| OCR Text |
Show 204 Through harassment, the murder of teachers, and sabotage of buildings the Viet Cong succeeded in closing more than 200 primary schools in South Viet Nam in 1960, interrupting the education of more than 25,000 students.22 In view of such effects, official Optimism regarding the purported ineffectiveness of Viet Cong assassinations is to be heavily discounted. Basically, there are two distinct types of Viet Cong assassinations -- the one carried out with a high degree of selectivity, choosing victims mostly from among the ranks of officialdom; the other executed at random, the victims being found mostly among the non-official civilian pOpulation and chosen at random. As an example of the first type of assassination, consider the following episode: On a model farm not far from Saigon one day last October, Vietnamese workers approached their National- ist Chinese agricultural advisor and suggested that he delay his arrival at the farm next day until after 10 a.m. Without knowing why, the expert took the hint. Shortly after 8 a.m. of that day, Viet Cong terrorists appeared at the farm and executed a government-appointed village Chieftain and his first assistant. Obviously the villagers had known of the Viet Cong plan and had saved their Chinese advisor but had done nothing to save the village chief. 22A Threat to the Peace, cation 7308, V01. 1, p. 13. Department of State Publi- |
