Page Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, August 13, 1971 Page Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, August 13, 1971 LahotSoonight10 p.m.i U.S. OFFICERS UNPERTURBED S. Viets expropriate pot By JOHN EVERINGHAM and ROBERT FLORES Dispatch News Service International SAIGON - While the U.S. military command in Vietnam has fought its soldiers' grow- ing drug problem with well pub- licized urine tests, arrests and amnesty programs, U.S. advised South Vietnamese reap the marijuana crop under the guise COLOR of drug crackdowns. Fields of marijuana, waving branches 7 feet high, grow just across the Cambodian border. Recently these reporters watched a South Vietnamese Police unit march unchallenged AUD. A, ANGELL past the shattered frontier umm .lmea, nell market into a Cambodian pea- Summer Film Festival/orson welles sant's marijuana farm- We're making it new * " ./or YOU Bedding Sofas Armchairs and COMPLETELY RE-WORKED LOBBY University Towe s 5 . Forest Uniest Towes 761 -2680 --~~~~~~~~~* * **--- -- ------- --- Armed with M-16's and ma- chetes the Vietnamese National Police Field Force swung into action. The Khmer farmer wat- ched despairingly as his mari- juana crop was swiftly felled by two dozen police knives. Commanded by the police, the peasant tied his plants into hefty bundles. The Vietnamese then hauled his crop away. Melons grew between the care- fully aligned plants in the mari- juana garden of the next farm- er. Buds were forming on the lush plants. but the small yellow flowers, famed amongst pot smokers for their superior pro- perties, had not yet blossomed. Machetes of the 24 Vietnamese police quickly reduced the plants to stumps, leaving the melons bare. Sampans waiting on the Mekong River were then loaded with the bundles of 'grass'. This 'grass cutting' raid be- gan in Tan Chau, Viet N a m. The District Chief, the district's ranking military officer, led the operation. The American Di s - trict Senior Advisor, a US army major, and a US navy captain were there also, though the 'Meo', as the Vietnamese police were derogatorily calling t h e Americans, did little during the raid but watch. Two dozen Popular Forces (PF or Ruff-Puff) soldiers act- ing as military guard, two dozen National Police Field Force serving as cutters, and the officers were carried in the ear- ly morning darkness 6 miles up the Mekong River by two po- lice river patrol boats. The Cambodian frontier was just a few paces from Vinh Xuong vil- lige where all were put ashore. The US major and navy cap- tain waited in Viet Nam des- pite invitations from the Viet- namese to cross the border into Cambodia. Since Communist Cambodians and the NFL control almost all territory across the frontier, the Vietnamese PF troops fan- ned out into Cambodia forming a defensive perimeter around the area to be cut. "We can't go there," said a guard pointing to a field of marijuana 200 yards from t h e river bank. "We fear mines left by the Viet Cong." Much more marijuana grew there, safe from the police machetes. Marijuana is a traditional cash crop in Cambodia. It is legal, and freely sold in all mar- kets. It can be purchased by the kilogramme, bunch of dried blossoms, or in cigarettes. On the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capitol, 1 US cent will purchase 12 ready rolled joints. While few Cambodians smoke marijuana regularly, it is widely used in cooking the local food. Soup made from a chick- en stuffed full of "guncha", as Khmers call marijuana, is fam- ous throughout the country, and' available on request in restaur- ants everywhere. Moving from one farrh to the next, the Vietnamese police sys- tematically destroyed e v e r y marijuana garden in their path. "Tell those men to stop catch- ing frogs and get back to car- rying bundles to the river," yelled the supervising officer at districted cutters thinking of their stomachs. The late morning sun had made cutting hard work. About 10 Vietnamese took over a Cambodian house and made themselves comfortable. The farmer, his wife, daughters, and the grandfather were or- dered outside to cut their own plot of 'grass'. Later, they had to carry it to the Vietnamese boats on the river. The Cambodians cursed t h e Vietnamese as they cut their NEW from ELEKIRA and from CAPRICORN THE "A CHILD'S BUTTERFIELD GARDEN BLUES BAND- OF GRASS" "Sometimes I Just Feel A Pre-Legalization Like Smilin' " Comedy 3 59359 THE ALLMAN BROTHERS AT FILLMORE EAST (Two-Record Set) 419 l own crop while the soldiers and police helped themselves to the peasant's tea. Nearby m o r e Vietnamese stripped ripe fruit from the trees and slept in the shade. Upon hearing that one of us spoke Cambodian, a peasant complained, "How can the Viet- namese do this? Now we won't make enough money to buy food to eat with our rice" When we asked if he was be- ing paid for his grass the farm- er spit angrily. "Nothing!" he replied. "We must cut this for our own safety." Under the heat of the mid- day sun, a small group of po- licemen dried out budding mari- juana shoots to smoke. They smiled and offered us some. Another marched back into Viet Nam dragging an entire 7 foot plant. "We cut many more than 10,- 000 plants, but we'll just say 10,000," the District Chief said, looking to the American advisor for approval. The US major agreed. The Vietnamese police would be paid 10,000 piastres bounty, a piastre a plant, by the US government for the mari- juana destruction. 10,000 pias- tres is only about $35 US. The police officers insisted all the rest would be burped. Some lower ranking policemen were not so sure. One policeman joked that they could sell it for only 300 piastres a kilo- gramme. In Saigon, when informed how the Vietnamese police had stormed the Cambodian farms, shipped the marijuana back to Viet Nam and collected a boun- ty from the US government, the First Secretary of the Cam- bodian Embassy, Son Sone, re- acted with anger. "No, no, they have no right to cut Cambod- ian guncha!" he fumed. "It's the same if Khmers came to Viet Nam to cut Vietnamese crops." He then told us of the wonderful marijuana-chicken soup they make back home in Cambodia, explaining with a smile full of pleasant memories, "It's our custom." Daily Classifieds Bring Results ! OUlJ TONIGHT BELLE OF THE NINETIES MAE WEST at her best, singing ("When a St. Louis Woman Comes Down to New Orleans") and quipping in the 'naughty Nineties.' Orig- inally titled IT AINT NO SIN. SATURDAY and SUNDAY MOROCCO MARLENE DIETRICH chanteuse and 'lost wom- an' crossed the desert to follow GARY COOPER, Foreign Legionnaire. 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