146,000,000 Dollars Sought As U.S. Help For Vietnam

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 February 1950, Page 6

146,000,000 Dollars Sought As U.S. Help For Vietnam

SAIGON, February 15.—-The Vietnam Government could defeat Dr Ho Chi-minh’s Communist forces in six months if it received American military and economic aid, said the Vietnam Prime Minister (Nguyen Phan- ' long) today. I According to the Associated Press, I Nguyan Phan-long said that his Government 'sought 146,000,000 dollars from the United Slates. It needed 6,000,000 dollars urgently to build up the number of its troops from 2500 to 6800 in northern Vietnam, and a further 40,000,000 dollars to create a Vietnamese national army of 200,000 men. Nguyen Phan-long said his Government also hoped lor an economic loan of 100,000,000 dollars from the United States. “We can pay this back in three instalments within 16 to 18 months, because of our large rubber and rice exports in normal' times,” he added. I The Prime Minister said the crea- I tion of a Vietnamese National Army against the Communist Vietminh forces. Popular sentiment demanded that Vietnamese troops should occupy the rebel region immediately after French forces had seized it from Vietminh control. The French are expected to clear the Communists from the densely-populated Red river delta region in northern Vietnam in two months. I Nguyen Phan-long said that Vietminh nationalist partisans in southern Vietnam had recently been defecting to Bao Dai's Vietnam Government. The situation in central Vietnam, however, was unsatisfactory. French and Vietnamese forces would extend . their campaign against the Com- j munists there after they had cleared out the guerrillas in northern and southern Vietnam. I Nguyen Phan-long said he was convinced that Dr Ho Chi-minh’s forces had been receiving aid from the Chinese Communists. This had been shown in a radio message from Dr Ho Chi-minh to Mr Stalin six months ago. This message, Nguyen Phen-long said, acknowledged the receipt of a shipment of machineguns through the Chinese Communists.