Speech #890184889

The battles may be won by the military. but the true victory will be won by a people inspired with confidence and hope that the future will bring a better life for themselves and their children. Second. The subcommittee recommends that refugee assistance increasingly emphasize longterm rehabilitation and resettlement. There is an urgent need for meaningful programs which will restore hope in the refugeesindeed. in all the people of South Vietnamas well as keep them alive. Activity is needed to educate the children. to care for the orphans. and to raise standards of health. Activity is needed to establish cottage industries. cooperative selfhelp projects. local agricultural development programs. vocational training and general education centers. resettlement villages. and other channels to train idle hands. to encourage industriousness. to stimulate productive life. and achieve active allegiance to the Government. Such programs will contribute to nation building in South Vietnam and the longterm betterment of its citizens. Third. The subcommittee recommends that programs for economic and social development be coupled with efforts to encourage the growth of rudimentary but viable democratic political action within the refugee centers. Elected councils within the centers. closely tied to the existing political structure could reflect and serve the interests of the dispossessed at the provincial and national levels of the South Vietnamese Government. The meaning and experience of creative and democratic political activity cannot be minimized in a country where the concepts of nationhood. and of a national government responding to individual needs and legitimate demands for social change. are novel and without tradition. Fourth. The subcommittee recommends that greater efforts be made by U.S. officials to stimulate a very active and creative concern for the people of South Vietnam on the part of the Government in Saigon. New ways must be explored to induce the South Vietnamese Government to drop its lethargy toward refugees and others in distress. Because of the highly political nature of the conflict in South Vietnam. it is mandatory that the Government not be satisfied with military measures alone. A responsive Government will care for and protect refugees. and institute reform and economic development to alleviate the popular grievances upon which insurgency feeds. South Vietnam needs quickimpact and easily discernible reforms. and appropriate psychological action campaigns. The Government must involve as many of the people as possibleincluding the refugees. a significant cross section of South Vietnamese citizens. U.S. assistance programs for refugees and their fellow citizens should be implemented as much as possible through the South Vietnamese Government. The U.S. role should be essentially indirect and supportive. in order to help strengthen and encourage the Government in expanding its presence and control in the countryside. To assure that U.S. assistance will be used promptly. effectively. and economically. the subcommittee believes that additional coordinating and operating procedures must be developed within both Governments and between them.