169. Despatch From the Ambassador in Vietnam (Durbrow) to the Department of State1
No. 426
Saigon, June 6,
1960.
REF
- Saigon Despatches 392 of May 10, and 422 of May 31, 19602
SUBJECT
On April 30, 1960, Ambassador Durbrow, several USOM
officers (including Mr. Gardiner,
the Director, Mr. Coster, the
Deputy Director, and Mr. Fippin, Chief of the
Agricultural Division), officials of the Vietnamese Department of
Agriculture, and provincial officials visited the Vi Thanh–Hoa Luu
Agroville, located about 60 kilometers southwest of Can Tho in Phong
Dinh Province. Agrovilles, allegedly the idea of Major Tran Cuu Thien,
Phong Dinh Province Chief, are the regrouped housing of up to 10,000
people around an administrative and commercial nucleus for purposes of
security, facilitation of extension of government social services, and
the promotion of economic development. A model agroville is to have the
following characteristics (which may not necessarily be typical): Each
regrouped family is to have about an acre of land on which will be a
substantial house modelled after one of four standard types. This land
will be used for vegetables and fruit, with cocoanuts to become the
prime fruit crop. During the growing season, the farmer will return to
his own farm, anywhere from two to five kilometers away, to cultivate
rice, but his family will remain in the agroville. Surplus labor in the
agrovilles will be devoted to handicrafts and cottage industries.
Two or three agrovilles are planned for each of the southwestern
provinces, some ten of which are scheduled for completion by July. In
addition, the GVN is planning
“agglomerated hamlets” which are
[Page 486]
smaller editions of agrovilles with a capacity of 1000 to 1500
persons each. Forty to 50 of these are scheduled, for example, in Phong
Dinh Province alone. According to GVN
plans, each agroville will receive an initial government credit of
1,000,000VN$ and a loan of 400,000VN$. Two identifiable financing
sources for the agroville program in the budget are funds from the
Commissariat for Civic Action and from a special contingency and reserve
account. The National Lottery will also furnish 80,000,000VN$ per year,
according to President Diem.
The Vi Thanh–Hoa Luu Agroville is to be the largest of and the model for
all other agrovilles. It was designed by an internationally recognized
Vietnamese architect who has projected four separate but contiguous
villages—three of 200 hectares each south of the road-canal, and one of
400 hectares north of the road-canal and opposite the central village.
Only the center village south of the road-canal is near completion; the
southernmost village is well underway, but the northernmost one and the
one north of the canal show little evidence of development. The three
villages south of the canal now contain about 1500 people, whereas 300
families are presently planned for each of them. The principal
construction materials for administrative and commercial buildings are
reinforced concrete, tile, and cement-plastered brick. Such buildings
include a school, hospital, market, and hotel, and look substantial as
well as pleasing to the eye. Elaborate artificial lakes add beauty to
the city centers.
The government hopes that the agrovilles, by regrouping people for their
protection, will prevent them from being the prey of Viet Cong
depradations and pressure that they were subject to when living in
isolated and sporadic settlements. Economic viability of the new
communities will be the real long-run problem, however. Most of the
expenditures to date of labor, materials, and money in Vi Thanh–Hoa Luu
have been for non-productive ends. But the expenditures are perhaps
justifiable in constructing a propaganda model to convince peasants of
the social, economic, and security advantages of agroville life. Future
agrovilles will probably be less fancy and less expensive. A subsidy for
the settlers appears necessary while they wait five years for their
first cocoanut crop to come in. Rice, fish, bananas, and potential
handicraft skills will probably be insufficient money earners until that
time.
Mr. Fippin and Mr. Trigg of
USOM have prepared a detailed
account of the agroville program which is enclosed.
[Page 487]
[Enclosure]
3
GVN AGROVILLE PROGRAM
. . . . . . .
III. Critique and
Analysis
- 1.
-
The concept of agglomeration villages is a complete
reversal of tradition and the social and economic pattern of
the people affected. It is apparent that all planning and
decisions have been made without their participation and
with little if any consideration of their wishes, interests
or views. There is some question whether the advantages to
be gained from “agroville” life will be sufficient to
overcome the reversal of the traditional pattern of life.
Nevertheless, Vice President Tho, who comes from the delta area and who
at first was most skeptical about the whole scheme, stated
recently that he was surprised but pleased to learn that the
peasants are already well aware of the advantages to be
gained and are settling in nicely.
