We have reasons to doubt the veracity of this.
1. A province of only 30,000 people would be very unusual in
Vietnam, which had in the 1980s 53 million people in 37
provinces (most over 1M population, the smallest 322,000
according to my Statesman's Year Book.)
2. We are invited to believe a dozen newcomers, few or none
of them experienced in building trades, completed within a
year construction of 600 houses and 18 health centres. (In the
French or US building industries, no group of 12 people could
be expected to do this let alone while simultaneously draining
swamps and cleaning up sewage systems.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
I speak of South Vietnam (44 provinces) in the mid 1960s, which would
have had fewer people.
>
> 2. We are invited to believe a dozen newcomers, few or none
> of them experienced in building trades, completed within a
> year construction of 600 houses and 18 health centres. (In the
> French or US building industries, no group of 12 people could
> be expected to do this let alone while simultaneously draining
> swamps and cleaning up sewage systems.)
They would have been able to recruit local residents to help them,
since they were administering the province with the support of the
South Vietnamese government.
I speak of South Vietnam (44 provinces) in the mid 1960s, which would
have had fewer people.
>
> 2. We are invited to believe a dozen newcomers, few or none
> of them experienced in building trades, completed within a
> year construction of 600 houses and 18 health centres. (In the
> French or US building industries, no group of 12 people could
> be expected to do this let alone while simultaneously draining
> swamps and cleaning up sewage systems.)
They would have been able to recruit local residents to help them,
I speak of South Vietnam (44 provinces) in the mid 1960s, which would
have had fewer people.
>
> 2. We are invited to believe a dozen newcomers, few or none
> of them experienced in building trades, completed within a
> year construction of 600 houses and 18 health centres. (In the
> French or US building industries, no group of 12 people could
> be expected to do this let alone while simultaneously draining
> swamps and cleaning up sewage systems.)
They would have been able to recruit local residents to help them,