!L~C~ Milton C

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY EAST LANSING COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS November 10, 1961 President John A. Hannah 319 Ad.ministration Building Campus Dear President Hannah: I am enclosing herewith a copy of an article by Professor Jaffe and myself entitled, "A Crumbling Bastion." At the time of its publication in June of this year, the article represented a minority view on Vietnam. Since then, the situation there has, of course, deteriorated further, and our position seems to be more than coni1rmed by subsequent articles appearing in the Wall Street Journal and The New Republic -- the latter au thored by the Time - Life correspondent in Saigon. I am taking the liberty of enclosing copies of both these articles. Mr • .t'resident, at this late hour I pose only one question: Has MSUG been honest with itself, honest with you, and honest with the American people? Was not all this apparent three years ago and should it not there fore have been reported back when something could have been done about iti Sincerely yours, ,,!l~c~ Milton c. Taylor Professor of Economics MCT :bjs Mff·/ 1 3 1961 b~lCRIGAN S'i'A'f£ UhlV'.ERSITY Prc::::! .... :i!.' .. ,::._. ;:;, A Crumbling Bastion 'Flattery and Lies Won't Save Vietnam by .Jldrian Jaffe and Milton C. Taylor Vice Pre5ident Johnson's chMacterization of President dm except upon specifac government approval, which Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam as the "Churchill of to is virtually impossible to obtain without evidence o£ day" is more than hyperbole. If it was sincerely munt, political reliability. The press is u thoroughly con it is the kind of self-deception that has so oftm blinded trolled as it is in the Sovi~t Union. us to truth. And its absurdity becomes immedi.ttely Diem himself b,u admitted quite candidly to foreign appuent when we recall what purposes the United journalists on ~ion that democntic pr;ictices are a States has hoped to further in Vietnam: (1) a stable, luxury that Vietnam c&nnot afford. But he has not ad viable and democratic bastion of the free World; (2) mitted that the Vietnamese Government is an abtolute economic growth and .a consequent improvement in the dict<ltorship, run entirely by the Proident, with JSsist standard of living of the Vietnamese; and (J) an alter ance from hit family. Elections are Umittd to approved native to Communism. To these ends, we have given candidates, and opposition candidates (Dr. Du, for n since 1955 approximately h.'4 billion in economic u ample) are either jailed or discouraged from running. sistance and defense support, and about $500 million In the recent presidential election, Diem was oppoied in military hardware. In comparison with $13.7 per by three candid.ates, but not one was tM leader of a capita of economic aid given Vietnam in 19'><>, Pakistan politiul party or had established a record u an op received $3.e &nd India $1.9. position spokesnun. In addition, the elections are t0 As of June, 1961, what h.as been accomplished1 It f11udulent (Army detachments are rusMd to any poll must be said that Vietnam is not stable, not viable, not when the ii1ue is in doubt) that PrtSident Dian prob democratic and not a bution. The instability of the ably lost the election ,because he only received 63 per• government was demonstrated in the recent revolt cmt of the S&igon vote. 1lu~ National Assembly is a ;i~st the rf'gime in which an elite segment of the pitiful parody of parliament, not only a ndtber •tamp, .umed forces took part, ti revolt which required, on the but OM which it self-inking. part of President Diem, stem repression ;ind repriul. Vimwnese complain most bitterly about what tMy The government is virtually unable to maint<lin security call "rut. by family," which i& the lod~ng of nearly outside the city limits of Saigon. Communist Viet-Cong all policy and control of the govttnment dl"la group of guerriUu effectively control most of the country&ide, relativn. A ch~ddist of the members of thit group and within the pa:.t month President Kennedy has felt •Ha modem-<!Ay record for n«pottsm: brotl\K Np compelled to offer additional aid to incrn5e the Army Dinh Nhu is the principal political adviser of the Prnt· by 20,000 in order to prevent a compl.te rottt. • dent and head of the 70,000 underconr meml:ien of Second, the Vietnamese Government is ·not viable, the Can-uo organization; Nhu's wife is first Lady oE 9cept insofar as it uses connivance and force to pto the regime and leader of the orgilllization of Vietn..,. long its life. Nor is it democratic. It maintains a seem ese womm; brother Ngo Dtnh Can is