Cleaning Up Saigon

Even for Saigon, a city that has seen all manner of demonstrations, it was an unusual protest. Into Workers Union Headquarters last week marched 200 perfumed professionals, representatives of the 50,000 bar girls and taxi dancers who make their living by catering to the loneliness of the American G.I. They were distressed by the threat of the reform-minded government of Nguyen Van Thieu to close down saigon's 160 cabarets and 47 dance halls. Unless their livelihoods were protected, they said, they would take to the streets like the Buddhists in opposition to the government.

Operation Moose. The government's decision to "diminish the debauched aspect of the city" is part of its drive to bring a little austerity to Saigon and make it more in tune with the war-wounded countryside. Both the Saigon government and U.S. officials have been concerned that the honky-tonk establishments (bearing such names as Eve, Blue Angel and the Bunny Club) are making tawdry neon jungles of such once elegant neighborhoods as the Rue Catinat of Graham Greene's The Quiet American. In March of 1966, General William Westmoreland, aware that the off-duty activities of U.S. troops were beginning to alienate sensitive Vietnamese, initiated Operation Moose (Move Out of Saigon Expeditiously), a realistic attempt to deal with the problem by reducing the American presence in the city. Under Operation Moose, Saigon has been declared off-limits to combat soldiers on R & R (rest and recreation), as well as to all incoming troops.

The U.S. has also moved many units already stationed in the city to barracks outside of Saigon; Westmoreland even ordered the transfer of MACV headquarters to Tan Son Nhut Airbase, three miles from the city. The Army also began a campaign to persuade G.I.s to save up to buy a new car when they got back home rather than spend their money at $1.35 a cup on "Saigon tea," which they must buy to sit with bar girls. As unlikely as it may seem, even that campaign has had some success. The result of it all has been a reduction by half of the income of Saigon's B-girls. Instead of the 71,000 G.I.s whom the girl industry had counted on, Operation Moose has sliced the number of U.S. troops in Saigon to 36,000. A further cutback of 7,000 is expected by February of next year.

Admission Charge. The government is realistic about the needs of the G.I.s still located in the Saigon area. Some of the cabarets and dance halls will undoubtedly be permitted to keep their doors open. Some of the more than 100 houses of prostitution, now illegal, may even become legitimatized. If a bill proposed last week by Minister of Social Welfare Nguyen Phuc Que is passed by the Vietnamese Parliament, the government will open a special area for fun making on the outskirts of Saigon. All patrons, G.I. and Vietnamese alike, would pay an admission charge directly to the government, which would license all cabarets and girls. As Que conceives it, the proceeds could be used for another kind of social project: building low-cost housing for refugees displaced by the war.

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