
team came too late to save
Laos from Communist en
croachment, but now a serious
effort has been initiated in
South Viet Nam to organize
the mountain tribes, who oc
cupy a similar position there,
racially related to those across
the Laotian border and hav
ing equally little contact with
the lowland peasants.
Purpose of Effort
The purpose of this effort,
being carried on by small de
tachments of U. S. special
forces army advisers, is to
create a "human wall" along
South Viet Nam's long ex
posed border. The "wall" is
to consist of jungle trails like
the backs of their hands, and
will observe and report move
ment of Viet Cong infiltrating
southward to the Mekong
Delta.
The North Vietnamese had
reason to be pleased with Ihe
1962 Geneva settlement on
Laos. It obviously left their
armed forces, just over a bor
der across which they had
constructed roads and bridges,
In a better position than those
of the United States.
For the West, the Laos set
tlement was purchased at a
price. While the North Viet
namese were able to regard
their own forces as forging
ahead on a unified front in
Indochina, the United Stales
appeared to be launched on a
schizophreny of policy which
left many of its allies be
wildered: neutralism on an
ever greater scale in South
Viet Nam.
Serve as Corridors
Militarily speaking, if one
accepts the fact that the ter
ritories of neutralist nations
can serve as corridors of infil
tration for Communist cadres,
neutralism in South Viet Nam
and anti-Communism in Laos
might have made more sense,
because it would have left the
free world with fewer miles
of frontier to protect.
Military spokesmen have
maintained that South Vict
Nam is a provine ground for
techniques to counter Commu
nist insurgency. This may be
a necessary thing, since such
techniques failed to emerge
Possible
a decade ago from the case
history of the collapse of tha
Chiang Kai-shek regime on
the mainland of China.
Looking ahead, however,
some American observers aro
wondering if South Viet Nam
is not going to prove one.
again the old theory that no
amount of military assistance
is able to prevent an unpopu
lar government from being
undermined by determined
Communists.
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