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comer oe wd tay ¥ 5 Tal One ‘yvondered whether or not this mi ght be done over and over again with other cad; being discovered next week. Jt would appear that the pacification was besed —espentielly on ea total economic subsidy and give-awey program. It was apparent that ¢this emell herlet could be ettacked and overcome at any time even | granting the Kill ef those inside the berbed wire to resist. Toe Buring the militery briefing I had pointed to en outlying governnent ep -end-esitet why the vetted not attacked such an ABOlEtTEd post. The psycholog: ical warfere off icer replied that in many cases the VC left isolate: posts alone in a kine of working agreement with the Saiga= government troops ‘who in turn left them elone. This was one of the problexs the Americans sapd they faced and could account for the ebility perhaps of some of these isolated ‘Mop ei fi cA hen et vee sre e¢ Senet Fawn 5 tin Tee au.ans af nAnnes +h Upeeet ae yjiemletse to Bur FIVE at SATGOL AW a Pane . «.- Boe eral, Sty th th ad Laid J s daiatend ~ gome hamlets hed ywndergone pacification up to six times, ___The sound of the returning helicopter cut short our visit. and we said ‘our goodbyes and shortly were eirborne over the hamlet flying almost vertically vp to avoid crossing over hostile country where VC might take the helicopter und “~~ fires It wes eB bitter complaint ef the psychological warfare officer that most of the operations in the province were conducted from the air or by shelling a i zeng distance fron the ground. He felt that real pacificetion could never occur iti] personnel -were—actuelis-on-the-ground and working throughout -the prevince. A likelihood of this eccuring in the near future did not seem “bright to him. On could only conelude that with over lOO hamlets to go any idea that the "end inde de in eight’-is a myth, As ea matter of fact, this was clearly recognized by the Provrep who ruefully said we really have only one pacified province in all ef ‘Yietnam. He was referring to An Giang which is a province with specific ethnic and tribal minorities which have historically been hostile to the VC. During my visit, I once again made the trip by land through Phouc Tuy Province which had been declared pacified several times. There were the same forts where Americans and Vietnamese lived in encampments behind concrete and darbed wire. -There were?’the game regrouped peasants in make-shift villages amid a devastated and destroyed countryside. The only difference was that this time the American militery presence fad been augmented by Austrelian militery personn who traversed the main road with enormous canon carried on great, wide half-trac vehicles. There were also extensive mobile mortar companies which shelled the hille ef the province both by day and by night. Aerial surveillance continued with observer planes being the pilot fish for air strikes. Any idea that this province was "pecified" eny more than it was @ year ago would be hard to pustain and it is important to realize that, basically, pacification has meant to the military net winning ever the Vietnamese people but making it possible to enter . the province without being shot at, - - : Zi held Jong conversations with Dr. Au Truong Thanh who was Minister ‘of Finance under Diem but was later imprisoned by Diem. He was also briefly Minist of Finance under President Ky but was later imprisoned by him as well. Pr. Than Was & peace candidate fot president but ruled off the ballot by the military jun in response to a question regarding the rise of anti-Americanism he said, "There dis Binmost a total Teck of support for the American position." He indicated tnat Se RR aa AM Rl BN rk hk Se ee ee if a poll were taken among say 50 of his friends none would think that the u. s could in any sense win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese. Gaya = -2:-