309. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State1
Saigon, November 11,
1963, 6 p.m.
991. During a conversation at a social function, General Don made the following points:
- 1.
- That the exorbitant amount of forced labor which had been required of people in the Strategic Hamlets in order to construct the Strategic Hamlets had been and was being drastically reduced. The previous regime, he said, had gone about the Strategic Hamlet program in the wrong way, even though the idea itself is excellent.
- 2.
- He was pleased with my congratulations on the statement deploring arbitrary arrests and was determined to adhere to it.
- 3.
- He was well aware of the unspeakable results which would flow from any kind of anti-Christian attitude and was determined that such a thing would not happen.
- 4.
- When I asked whether General Minh was going to meet the people and do some handshaking and give some autographs, he said that as a military man, General Minh did not like doing that kind of thing, even though he, Don, realized it was important.
- 5.
- Like labor leader Tran Quoc Buu, Don felt particularly strong about the elimination of the “caiz”—the Chinese racketeers and extortionists who get between the laboring man and the employer and extort very substantial sums of money. He said that Diem at the beginning of his rule was very vigorous about the Chinese community and enunciated absolutely correct policies, but that eventually the Chinese “took him over.” Don said it was “symbolic that as Diem reached the end of his career he sought refuge among the Chinese in Cholon, thereby showing the extent to which he had fallen under their [Page 591] influence.” The new government was prepared to be ruthless he said, in preventing Chinese racketeering and extortion. He was emotional about this point.
- 6.
- He repeated that new regime was determined to step up the war.
- 7.
- Altogether a sound program convincingly started.
Lodge
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 2 S VIET. Secret. Received at 7:25 a.m. and passed to the White House at 7:42 a.m.↩