On a New Footing

Though it has been wracked by war for more than two decades, South Viet Nam has never fully mobilized its resources to fight the Communists. It has, in fact, more or less tried to fight the war with one hand while the other went about its normal business. Now the government of President Nguyen Van Thieu, having decided to put the country on a full war footing for the first time, is not only out to raise the number of men in uniform to nearly 1,000,000 but to enforce an across-the-board tightening of the economy to pay for the mobilization. The job will not be easy--and there are many doubts that it can be accomplished by the target date of September or October--but Thieu is determined to push it hard.

Rarely since the war began have the Vietnamese been so united in purpose about any national aim. The need for mobilization has the support of the country's press, its political parties, its churches. Even the militant Buddhists have not objected, which amounts to positive support from them. Virtually all members of the National Assembly back the idea--but the Assembly is jealous of its recently created powers. When Thieu last week sent the Assembly a terse, 60-word draft asking for authority to mobilize the country's manpower and resources, the Assembly balked at the lack of detail and the sweeping statement that "regulations to carry out this law will be determined by decrees." It shelved Thieu's draft, but intends to rewrite the bill so that it spells out what the government had been planning all along.

Saving on Rice. What is planned is a call-up of an additional 158,000 men this year, aimed particularly at the young. Eighteen-and 19-year-olds will be drafted first, and the army will accept volunteers of 16 and 17. Not only are men of those ages more militarily educable, but few have families, thus saving the government rice allowances and family bonuses normally paid to older, married soldiers. And, since the Viet Cong are recruiting at younger and younger ages, the government hopes to get to the boys before the enemy does. It also intends to induct some 45,000 students in Vietnamese colleges and universities who are failing to take regular, successful examinations. The 25,000 left in the colleges will be fitted for uniforms as soon as they graduate.

In addition, the government mobilization would extend up to men aged 45, v. the present 33. Those 33 or younger would go into active military units; those 34 to 39 would be assigned to Regional and Popular (local) Forces or join those 40 to 45 in civilian defense units. Duong Van Thuy, chairman of the House Defense Committee, would also like to call up all single girls aged 18 to 25 to serve as hospital aides or armed forces secretaries, where they could, as Thuy put it, use their "soft hands and tender hearts to comfort our boys."

A crackdown on draft evaders and deferments has already been launched. All men 18 to 33 must carry "control slips" issued by the police; anyone caught without one is automatically considered a Viet Cong suspect. The government uses fixed and mobile police and military roadblocks to constantly check the slips, while flying squads visit homes and even cordon off whole city blocks for I.D. checks. So effective is the tightening net that the price for an illegal "fix" to escape the draft has soared to a minimum of $870, virtually out of the reach of all but perhaps a few hundred scions of the wealthiest South Vietnamese families.

To raise the estimated $90 million that the new recruits will cost in pay and outfitting annually, the National Economy Ministry proposes to hike income taxes and business license fees by at least 20%. Additional levies will be imposed on such already heavily taxed items as petroleum, beer and cigarettes. Businessmen will be forced to finance their own imports without government aid. All but essential construction will be postponed, and many essential workers will be mobilized in their jobs. One considerable source of normal government revenues, that from the heavily taxed bars, nightclubs and dance halls that the government closed down after Tet, seems to have been shut off for good. The Labor Ministry last week turned down a plea from the 4,700 comely ladies of the Hotel and Dance Hall Workers' Union to put them back in business "to get money from foreigners for war victims." The girls were told that they could best help the war effort by filling the jobs in business and agriculture vacated by drafted youths. There will be plenty of openings.

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