After Crossing Over

The most courted combatant in the history of war may well be the Communist in South Viet Nam--or rather, the potential Communist defector. Bombarded with leaflets promising a better life on the other side, the Viet Cong or North Vietnamese fighter who comes in from the heat can often within min utes collect tangible rewards at a government reception center. The rewards include fresh food, medical care and cash. In the four years since the government launched its Chieu Hoi (Open Arms) program, 83,000 Viet Cong have defected. That is the equivalent of 33 enemy regiments.

The hoi chanh, or "rallier to the true national cause," spends his first six to eight weeks in a Chieu Hoi center. He is given two sets of clothing, entertained with tours, television and basic educational films, and granted $1.60 a month pocket money. The defector is also rewarded according to a fixed bounty scale for whatever he brings with him. A pistol is worth $10, an automatic rifle $62, and an 82-mm. mortar $500. One happy ex-Communist became an instant capitalist when he collected $16,000 for pointing the way to a sizable arms cache.

Operation Kit Carson. After re-indoctrination, most hoi chanh go home or to a Chieu Hoi hamlet, and about 40% are drafted after a six-month grace period. Thus the defector can soon find himself back in the jungle, fighting on the allied side. One in five signs up as a scout for the U.S. Marines' Operation Kit Carson or joins an armed propaganda team, touring the countryside as living proof of the benefits of the Open Arms program. For an elite few, there are government jobs. Two former lieutenant colonels in the Viet Cong, Le Xuan Chuyen and Huynh Cu, are sub-Cabinet officials in the Ministry of Open Arms.

For the rest, life on the government side frequently turns out to be far less rosy than pictured. Tagged forever by a tiny asterisk on their ID cards, they often cannot get the jobs that the government has promised. "It's a little like hiring an ex-convict," says one Chieu Hoi official. Even if an able hoi chanh lands a job, he must contend with the jealousy of fellow workers and the hatred engendered by more than 20 years of fighting. A typical reaction is that of one South Vietnamese: "Why should we take the risk of making friends with an ex-V.C. when our lives are al ready so filled with suspicion?"

Quality Compensation. The number of defectors is down sharply this year: only 7,500 have come over, compared with 20,000 for the same period in 1967. One reason is the Communist promise that the war would be over by August of 1968, with Hanoi and the Viet Cong victorious--a promise that the Communist Tet offensive bolstered for a time in the Red ranks, keeping waverers in line. But lately the rate of defections has begun to rise noticeably toward 1967 levels, indicating that that promise may be wearing a bit thin.

In any event, what the allies have lost in numbers has been compensated for in the rank of the current defectors. They include more than twice as many officers and noncoms as before; some of them came over because they did not want to carry out Hanoi's orders for suicidal mass attacks. One such defector was Lieut. Colonel Tran Van Dae of the 9th Viet Cong Division. He spilled the Communist plans for the May 5 thrust at Saigon, and four months later is still pouring out useful intelligence to the allies.

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