Speech #890302751

As Mr. Sheehan writes: Some American officials with long experience in Vietnam estimate that about 20 per cent of United States aid supplied for counterinsurgency projects in the countryside finds its way to the Vietcong and that another 30 to 40 per cent is diverted by Government officials. Cement. roofing. steel bars and other building materials destined for schools and refugee housing mysteriously end up on the open market or in private villas and apartment buildings. "What gets down to the poor son of a bitch in the paddy field." one official said. "is a tricklA" To where is U.S. aid diverted? Mr. Sheehan tells us: Most nonCommunist Vietnamese are incapable. because of the values of the society in which they live. of looking beyond individual and family interests.