Word: stillnesses
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Middle Class. Yet the elements of power are slowly changing. In the past three centuries, the only forces that mattered in any Latin country were the landed oligarchy, the Roman Catholic Church and the military. That triad still predominates, and only 10% of the people own 90% of the land. But there are cracks in the alliance. Recent years have seen the emergence of a new kind of military man-up from the lower or middle class, equipped with some technical skills, interested in efficiency and growth. Often he thinks he can run his country better than the sons...
What can be done to solve the crushing farrago of problems? Nationalist governments could expropriate every American business on the continent, and the region's economic destiny would still be inseparably intertwined with and dependent on the U.S. Washington could funnel huge amounts of money southward, and little would be accomplished for the people of Latin America if the funds were siphoned off, as so often in the past, by the ruling classes. Neither extreme scenario, of course, is likely to be chosen-especially not the latter. The Nixon Administration's options are too limited by other crises...
...South Vietnamese. This time they did not. In an effort to head off an attack, Lien sent South Vietnamese battalions into craggy mountains around the two bases. At first the South Vietnamese fought well and aggressively. But after a month in the field, they wearied. Unfortunately, the South Vietnamese still seemed incapable of fighting a prolonged and bloody engagement with the more determined and seasoned North Vietnamese regulars. In action reminiscent of the ARVN's performance in the mid-1960s, the South Vietnamese retired to their forts, leaving the initiative and the countryside to the enemy...
...Viet Cong are known for their acts of terrorism, which often include the murder and kidnaping of innocent peasants. Still, they enjoy a simple, potent asset in the countryside of South Viet Nam. Whenever they conquer an area, the Communists promptly take the land away from the landowners and give it to the peasants. In many cases, the Viet Cong are able to keep the support of the peasants by warning that a return of government forces would mean a return of the landlords. Faced with U.S. troop withdrawals and possible early elections in which the vote of the hamlets...
...Thieu government last week introduced in the National Assembly a bill that would revolutionize land ownership in South Viet Nam, where the best acreage still is held by the rich and privileged few. According to the legislation, due to be enacted into law this month, South Viet Nam's 800,000 tenant farmers, at no cost to themselves, will be able to take full possession of the land they now till. The 40,000 landowners who hold more than 80% of South Viet Nam's cultivable riceland will, in effect, be bought out by the government...