Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
TOP SECRET
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accord priority to the military problems. However, my Government does not attach less importance to economic, political and social problems. At this point the doctrinal position which pertains to South Vietnam is clear and clean. It was expressed in a free and sincere manner in my message to the American Congress in April 1957, It has not varied since. Neither did it vary during the recent presidential campaign when I was elected by a very large majority.
Presently, it is necessary not to be maneuvered by the communists who exploit our tendency to consider military efforts as reactionary and fruitless, to divert our effective action, which is neccessinated by the mortal communist attacks, toward a longer range project of economic and social improvement, and which, of course, supposes that we are still alive. We see for the army an economic and social mission along with the military role, a conception which rationally responds to the double challenge which the newly independent countries of Africa and Asia have had to face: underdevelopment and communist subversive war. It is along this line that, since my taking office in July 1954, I have undertaken to create an economic infrastructure throughout the country, including the least inhabited regions; to develop the lines of communication with the double purpose of facilitating intercourse and facilitating the mobility of our troops; to increase and diversify agricultural production; to give each family a tract of land which will belong to them; to create each day more employment by industrializing the country; in brief to open new horizons to the rural masses, the determining factor in the struggle against communism. It is sufficient to consider the product of our exportation these last two years, the reduction of our importation program, to count the factory chimneys which make their appearance to realize the progress already made. On the other hand, in spite of its lack of resources, the Government increases the social investments to respond to the diversified needs of a population which increases at the rate of 3% per year: hospitals in the towns, dispensaries in the villages, primary schools in each commune, secondary schools in each city of whatever importance. Education is developing at the annual rate of 20% while in the domain of public health, we have a hospital bed available for each thousand inhabitants. We want to progress more rapidly but, in addition to the budgetary limitations which constitute a primary obstacle, the lack of trained personnel has made itself felt despite our accelerated training programs. The agrovilles, which I have built in the last year, are another proof of the Government's efforts: These are agricultural communities located between two urban centers to give the rural population the benefits of the commodities of modern life and to correct the extreme dispersion of the
population
