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aa ee le _ to last out the year and leave. The civilians are often quite candid about their high pay and their fringe benefits and their feeling that they would not be able to do ) nearly #S well back in the States. . _. 5. There is great demor alization among. many Vietnamese because of the low esteem in which they hold the Saigon regime. They feel that it is corrupt and graft-ridden. They have little respect for its leaders. On the other hand one hears Americans and Vietnamese alike refer to the NLF in terms of respect; they eonsider the KNLF to be honest in its dealings with the peasants and they say that the NLF leadership is close to the people rather than separated by distinctions of status and privilege. 6, The recent elections aroused little or no enthusiasm among the Vietnamese. The feeling was widespread that the elections were rigged from start to finish. 7. (‘There is virtually no freedom of dissent or of independent political action. ears persistent rumors that the jails a are packed with political prisoners who ubjected to torture and beatings. . 8. The elections are viewed by Vietnamese and many Americans as changing nothing in Vietnam, but useful to the Johnson Administration for propaganda purposes — in the U.S. In this situation I reached three basic conclusions, one economic, one humani- tarian, and one political. oO . South Vietnam, instead of remaining a major rice export area, is now importing mearly one million tons this year. Rubber exports have been cut in half. A signifi- want new War-related export item is scrap metal, bought by Japanese junk dealers and shipped to Yokohama. - - Meanwhile imports of highly sophisticated western products, mainly from the U.S. and Japan, soar. In four years the ratio of imports to exports has gone up from “4-to-1 to 25-to-l. Tate es oe . “This grossly artificial economic activity is made possible, and even essential, by the vast influx of consumer buying power in the form of wages, both military and civilian, and other war-related activities. Without the flood of western imported goods inflation would bring all economic activity to a halt. As it is, inflation is a continuing crisis problem, ‘Those who suffer most are the villagers and those who profit the most are the urban (privi leged class in government, business, and the upper devels of the military. ote ly —_ - ma em foo eh The Vietnamese earn money in this U.5. “financed economy by the services they render in several major highly lucrative, #ar-related occupations: (1) the construc- tion of luxury housing and office buildings for foreigners and weaithy Vietnamese, - (2) military service, (3) prostitution, and (4) bribery and influence peddling. _ ee et ee _. Ce ee sage PROT asa. net te Td Fa nea ne VC