Inspite of increased penalties imposed by the Saigon government, the 1986 total of deserters from the Saigon forces looks like running higher than in 1965. According to the January 9th issue of U.S. News and World Report, military sources in Saigon admit that no less than 109,000 have deserted during the first eleven months of the year. This compares with a twelve month's total of 113,000 for 1965. Yet last spring the government introduced penalties ranging up to death for desertion, at the same time as they decreed an October lst amnesty deadline. The response to the latter provision was negligible. The same article reports U.S. military spokesmen as being extremely worried that the desertions will rise even higher when South Vietnamese troops take over responsibility for securing rural areas in the "pacification" programme. Says one such source: "The temptations will be greater, the motives greater for troops kept away from their families for long periods of time."
The WeekThe Week Vol. 7, No. 2, 12 January 1967
Lord Desert From Saigon Forces
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