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Vietnam Black Market, May 20, 1966
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4525941
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Vietnam Black Market, May 20, 1966
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975
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1966
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The original documents are located in Box D20, folder "Vietnam Black Market, May 20,
1966" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R.
Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M.
FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1966
SPEECH EXCERPTS--BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICHIGAN
Black market activities in Vietnam have mushroomed into such a smelly mess
that the State Department has decided to admit they exist.
The State Department concedes that the war effort in Vietnam is beset by
black marketeering, corruption, speculation and the falling of U.S. economic
aid goods into the hands of the Vietcong.
Officials made these concessions when a newsman charged that the Vietcong
was getting more of its supplies from the black market and other South Vietnam
sources than through the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The State Department claims that the Vietcong have captured these supplies--
radio receivers, drugs, food stocks, seeds, and other items--in taking over or
making raids on villages initially under Government control. They add that
trucks hauling AID commodities in rural areas have been seized by the Vietcong.
In contrast with this explanation, we find Saigon correspondent J. W. Cohn
of Fairchild News Service reporting that "the United States is indirectly
financing and supplying the enemy" in Vietnam.
It is American AID dollars, Cohn declares flatly, which make it possible
for the black market in Saigon to flourish.
He also points to other black market sources: American GI's selling Post
Exchange goods to black marketeers; American trucks "delivering" military
supplies into "the wrong hands;" American stevedoring operations which "virtually
encourage pilferage;" and "the fact that two-thirds of Vietnam's commercial
import dollars come from United States AID funds."
I think this is a disgraceful situation, and the State Department explanation
does not really explain it.
The State Department admits the black marketeering, so it seems obvious the
Vietcong raids are not the whole answer to the problem of U.S. goods finding
their way into enemy hands.
(MORE)
-2-
SPEECH EXCERPTS
We had plenty of black marketeering during during World War II, as all
Americans know. But there is,a, painful difference between that black market
activity and the shady trading now going on in Vietnam.
The black marketeering carried on by GI's during World War II merely put
dollars in their pockets, but the black market activities in Vietnam are
helping the enemy fight us. That is nothing short of tragic.
The State Department, in effect, dismisses the black marketeering in
Vietnam as being of no great consequence.
The Defense Department is charging that the 325 American newsmen in Vietnam
are the real villains in the black market scandal there.
Meantime Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas D. Morris is checking on
black marketeering in Post Exchange goods, and a House subcommittee has just
completed a Vietnam black market investigation.
Whatever these investigations reveal, it is imperative that the Defense
Department and the Agency for International Development act to halt black
market aid to the enemy in a war that seems to have no end.
***
As if the taxpayer were not already sufficiently afflicted, President
Johnson has come to Congress with a debt refinancing scheme that will cost
Americans added millions of dollars each year.
His idea is to pour billions of dollars in government-owned mortgages and
other financial assets into a pot at the Federal National Mortgage Association
(Fannie Mae) and sell shares to private banking interests.
The miraculous result would be to obtain fresh private funds for government
agencies to spend without having this spending show up in the budget.
But the sand in this well-oiled financial machinery is that it costs more
to borrow money this way than through sale of government bonds. Net result is
that the taxpayer gets hurt.
Even the Americans for Democratic Action are against this Great Society
scheme. They say it will result in tighter money because of higher interest
rates, thus harming farmers and small businessmen. This is one time when the
ADA and I agree.
# # #
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M.
FRIDAY, MAV 20, 1966
SPEECH EXCERPTS--BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICHIGAN
Black market activities in Vietnam have mushroomed into such a smelly mess
that the State Department has decided to admit they exist.
The State Department concedes that the war effort in Vietnam is beset by
black marketeering, corruption, speculation and the falling of U.S. economic
aid goods into the hands of the Vietcong.
Officials made these concessions when a newsman charged that the Vietcong
was getting more of its supplies from the black market and other South Vietnam
sources than through the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The State Department claims that the Vietcong have captured these supplies--
radio receivers, drugs, food stocks, seeds, and other items--in taking over or
making raids on villages initially under Government control. They add that
trucks hauling AID commodities in rural areas have been seized by the Vietcong.
In contrast with this explanation, we find Saigon correspondent J. W. Cohn
of Fairchild News Service reporting that "the United States is indirectly
financing and supplying the enemy" in Vietnam.
It is American AID dollars, Cohn declares flatly, which make it possible
for the black market in Saigon to flourish.
He also points to other black market sources: American GI's selling Post
Exchange goods to black marketeers; American trucks "delivering" military
supplies into "the wrong hands;" American stevedoring operations which "virtually
encourage pilferage;" and "the fact that two-thirds of Vietnam's commercial
import dollars come from United States AID funds,"
I think this is a disgraceful situation, and the State Department explanation
does not really explain it.
The State Department admits the black marketeering, so it seems obvious the
Vietcong raids are not the whole answer to the problem of U.S. goods finding
their way into enemy hands.
(MORE)
-2-
SPEECH EXCERPTS
We had plenty of black marketeering during during World War II, as all
Americans know. But there is a painful difference between that black market
activity and the shady trading now going on in Vietnam.
The black marketeering carried on by GI's during World War II merely put
dollars in their pockets, but the black market activities in Vietnam are
helping the enemy fight us. That is nothing short of tragic.
The State Department, in effect, dismisses the black marketeering in
Vietnam as being of no great consequence.
The Defense Department is charging that the 325 American newsmen in Vietnam
are the real villains in the black market scandal there.
Meantime Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas D. Morris is checking on
black marketeering in Post Exchange goods, and a House subcommittee has just
completed a Vietnam black market investigation.
Whatever these investigations reveal, it is imperative that the Defense
Department and the Agency for International Development act to halt black
market aid to the enemy in a war that seems to have no end.
* *
As if the taxpayer were not already sufficiently afflicted, President
Johnson has come to Congress with a debt refinancing scheme that will cost
Americans added millions of dollars each year.
His idea is to pour billions of dollars in government-owned mortgages and
other financial assets into a pot at the Federal National Mortgage Association
(Fannie Mae) and sell shares to private banking interests.
The miraculous result would be to obtain fresh private funds for government
agencies to spend without having this spending show up in the budget.
But the sand in this well-oiled financial machinery is that it costs more
to borrow money this way than through sale of government bonds. Net result is
that the taxpayer gets hurt.
Even the Americans for Democratic Action are against this Great Society
scheme. They say it will result in tighter money because of higher interest
rates, thus harming farmers and small businessmen. This is one time when the
ADA and I agree.
# # #