Civil Affairs – November 1965

 

Civil Affairs – Psychological Warfare Activities

Section X

  1. General
  2.        The Civic Action program has comprised of medical assistance, construction assistance, and development and reinforcement of village governments.  Civic actions are conducted in three villages, Ky Ha, Ky Hoa and Ky Xuan.
  3. Ky Ha Village has an active government which is beginning to play an increasingly important part in the people’s lives.  The village has an active PF platoon, a well-organized Self-Defense corps (home guard) and can all but be considered secure.
  4. Ky Hoa village recently acquired an Official Village Chief who has contributed to stabilization of the government.  One PF platoon is present in the village and the village Self-Defense has recently become active in all of the hamlets.  The people are responsive to the programs initiated by the Rifle Company on the island and demonstrate a definite desire to help themselves.
  5. Ky Xuan Village has only recently had a VN village chief assigned.  As a result, the Village government is in its infancy.  The people have become quite friendly and have recently started showing a growing confidence in the Marines on the island and in their programs.
  6. See Daily Civil Affairs Situation Reports (attached)

  1. Significant Events
  2.       The battalion Civic Action Out-Patient Clinic and company corpsmen held scheduled treatments in all three villages.  The doctors and corpsmen treated 5476 villagers during the month.
  3.       In Ky Hoa Village, the village health clinic in Hoa Long Hamlet was rebuilt and refresher training conducted for the village corpsman.  A shower was built by the villagers at the clinic.
  4.        The number of schools in operation in Ky Xuan village was increased from one to four during the month.  There are now approximately, 350 students attending school in the village, 120 have been issued CARE school supplies.
  5. The battalion educational development section conducted and supervised 88 hours of instruction for 168 English language students in Ky Ha and Ky Hoa villages.  In Ky Xuan village the village staff members and hamlet officials have started taking instruction in English.
  6.       On 14 November 1200 pounds of clothing was distributed to approximately 550 people in Ky Xuan village.  The clothing was distributed by the village and hamlet chiefs who made the determination as to which people would receive the clothing.
  7.        On 18 November 700 persons in Ky Xuan village received soap.  The soap was donated by the Marines of the Company in the village.
  8. Companies in Ky Ha and Ky Hoa villages continued working closely with the villages Self Defense Corps, (SDC).  The number of posts in Ky Ha was increased from five to six and in Ky Hoa from one to five.  The members of the SDC accompany Marines on night patrols and enforce curfew by conducting house checks.
  9. The officers concerned with Civil Affairs in Ky Ha village attend by-weekly meetings with the village chief, his staff and the hamlet chiefs.  The meetings are to discuss progress in the Civil Affairs program and resolved problem areas.
  10. Marines of the battalion participated in several volleyball games and other recreational activities during the month.  The spirit of competition aids in developing closer cooperation between the Marines and the villagers.
  11. Civic Acton Projects
  12.        This command sponsored a program for the sale of fertilizer to the farmers of Ky Ha and Ky Xuan villages.  The Marines helped the local officials and company representatives take orders from the people by providing security and other assistance.  Approximately eight tons of fertilizer was sold to an average of 400 farmers in each of the villages.
  13.       Playground equipment has been provided to the schools in Kuan Trung and Thanh Long hamlets in Ky Ha village.  The equipment includes swings, climbing ropes and a merry-go-round at Xuan Trung and swings at Thanh Long.  Plans include the installation of a merry-go-round at Thanh Long.
  14.       Marines and villagers, along with PF worked together preparing defenses for the Ky Hoa village headquarters.  Work includes clearing fields of fire and constructing barbed wire obstacles.  The village administration has moved back into the headquarters, for the first time since the Junk Fleet Base was overrun by VC in July.
  15. Problem Areas.
  16.        The PF platoon in Ky Hoa village has been extremely uncooperative in the past, doing little to aid in the security of the village.  It is believed that this problem has been partially solved, but the visit of the District Chief to the village and his announcement that he will assign a liaison officer to the battalion to coordinate the activities of all PF in the three villages in the battalion’s area.
  17. The SDC continues to improve as a quasi-military force as a result of the training provided by the battalion and working with Marines.  However, as the members of the SDC become registered, and partially trained those of military age are soon drafted into the regular VN forces.  Hence, new untrained villagers are, as available, volunteered into the SDC.
  18. The difficulty of having material shipped to the Chu Lai Enclave has hampered the entire civic action program.  The lack of required materials necessitates delays and often prevents the timely completion of needed local projects and improvements.
  19.        During the month, the battalion escorted many of the villagers of Ky Ha into the military area on Ky Ha peninsula for the purpose of moving graves.  The sanctity of the grave is very important to the Vietnamese people and although troop indoctrination is continuous, there are still instances of walking on graves, trucks driving over graves and even bulldozers destroying them.  There are other areas of beliefs and taboos which are violated to some extent or another.
  20. Plans
  21.        Continue rural reconstruction programs in the villages of Ky Ha, Ky Hoa, and Ky Xuan.  Emphasis placed on further development of local governments and self-help type projects.  Respond wherever possible to the needs and requests of the local populace.  Civic action such as medical assistance and educational development continue as at present with emphasis placed on increasing these functions in Ky Xuan.
  22.       Development of Self Defense Corps of Ky Xuan village.
  23.       Develop increased confidence of the people of all three villages in their ability to defend themselves against local VC. Agents though increased emphasis on Self Defense Corps activity in this area.
  24. Psychological Warfare Activities.
  25. A total of 5,400 leaflets (number 14, 15,16, and 17 included in supporting documents) were distributed throughout the TAOR in the villages of Ky Ha, Ky Hoa, Ky Xuan, and Hoa Xuan.  Distribution was affected by Marine combat patrols, coordinated Marine/Popular Forces patrols, and by village and hamlets chiefs.  Generally, the people accepted the leaflets and read them.
  26. Leaflets were obtained from Ly Tin District Headquarters, 4th Marines Headquarters, and U.S. Army 1st Psychological Detachment at Da Nang.
  27.        Three films were provided and shown by Ly Tin District film teams.  Village officials were encouraged to request film teams, drama teams, and Med-Cap teams from District through RVN channels.  Request to be paralleled by the U.S. Marine Corps by informing the U.S. Army advisors at district level of the requests. This was done to improve the Vietnamese official’s confidence in their own governmental channels.  The villagers enthusiastically accepted the films.
  28. A problem encountered in psychological operations was the timely procurement of special leaflets.  Incidents which happened that could have been exploited by psychological operations, but timely exploitations were hampered by the time lag between the requisition and final procurement of special leaflets.  Example:  Leaflet Number #14 requested through regular Marine channels took 39 days from date of request to date of receipt.