[Feder]al Republic of Germany also contributed the 3,000-ton hospital ship S.S. Helgoland to provide medical assistance to the civilian population. With eight doctors, thirty other medical personnel, and a 130-bed capacity, the ship was initially stationed near Saigon where more than 21,000 out-patient treatments were given to approximately 6,700 patients from September 1966 until 30 June 1967. Over 850 major surgical cases were also treated. In October of 1967 the Helgoland shifted its operations to Da Nang.
In March 1967 the German government's Maltese Aid Service team for the care of refugees was increased from twenty-five to forty-seven—six doctors, two dentists, and thirty-nine nurses and vocational teachers. Operating from sites in An Hoa, Da Nang, and Hoi An, teams provided regular health and refugee care. Other Germans serving in Vietnam taught in the Technical High School at Thu Duc near Saigon and five professors served on the Hue University faculty. Twenty Vietnamese were trained in Germany to replace the seven Germans at the Technical High School, and scholarships at German schools were granted to seven Vietnamese students each year.
The German government supplied credits of $21.2 million for capital projects and commodity imports. It also provided the following credits: $3.75 million for the import of German products such as machine tools and fertilizer; $12.5 million for development of the industrial complex at An Hoa-Nong Son; $5 million for capital projects; and $3.5 million to equip a modern slaughterhouse and provide technical aid.
Other assistance included the construction and staffing, with German aid funds, of nine social centers in Saigon, a training center for experts in the social field, and a home for juvenile delinquents at Thu Duc.
Substantial quantities of pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies and equipment were donated for distribution to civilian hospitals and dispensaries and 100,000 health textbooks were provided. Germany constructed a 170-bed hospital at a cost of $2.5 million in Da Nang as a replacement for the Helgoland.
France
Beginning in 1956 France contributed approximately $155 million in assistance to South Vietnam. Aid averaged about $4 million per year, largely in the cultural field.
Most of the French in Vietnam were engaged in some form of cultural work; some taught in secondary schools and a few were professors on university staffs. France provided fifty-five
