Existing comment:
Hearts and Minds:
-- "The struggle was in the rice paddles... in and among the people, not passing through, but living among them, night and day..." -- General Lew Walt, USMC, Retired.
Efforts by both sides to influence the people of South Vietnam varied from subtle to the extreme throughout the Vietnam War. The use of lectures and civic actions stood in high relief to executions and the destruction of entire villages in a bitter, ongoing struggle to win or coerce hearts and minds. Civilians and soldiers of both sides acted a targets of propaganda seeking to blur political lines, while bloody traps weighed heavily on the minds of American troops in the bush.
The Marines developed the Combined Action Program, one of the more successful civic efforts of the conflict. Between 1965 and 1971, 5,000 Marines and Navy Corpsmen lived in 114 villages throughout I Corps. Operating with as few as seven members, Combined Action Platoons provided technical and medical assistance as well as security for villagers. These Marines also instructed Vietnamese Popular Forces troops who were ultimately responsible for village defense. |