Conversations with Rural Vietnamese
A tough, often critical assessment of pacification based on the author's observations and conversations with rural farmers, villagers, Popular Force troops, and others in four provinces of South Vietnam. While there are understandable reasons for U.S. failings — an unfamiliar war prosecuted by inexperienced troops with only one major advantage, firepower — they don't change the fact that pacification is largely a failure. As usual, the poor and the innocent suffer: indifference, bribery, and corruption are widespread among GVN officials; crops and homes are bombed and shelled indiscriminately; families are broken up, shot up, or blown up frequently, repeatedly, and seemingly at random. In sum, rural Vietnamese face greater dangers from the way we fight the war than from the VC themselves, despite sacrifice and dedication by individual U.S. advisors, ARVN, PFs, and local officials. The irony: since the Tet offensive, most rural Vietnamese have lost faith in the VC, but U.S. efforts can't seem to capitalize on enemy blunders or weaknesses.
- Format:
- Paperback, 63 Pages
- Year:
- 1970
- List Price:
- $23.00
- Price:
- $18.40 Special 20% Web Discount
- Full Document (pdf format) (File size 3 MB)
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Available
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 63
- List Price: $23.00
- Price: $18.40
- Document Number: D-20138-ARPA/AGILE
- Year: 1970
- Series: Documents
This report is part of the RAND Corporation document series. The RAND Document (D), a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 1970, was an internal working paper written as a step in a continuing study within RAND, which could be expanded, modified, or withdrawn at any time.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2012 RAND Corporation.