Quang Nam by the beginning of 1970 possessed an active Phoenix/Phung Hoang program organized at province, district, and village levels and had exceeded its VCI neutralization quotas for both 1968 and 1969. The province maintained a Chieu Hoi center at Hoi An for reception, training, and indoctrination of Communists who voluntarily surrendered. Four resettlement hamlets for former VC in the province contained over 400 families. Two GVN Armed Propaganda Companies kept teams in the field seeking out VC and relatives of VC in an effort to encourage additional desertions. To further spread the GVN's message across the province, the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO), an agency under CORDS, and the Vietnamese Information Service (VIS), were attempting to expose more Vietnamese to television, both by distributing government-purchased sets to the villages and by encouraging private buying of receivers. A relay station at Hai Van Pass allowed Quang Nam to receive broadcasts from the Vietnamese Government studios in Hue.27
Yet for all the efforts of all these agencies, Quang nam in 1970 was still far from completely pacified. Of its 950, 000 people, about 830, 000 lived in communities rated secure or semi-secure under HES-70. Another 50, 900 resided in areas considered 'contested.' The rest were under Viet Cong domination or in localities 'not rated,' which meant about the same thing. Thus, 86.7 percent of the people were supposedly under GVN control, but this figure was deceptive. Marine intelligence officers were convinced that a clandestine VC government continued to operate, even in areas relatively free of oven Communist political and military activity, and that many Viet Cong had infiltrated GVN agencies. Especially in the heavily populated districts south of Da Nang, VC guerrillas, while probably less numerous than they had been earlier in the war, still remained active and tenacious.28
GVN social and economic improvement efforts still left
much to be desired. About 44 percent of the province's school age children, in
late April 1970, were enrolled in primary schools, and the government was
training new teachers and (with much help from the
Army LtGen James W. Sutherland, left,
discusses with South Vietnamese pacification officials the Go Noi Island Refugee
Resettlement Program. Go Noi Island, a long-time enemy strongpoint, had been
cleared out and made into a refuge for displaced villagers.
Marine Corps Historical Collection
