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IV. A. 5 Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force [i]

handle is hein.pentagon/pentpap0008 and id is 1 raw text is: Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
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operating for certain private interests. At the same time, 
thousands of persons are mobilized for exhausting work, com-
pelled to leave their own jobs, homes and families, to par-
ticipate in the construction of magnificent but useless 
agrovilles which weary them and provoke their disaffection, 
thus aggravating popular resentment and creating an ideal 
terrain for enemy propaganda.
The economy is the very foundation of society, and public 
opinion ensures the survival of the regime. The government 
must destroy all the obstacles standing in the way of econ-
omic development; must abolish all forms of monopoly and 
speculation; must create a favorable environment for invest-
ments coming from foreign friends as well as from our own 
citizens; must encourage commercial enterprises, develop 
industry, and create jobs to reduce unemployment. At the 
same time, it should put an end to all forms of human exploi-
tation in the work camps of the agrovilles.
Then only the economy will flourish again; the citizen 
will find again a peaceful life and will enjoy his condition; 
society will be reconstructed in an atmosphere of freedom and 
democracy.
Mr. President, this is perhaps the first time that you 
have heard such severe and disagreeable criticism -- so 
contrary to your own desires. Nevertheless, sir, these words 
are strictly the truth, a truth that is bitter and hard, that 
you have never been able to know because, whether this is in-
tended or not, a void has been created around you, and by the 
very fact of your high position, no one permits you to per-
ceive the critical point at which truth shall burst forth in 
irresistible waves of hatred on the part of a people subjected 
for a long time to terrible suffering and a people who shall 
rise to break the bonds which hold it down° It shall sweep 
away the ignominy and all the injustices which surround and 
oppress it.
As we do not wish, in all sincerity, that our Fatherland 
should have to live through these perilous days, we -- without 
taking into consideration the consequences which our attitude 
may bring upon us -- are ringing today the alarm bell in view 
of the imminent danger which threatens the government.
Until now, we have kept silent and preferred to let the 
Executive act as it wished. But now time is of the essence;
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