Mrs. Thien has stated that if he had not taken the first step
over a year ago to get people to leave their isolated homes
and move closer together for their protection, it would be
much more difficult now to get them to move for a second
time into Agrovilles. The first move represents the big
wrench from the ancestral home near family graves, etc.—once
the first move has been made, the agroville and “agro
hamlet” idea is much more appealing. This is all the more
the case since the “first-move” villages, although they
achieved a measure of protection, were far too crowded, with
houses located cheek by jowl. Mr. Thien
confirmed that in other provinces, where the first step had
not been taken, the people were very resentful of being
moved directly into agrovilles.
- 2.
- Security in the whole region was reported to be far from good.
In the matter of protection, the Province Chief has stated that
Vi-Thanh will help prevent the Viet-Cong from infiltrating from
communist strongholds such as Ca-Mau and Bac-Lieu to the strategic centers of
Can–Tho, My-Tho and Rach-Gia. On the other
hand, if Can–Tho, as reported, is already
relatively unsafe after dark, the agroville, with its captive
concentration of population, could be subject to night
infiltration, subversion and propaganda from the surrounding
vacant lands. To counter this possibility the President has
indicated his intention of following the pattern employed
against the Malayan rebels—to leave comparatively large security
forces in the
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area for
a period of 18 to 30 months until the area becomes “white”.
There is already quartered in Vi-Thanh a strong detachment of
ARVN troops.
- 3.
- Problems of establishing a viable settlement are such as to
require the close cooperation and positive assistance of at
least the Agriculture, National Economy, Health and Education
Departments of the GVN. Some
planning and coordinating system should be established to insure
active participation and assistance to the settler families. At
present there are one District Agricultural Agent and two
agricultural department-assigned Civic Action helpers attached
to the center. In addition, Vi-Thanh appears to have already
some teachers, doctors and nurses but it seems clear that much
more in the way of cooperation and assistance from GVN departments will be
necessary.
- 4.
-
Even taking into consideration the farm ponds, the
horticultural nurseries, the 40,000 to 50,000 meters of
criss-cross canals which have been built in the complex, it
is still undoubtedly true that an enormously high proportion
of expenditures to date of labor, materials and money have
been used for non-productive purposes—it might almost be
said for “show”. The pretentiousness of the expenditures so
far suggest a terribly heavy overhead burden on the limited
productive resources which are still essentially undeveloped
and even somewhat problematical. In the case of the Land
Development settlements, the overhead costs are close to, if
not indeed greater than, half of total expenditures. Similar
structures, facilities and overhead in Vi-Thanh are
estimated to be many times more expensive than in any Land
Development center.
On the other hand Mr. Thien has stated
that in his opinion the most important next step in
connection with Vi-Thanh was the absolute necessity of
propagandizing the local inhabitants as to the benefits that
would accrue to them socially, economically and from a
security point of view in this new concept of community
living, which is a complete reversal from all their
traditional folkways and mores. President Diem has maintained from
the beginning that it was absolutely essential to have an
actual model agroville in being so that the peasants through
the grapevine and otherwise could see and become convinced
of its advantages. He did not believe it would suffice to
publicize drawings and distribute brochures; the peasants
would remain skeptical until they saw or heard about the
real thing. This conviction definitely accounts for the
President’s insistence that Vi-Thanh be completed on a rush
basis, even at the danger of alienating the peasants by
requiring, among other things, free labor from them during
the harvest season. This conviction also probably accounts
for the fact that Vi-Thanh is much fancier and more eye
catching than could be justified for any other reason and
probably is much fancier than others will be. It seems clear
that much of the expenditure
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in human effort and in funds which has
already gone, and will go, into Vi-Thanh will not be
required in future agrovilles. President Diem mentioned recently
that the volunteers working on the “agroville” in Kien Hoa
Province are receiving 10VN$ per day for their work and
indicated that in the future others working on “agrovilles”
will also receive the same pay.
- 5.
-
A crucial question, on which the success of the agroville
program may well depend, revolves around the following:
Will the advantages of markets, schools, recreation centers,
maternity wards, hospitals and security protection be
sufficient to keep the people contented for at least the 5
years until the cocoanut crop comes in and they receive
something approaching the predicted 40,000VN$ annual
income?
It would appear that, in the beginning at least, some sort of
subsidy or other help for the settlers may be necessary,
even though, as Mr. Thien maintains,
paddy lands are no more than 2 kms away from the agrovilles, even though the
settlers may begin to receive income almost immediately from
the fish and from the banana trees now being planted and
even if they should be able to learn some handicraft thereby
augmenting their income.
