Word: komer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Despite President Marcos' pessimism over the "other war" in South Viet Nam, a report handed Lyndon Johnson last week noted that social and economic reforms in that country are "moving forward on a broad front." The 44-page assessment by Robert Komer, the President's special assistant for peaceful construction in Viet Nam, was described by Johnson as "impressive...
...hand to get first copies of Komer's report was Donald MacDonald, 44, who replaces Charles Mann as AID chief in Viet Nam. MacDonald has headed AID programs in Pakistan and Nigeria, and is known as an expert troubleshooter. The report's main points: > Galloping inflation, which could yet undo all the benefits of the U.S. buildup by swamping Viet Nam's economy with more money than it can absorb, has been curbed by a drastic 50% devaluation of the piaster, as well as by new economic restraints worked out jointly by U.S. and Vietnamese officials. - Saigon...
...Komer estimates that about 55% of South Viet Nam's population has been brought under the government's wing, a "modest gain" of about 5% in the first eight months of 1966. Accentuating the positive, he notes a rapid increase to 28,539 workers in the key Revolutionary Development Cadre program, describing the 59-man teams sent into the countryside as "a dagger pointed at the Viet Cong's heart" (though an official Vietnamese assessment in preparation tells another story-of faulty recruiting, bad training, improper use of workers and ill-advised psychology). Komer notes proudly that...
...half of their 1966 development budgets; in northern provinces, racked by anti-government ferment last summer, as little as 13% of these projects has been completed. Reform of Viet Nam's archaic land tenure, the key to a land-hungry peasant's loyalty, is also dragging. Though Komer claims that the Ky regime "is proceeding with distribution of 1,200,000 acres of expropriated and government-owned land," in fact it has only managed so far to hand out title deeds to 40,000 acres, and many of those tracts have been abandoned in the fighting. In this...
...that Rostow would be Bundy's successor, the President replied: "It could be, but that would be inaccurate. It would not be true. Most of the men play any position here, we hope." He added that Bundy's job has been split among White House Aides Robert Komer, Jack Valenti and Bill Moyers, and that Rostow would pick up some other pieces of it-"principally, but not necessarily exclusively, in the field of foreign policy, as well as special coordination of Latin American development." Rostow should feel at home: he has made several troubleshooting trips to Europe...