Peace and Radio in Vietnam
Lloyd, William Bross Jr.
NOTEBOOK THERE IS WIDESPREAD AGREEMENT that lasting peace in Vietnam will require some sort of international presence to supervise the truce and lead to impartial control of the hoped-for...
...Shortly after the Provisional Governmenttook office, General Wessin y Wessin's radiobecame rather obstreperous...
...Armed Forces have installed their own radio and television network in South Vietnam...
...Has there ever been a successful use of mass radio broadcasting by a truce commission...
...Therefore the problem will be closer to that which was met in the Dominican Republic than to that of Korea, where the geographical line of division was clear...
...It would give them an additional station on their dials, but nothing "I am fond of my freedom and value life...
...In retrospect, it almost seems that we werelucky to have had a weak station while thefactions had powerful ones...
...There is little doubt, in view of the war-weariness of the people, that such an impartial radio station would enjoy a wide and receptive audience...
...Let us hope that Saigon and Washington will be led to accept it, along with neutralization of the entire Indochinese penin sula...
...The ruling junta controlled the government radio station in Santo Domingo, the most powerful in the country...
...The commission should be made up of a balanced and largely Asian group of nations with strong nonaligned representation...
...It should not be under the United Nations, which can have no claim to neutrality while it remains the officially-designated adversary of the Communist side in Korea...
...If, as in World War II, withdrawal of U.S...
...One approach that should at least be attempted is to endow an impartial truce supervisory commission with an observer corps capable of reaching any village of the country in a very short time and communicating through independent facilities with supervisory headquarters, plus radio broadcasting facilities capable of reaching every part of the country...
...Yet the choice would be a voluntary one on the part of each listener...
...Gradually, itseemed, their sheer partisanship began to losethem a significant part of their audience...
...I thought a great deal before I went to Red Square...
...Maintaining the peace in South Vietnam will be a matter of holding off conflict between various factions whose territorial areas of strength may overlap to a large degree...
...The transmitter was not powerful, but the OAS was able to form a network of stations around the island for a special one-hour program each day, and on certain special occasions this linkup was maintained for longer periods...
...LARISA DANIEL, upon being sentenced to four years in exile for her protest against the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia...
...The problem is how to organize such an information program so that it will be accepted as NOTEBOOK reasonably impartial, and how to carry the program to the people of South Vietnam...
...Without mass communications in the hands of the supervisory commission, these middle groups will be subject to constant erosion, and peace-makers could end up trying to walk on a knife-edge...
...Uncensored reports from South Vietnam stress the overwhelming war-weariness of the people...
...forces is accompanied by widespread abandonment of equipment, how better could this be used than as a public information facility for the truce supervision agency...
...Assuming that a solid truce would lead to the scheduling of elections, the reporting and broadcasting operations of the supervisory commission could also act as a strong deterrent to violence and retaliation at this stage...
...In an election campaign it is known that violence against a candidate usually increases public sympathy for him and therefore his vote...
...The Constitutionalists (sometimes called the rebels) had a powerful station, and the reactionary General Wessin y Wessin had another...
...The minimum to be aimed at now in order to maintain and solidify the truce is: full transportation and communication facilities for an unarmed or lightly armed observer corps and assured access to radio broadcasting facilities to bring observers' reports and impartial news bulletins to the population...
...Feeling as I do about those who kept silent in a former period, I consider myself responsible...
...The proposal amounts to a nationwide and instantaneous "truth squad" operation cutting at the base of inflammatory propaganda...
...In August 1965, the Organization of American States (OAS) contracted for the use of a commercial station that had gone off the air because of the crisis...
...It would not involve any hobbling of the Saigon or Hanoi governments' or the NLF's radio operations, but would provide listeners with a dispassionate and factual alternative...
...Such neutralization will be in constant danger unless there is a strong coalescence of the middle groups within South Vietnam...
...Although Saigon and Hanoi officialdom will undoubtedly look askance at the neutral broadcasting proposal as an invasion of "national sovereignty," it is hard to imagine the ordinary people of the area feeling deprived of anything by the project...
...Are we to imagine that either the rightist or the Communist propaganda machines will refrain from taking advantage of such incidents...
...So far nothing is being discussed publicly beyond 19th-centurymodel peace-keeping, involving military contingents to "police" the cease-fire...
...But what happens when the Vietnamese of a particular area do not understand the objectives of the supervisory force and armed clashes occur...
...The National Liberation Front program envisages a nonaligned South Vietnam, and Hanoi's program ostensibly also supports this position...
...Provisional President Hector Garcia Godoy issued a decreetemporarily silencing all stations except RadioSanto Domingo, the official government station, and the Voice of the OAS...
...would compel them to listen if they chose not to...
...The U.S...
...domestic outbreaks, dispassionate, impartial information is the best counter to inflammatory rumor...
...The nearest approach--and one that was successful even though implemented only for a short time—was in the 1965 Dominican Republic crisis...
...As in U.S...
...How do the peace-planners propose to harness this dominant sentiment among the ordinary people of South Vietnam to the maintenance of the coming cease-fire and the development of a solid truce...
...In the Santo Domingo area, our station's reporters went outto interview the "man in the street" and we were surprised at how freely and franklyDominicans gave their names, addresses, occupations, and their views on the proposals— overwhelmingly favoring the OAS formula...
...NOTEBOOK THERE IS WIDESPREAD AGREEMENT that lasting peace in Vietnam will require some sort of international presence to supervise the truce and lead to impartial control of the hoped-for free elections...
...The situation would actually mark a gain n popular sovereignty because it would widen the people's range of current information...
...Paul Harrison, the OAS staff member who was involved in this operation, writes: Whereas the stations of the factions emphasized violence and bitterness, used every possible news report on the Dominican situation, and invented their own special ones, the Voice of the OAS stuck strictly to official statements, attacked no one and explained the proposals of the OAS Ad Hoc Committee, of which Am bassador Bunker was chairman, in a calm man ner...
...The result was that when the Committee made a major proposal, in August of 1965, for a solution of the crisis and formation of a provisional government to prepare the na tion for elections, the OAS received a flood of messages from all over the country sup NOTEBOOK porting these proposals...
...On the other hand, even a circumstantial involvement in violence by leaders of another party tends to cut down their vote...
Vol. 16 • January 1969 • No. 1
