Defection Rate Of Viet Cong Rises

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 13

Defection Rate Of Viet Cong Rises

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SAIGON, July 14.

The rate of defection by Communist soldiers and former Communist sympathisers to the Saigon Government side has almost doubled this year, according to a survey just made public, the “New York Times” news service reported today.

American and Vietnamese officials said the statistical study, compiled by the Minister of Information in Saigon showed that despair had spread through the Communists’ ranks after the United States stepped up its role in the war.

“Too much bombing, too much misery, no future—that is why the Viet Cong rally to our side,” said Le Quang Dien, the director of Saigon’s na-

tional "open arms” centre, in an interview yesterday. "Open arms” is the Government’s name for the amnesty programme it has set up to attract defectors.

In the first half of this year, 9839 of them accepted Saigon’s standing offer of forgiveness and transportation home if they turned themselves in. Only 11,124 came in during all of 1965, according to the ministry’s statistics.