Word: montagnard
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...relocation campaign, called "Gathering the People" by Region II Commanding General Ngo Dzu, has been opposed from the start by some U. S. officials in Saigon and in the field who fear that concentrating thousands of Montagnards near main roads threatens the economic self-sufficiency of Montagnard communities...
General Dzu ordered all Province Chiefs in Region II late last summer to eliminate all Montagnard hamlets rated C and D (contested and Viet Cong controlled hamlets) by relocating them near lines of communication. Senior U. S. officials in the provinces defend the relocation on the grounds that it will deny the population and resources of Montagnard hamlets to the Viet Cong...
...Darlac Province, the lack of planning resulted in heavy losses of livestock, rice, and other valuable possessions in the process of moving to the relocation sites, according to one official who has interviewed the relocated Montagnards. Only a fraction of the water buffalo, cattle and other animals could be brought with the people, because of the hurried moves by truck and U. S. Chinook helicopters. Virtually all the hardwood furniture found in Montagnard long-houses had to be left behind. Cattle and ceremonial gongs were stolen by ARVN troops and later sold in a nearby Vietnamese market town...
...most urgent problem of the Montagnards relocation centers in Darlac is the shortage of land. Montagnards find themselves competing with Vietnamese as well as with each other for the limited supply of accessible land. In several areas in the province recently relocated Montagnard hamlets have found that Vietnamese farmers have moved in to cultivate much of the nearby land...
...same time, Vietnamese are continuing to encroach on land previously abandoned by relocated Montagnards. U. S. officials here point out that the same developments occurred after previous Montagnard relocations in the province...