Word: montagnards
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...worst enemy. Most of the delegates were young (average age: 34), raw and rural, with nothing in their lifetime under the French or the Diem regime to prepare them for free debate or the subtleties of constitution making. Because they were all too representative-Buddhist, Catholic, Chinese, Montagnard, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai-fragmentism and special pleading became the order of the day. Among the first orders that went out were for selfish perks: drinking water on their desks, more electric fans, a request (withdrawn on second thought) for private cars at their disposal...
...collected in 1965 and 1966 in a series of interviews by Susan Sheehan, a New Yorker writer and the wife of Neil Sheehan, who was a New York Times correspondent in Saigon. In addition to this Vietnamese trio, seven other people are presented in the book: a landlord, a Montagnard, an orphan, a Buddhist monk, a Viet Cong, a South Vietnamese soldier, a politician...
What made Dr. Smith's work especially tough was the nature of the people she wanted to help. These were the mountaineers whom the French politely called Montagnards, a people apart from the lowland Vietnamese who sneer at them as moi (savages). In any language they are rebellious, superstitious, troublesome and riddled with diseases. Traveling by Land Rover, the big-boned, blue-eyed doctor sat around the fire in 200-odd Montagnard villages, becoming fluent in their principal dialect, sipping their raw rice wine and occasionally, as a good guest should, eating a native delicacy...
...complex of six whitewashed buildings that are almost as overcrowded as the old dispensary. For its 40 beds there are 120 patients; fortunately, many of them actually prefer to lie on mats on the floor or on porches outside the buildings. There are no minor illnesses. "When a Montagnard comes in from his village," says Dr. Smith, "we take it for granted that he's malnourished, mostly from protein deficiency, that he has intestinal parasites and also malaria. After that, we ask what's wrong with him." Despite the confidence she has won through her skill and insight...
During a three-hour ceremony at Pleiku, Ky sat impassively in his black uniform and lavender scarf, removing his gloves only to put on the brass bracelets that symbolize Montagnard friendship. Solemnly, 250 Montagnard rebels knelt before him to pledge allegiance to the Saigon government. Then, as Ky, a host of government officials, and U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge looked queasily on, the Montagnards poured rice wine over the Premier's boots and slashed a water buffalo to death in honor of the Saigon visitors. Fortunately, the sacrifice took only five minutes rather than the usual hour or more...