Mohr reported that these officials had been promoted. Quan has been made commander of artillery forces in the I Corps area which includes a dozen provinces around Saigon. and Dat has been made assistant commander of the 18th South Vietnamese Army Division. Senator EDWARD KENNEDY of Massachusetts. has given us a firsthand report on the extent of government corruption in Vietnam and the indifference of its officials to the plight of the millions of tragic refugees and the victims of the war. He says: I say that the explanation for this terrible situation is not cultural but political. I say that most of the officials in Saigon do not care about these stricken people. that they are more interested in maintaining their own positions of power than in helping the victims of the war. and that from the way they look upon the people outside Saigon. and the way they treat the peasants elsewhere. they have become much like the colonialists who trained them.
Identified stereotypes
Officials in Saigon are indifferent to the plight of refugees and are corrupt.