Friday, October 18, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three ' Friday, October 18, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three CIVILIANS APATHETIC Corruption rampant in Saigon government By D. GARETH PORTER College Press Service SAIGON (CPS) - After many years of war, Saigon is still de- feating itselfat the, level where the government must deal with the Vietnamese people. Indiffer- ence and corruption among mili- tary officers and civilians-as well as the careless and brutal behavior of the South Vietnamese Army- continue to be primary causes of the staying power of the National Liberation Front. Although the lack of trained ad- ministrators contributes to the low quality of its local government, Saigon has not even used the talent.available to it. More fun- damental is the fact that too few province and district officials are motivated by genuine concern for the welfare of the /people. Many of them owe their jobs to some powerful figure in Saigon and look upon them as a means of personal enrichment, status, or even as a way of avoiding the draft. The American agricultural ad- viser in one Northern province, for example, estimates that only five or six of the 16 agricultural offi- cials in the province really care q about improving rural standards of living. Corruption is nearly universal within the South Vietnamese gov- ernment. "It's pretty common knowledge," says one U.S. Prov- ince senior adviser, "that every province Chief has to develop some additional means of income." Most of them come from well- to-do families, went to French military school, and now have sons and daughters in private schools or universities. They are expected to entertain guests fre- quently with food and drink. All of this takes more than the monthly salary of the chief. Most American advisors are tolerant of a certain level of 'of- ficial graft; in one province near Saigon, the Province Chief ex- plains frankly to his counterpart the ways in which he obtains his extra spending money. These ad- visers hold that the Vietnamese accept modest graft as a way of life and that only excessive graft is condemned. Over public reaction to corrup- tion is infrequent but may be spectacular when it occurs. In Long Khanh province, 3000 people demonstrated in the streets of the capital early in July to protest against corruption and oppressive practices. Americans are often reluctant to press charges of corruption, even when they have clear evidence of it. They must get along with gov- ernment officials in order to get the programs administered suc- cessfully; and it is the output- sacks of cement delivered or police operations conducted - which counts on their record. "If you do recommend that some officials be removed, it will take six to eight months while Saigon lines up a new job for him," says one pro- vince adviser, "and during that time, you can forget about the program he is running." District Chiefs have a fiefdom all to themselves. In the usual case, the chief has bought his job and continues to pay off some combination of the province chief, the Corps Commander and per- haps a patron in Saigon. He in turn is free to exploit all the op- portunities for profit within the district. aUntil this year there were a number of able graduates of the National Institute of Administra- tion serving in the position of Dep- uty District Chief. They tended to be idealistic and critical of corrup- tion. In one case,' the Deputy caught his chief in a flagrant abuse of power and declined to take a bribe to remain silent, whereupon he was forced to leave the district under threat of being shot. Now, however, almost all of. these young administrators h a v e been drafted under the new mobil- ization law, leaving only those with political connections g o o d enough to evade it. Far more serious in its poli- tical implications than corruption is the 'careless brutality, theft and extortion which continues to char- acterize the behavior ,of govern- ment troops in the hamlets. In- terviews done for the U.S. in one hamlet in Binh Tuy Province last year revealed that a high percent- age of the people had serious grie- vances against the military. -Associated Press VIETNAMESE CIVILIAN GUARD units like this group of high school girls near Ben Tre have been the Saigon's government's showpieces of civilian support. Thus far, such groups have not seen any action, but they will be used for local guard duty as they improve their markmanship. MOVE TO LEGALIZE POWER- Mao r'ead to rebuild stability . i TONIGHT and SATURDAY at Frank Allison (from Miami, Florida) 1421 Hill St. 8:30 P.M. By WILLIAM L. RYAN Associated Press Special Correspondent If there is substance in Peking Radio's latest claim of victory in the cultural revolution, Mao Tse- tung's forces are just about ready to legalize their seizure of power and try to rebuild stability in the nation of 700 million. According to an unofficial Singing blues, ballads and, folk-rock music accompanied by guitar $1.00 cover includes free food! I E PAULSEN-FOR-PRESIDENT Gigantic Political Rally Say NO to THE BIG 3 NO-To the Imperialist Wars NO-To the Racism at Home Volunteers are needed to distribute literature for the CLEAVER-HOCHMAN CAMPAIGN translation of a broadcast editorial from Red Flag, Peking's main the- oretical journal, "China's Khrush- chev" - President Liu Shao-chi - has been stripped of party and government positions in a "com- plete victory" for the forces of Party Chairman Mao. The editorial - reflected confi- dence that Liu's end is at hand. His final overthow may await the calling of a Communist party con- gress, and for this reason Llu may still not be denounced by name even though in fact he may be thoroughly defeated. The Chinese party's statutes re- quire a congress every five years. There has been no congress, how- ever, since the eighth in 1956, a dozen years ago. A congress, sup- posedly the supreme party body to which provincial organizations send delegates, is required to name a new central committee, which in turn names the Politburo and other ruling organs. There have been signs that Mao's followers wanted to call a congress this year, and were wait- ing only until they felt victory secure enough. A propitious date, Oct. 1, already has passed. That was the anniversary of the Com- munist takeover of the mainland. If, however, the Maoists have imposed "revolutionary conmit- tees' on all the provinces as they claim, it would be easy enough to transform those committees into the present-day party and call a congress. That congress could of- fically remove Lin Shao-chi from his post of vice chairman of the party. It would then be simple enough to have the National People's Congress, a sort of par- liament, remove him as its chair- man-president of China. The signs now are that China is in the hands of a group of 13 leaders under Mao, with defense minister Lin Piao wielding the real power in the name of "Mao Tse- tung's thinking." Lin has been designated Mao's heir apparent. If China is going to seek sta- bility after two uproarious years of violence, it must reconstruct a ruling party. The party as it existed at the Eighth Congress in 1956 no longer exists. Of its 99 central com- mittee members, about 75 have been purged or denounced. Of the 20 Politburo members in 1956, 13 have been denounced in the course of the cultural revolition. the news today b The Associated Press and College Press Service BOMBING RAIDS CONTINUED against North Viet- nam while American and South Vietnamese spokesmen met for the fourth time, presumably. on the question of suspending the air strikes. U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker conferred for an hour yesterday w i t h South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu after Thieu had balked at signing a joint declaration proposed by Washington at an earlier meeting on Wednesday. Informed sources said Thieu wants further concessions from Hanoi before he will agree to a U.S. bombing halt. The lull in the ground fighting, which has lasted for more than two weeks continued as the number of Americans killed in action was the lowest for eight weeks. DESPITE SAIGON'S RESISTANCE, the United States continued its bombing halt consultations with its allies yesterday but the White House kept tight silence on the latest developments in the new peace moves. Details of the latest U.S. offer to the North Vietnamese in Paris have not been made public, but President Johnson's avowed policy, reaffirmed by the White House Wedpesday, is to halt the bombing if this would quickly produce serious peace negotiatioms and "Hanoi would not take advantage of our restraint." The United States is consulting its war allies under the normal practice of discussing potential policy --practical or diplomatic moves with them. However the final decision still rests with Johnson. RICHARD NIXON offered Republican support yester- day for a pause in the bombing of North Vietnam - if President Johnson were to take that action. Nixon said he would support a bombing pause if it would not endanger U.S. troops and if it would enhance the chances for an honorable peace. He added it was for Johnson to determine whether stop- ping the bombing would enhance peace prospects without en- dangering American lives. AS APOLLO 7 enters\ the seventh successful day of its mission a top Space Agency official in Houston said the final decision to send Apollo 8 around the moon or not will not be made until mid November. The decision will be made after a complete analysis is made of the data from Apollo 7. If Apollo 8 does attempt a moon orbit, the earliest pos- sible time the launch can be attempted is Dec. 20 when the moon will move into a favorable target position. SOVIET TROOPS began settling into permanent quarters in Czechoslovakia yesterday under the terms of the new treaty dictated by the Kremlin. As Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin returned to Moscow, Czechoslovak Premier Oldrich Cernik and other Czech leaders maintained their cool but correct attitude toward the Rus- sians. Although the exact terms of the treaty were kept secret, it is known that some Soviet forces along with troops from Poland, East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria will be with- drawn in the coming months. HURRICANE GLADYS churned harmlessly in t h e Gilf of Mexico yesterday due to a high pressure zone to the east of Florida. Until yesterday afternoon it was feared that Gladys with her 90 mile per hour winds would veer into the heavily popu- lated Tampa Bay area. The storm has already killed one person and inflicted considerable damage in Cuba. There was evidence that Gladys had already reached the peak of her development and was weakening. A hurricane hunter aircraft later measured her winds at a maximum of 75 m.p.h. THE MOSCOW DRAMA THEATER h a s 'dropped 'a production by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, apparently because of the poet's outspoken protest of the Soviet policy toward Czechoslovakia. Although no reason was given for dropping the work, which condemned Stalinism and anti-semitism, observers be- lieve the move was a reaction to a violent protest telegram which Yevtushenko sent to the Kremlin last August following the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. JACQUELINE KENNEDY plans to marry one of the world's richest men, Aristotle Onassis, more than 20 years her senior. The wedding is expected to take place next week, but the time and place were said to be as yet undetermined. The announcement was made by Mrs. Kennedy's mother, Mrs. Hugh D. Auchincloss, in Washington yesterday after- noon. IN PERSON PAT PAULSEN Also Featuring The 1st EDITION MEET af 109 MI LLER- NEW POLITICS OFFICE Ticket Contributions $2.50-$1.50 ' Weekends: Oct. 19 thru Nov. 3 10:30 A.M. on Saturday 11:30 A.M. on Sunday Sponsored by Student Friends of CNP MUSIC TO STUDY BY No matter what your tastes in music are, we have instrumental albums to please you. 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R GARDEN OF PROSERPINE by Ben Van Meter-latest film by this most talented cinema genius. "Nymphs in the woods," "exotic," "sensual." MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH-Douglas Fairbanks in a hip silent comedy classic. "An opium eating detective on the trail of opium dealers." "Wild." *** * HIGHEST RATING ! "AN ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT!" ._- N.Y. Daily News rachel, rachel is a double-barreled triumph! Joanne Wood- ward is extraordinary-Paul Newman's direction is excellent. This is Joanne Woodward's triumph and should make her a prime contender for an Academy Award." -David Goldman, WCBS Radio . . U U 0 '' [: Ii'i': ' [ 1 .. .: ,...r.:; u:::, .... I w I I I