Governor of Cm- police, encourages Vi~tnamcse to ink>rm one mothe-# tr.al V~tnam; brother Ngo Dinh Luyen is the AinbQ and detains some ..,o,ooo political prison~rs in concen- Nldor to London, Bonn and Brussels; Mn. Nh.u's tation CU\ps. Arrests are made ubitruify, ~tentioa father, Tran Ven Chuong, is Ambassador to WasWAg ii indefinite, fair trial procedures are unkN'Wtl, the ton, Canada, Argentina and Brazil; and Mn. Nhu's Nleguards of writs, juries and legal c:Ufense are virtu mothu rtprnents Vietnam in the United N&tiOl\s. Still ally ignored, and almost all lAw is by edict. Travel in another brothu it the Rom.in Catholic bishop of Vifth side the country is circumscribed, travel .abroad fodMd- Long. True, there is little definitive proof of widesprucl AoatAH J•nt u>u a Smith-Mundt Profes.or of Ameri corruption. How could there be, since there is no po ci:sn LitUlrtur~ arui Civilization ot tlw U nivf!"raity of Sci liticAl oppooition to expose vmality md the.re if ~ pi; in 19_r;7-58, 11ntl MILTON C. TAYLO« MUU fiscal ...Y plete censor.hip of the prns7 But 'the stories are rife. ~ to tlw Vi•tnllflf'r~H Government in 195~. Both A Nineantan will confide that he loet a govetftllllmt ge faculty ~5 11t Michi!a" StlfH U"'11n1ity. c.atrad "becaaaw his competitor made a higher pay-ol; t 17 Tai N1w lhrvn1c an intelltttual will relate the num~r of movf1e houses IWnne are following the usual Communist policy, they in Paris owned by Mrs. Ngo Dinh Nhu. are making a cONumpti<m S&Crifice in the short run ill Nor is Vietnam a bastion. Although Vietnamese order to stimulate capital growth. troops have been trained by American officers and As a result, it is apparent by visual observation (sta have American weapons, it is doubtful that the present tistics on income are so inucurate that they are JNM Army could stave off a full-scale Communist attack ingless) that American aid has created a nowvnu rich1 from the North, since the North Vietnamese have dou of importers, contractors, gowrnment employees and ble the number of troops. There are 150,000 men in commercial entrepreneurs. But the broad streets of Sai the regular South Vietnam Army, 50,000 in the civil gon, the villas of the government officials, and the lux guard, and about 50,000 local militiamen, but these urious restaurants do not reRect the standard of living forces have not been able to impede the increasing ac of the people. In the rural areas where foreigners Hl tivity of 7 ,000 to 15 ,000 Communist guerrillas in South dom go and are rarely admitted, the bulk of the popu Vietnam. Furthermore, evm if the troops were loyal, lation requires food, medicine, shelter and tools. There and it is clear from the recent revolt that many of is little evidence to suggest that American ~ bu had thnn are not; even if the troops were inspired by a deep an appreciable effect on the needs of theH peasant.. love of their government, and many of them, in com One American who undertook ntemive rnearch in the mon with the civilians, are apathetic; even if the troops vil~ges reported tMt most peasants were unaware of were violently opposed to Communism, and there is American aid. Of all the statistics that are disad.uted no evidence that they are fired up ideologically, they by the American FrimdS of Vietnam or the gowm are not equipped and trained to fight a hit-and-run war ment' s paid New York publicists, none cieal with the in the rice paddies against the Viet-Cong. incidence of leprosy, the number of unemployed, or the amount of malnutrition. Yet American relief work Economic Developmtnt ers in VietIWn report that the incidence of leproey ii one of the higMst in the Orient, tMt the unemployed What, then, of our effort to encourage economic are conspicuous on the strttts of Saigon, and that the growth? The system works this way: Vietnamnc im poor fikh food out of the garbage cans of the rich. porters deposit piasters into a counterpart fund, receiv There is no dearth of other statistics which attempt ing in turn foreign exchange advanced by the US; pias to prove that Vietnam is in the vanguard of economic ters in the counterput fund are used by the Vietnam development 1n Asia. But these are purposely decep ese Government for public expenditur~. But in the his tive. We are told that rice exports in ~C)6o reached• tory of counterp.ut fund operations, there are two all-time high since 1954, without at the NIM time revealing facts: First, of all goods imported by Viet being informed t~t these exports are not u high as nam under the commercial aid program, fully thrtt under the French regime, even when allowance i.s made fourths have been consumer rather than capital goods.

Load more