Word: tribesmen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...regime), and NBC Cameraman Grant Wolfkill, who was a passenger in their helicopter when it crashed 40 miles north of the capital. Unlike the others, the three shared a cell, and had been relatively well treated since last April, when they were transferred from the custody of savage Meo tribesmen to a camp run by the Viet Minh Communist troops from North Viet...
...Meos were the worst," said robust Grant Wolfkill. "They ran around like wild men, always looking for an excuse to kill us." When they got bored, the tribesmen would fire machine-gun bursts into the cell; the trio were kept in heavy wooden stocks "like Salem witches." Their steady diet: rice and salt. By contrast, cracked Wolfkill, the Viet Minh "did more or less abide by the International Convention for war prisoners-we were at least allowed to go to the toilet." Despite their hardships, the five who came back were fortunate. American officials in Laos have been unable...
Most of the recruits have come from the Rhade (pronounced Rah-day) tribe, drawn by the near-legendary tales about a young U.S. civilian named David Nuttle, 26. an expert hunter and a crack shot with the crossbow, whom tribesmen have dubbed Y-Dio-King of the Rhade. Nuttie first arrived in Viet Nam in 1959 with the International Voluntary Services, a U.S. welfare organization, picked up the Rhade tongue on his extensive motorcycle travels through montagnard territory. An agriculture graduate of Kansas State University, he helped the Rhade develop better methods of cultivation, learned their customs, wrote two studies...
...Rhade volunteers-even to the extent of joining in the bruising drinking bouts with kpie wine that are a standard form of Rhade entertainment. After two weeks of military instruction, the volunteers head back for the hills to defend their villages. To date, not one of the 5,000 tribesmen trained has defected to the Viet Cong. Many montagnard hamlets have become almost fortresses, surrounded by bamboo fences, spikes and poisonous bushes called kpung, whose tiny thorns enter the skin and cause temporary paralysis...
...helicopters-have begun to show results. The Viet Cong is now suffering nearly twice as many casualties as the South Vietnamese and the amount of captured Viet Cong equipment is rising. Viet Cong defections are on the increase, and Viet Cong terror tactics against the Montagnards (mountain tribesmen), who have been indifferent to Diem's government, have caused thousands of them to pour down into government territory to volunteer for military training...