(Note: This is the second in a series for an on-going Vietnam War Legacy Project that began July 4.
My features that appeared in The Saigon Post etc will be digitized for future reference and also posted here. (Details at July 4 post.) The following, under byline 'Daniel Cameron,' is the SAIGON NOTES column for March 15, 1970.)
SAIGON NOTES
by Daniel Cameron
THE 'I' HOUSE INCIDENT
Most Saigon hands remember the International House which closed down
last year on Nguyen Hue Street. You paid a $20 membership fee and then ate
low-priced steaks, drank the PX booze, played the slot machines and had
companionship. American civilians went there in droves, The place did a good
business---so good, in fact, that at least two managers are being indicted by a
federal grand jury in Los Angeles. The charge is conspiracy to defraud an
instrumentality of the US Government of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This
is according to a recent Stateside article by CLARK MOLLENHOFF.
The American Embassy here is involved because it had the authority to audit
the club and was also represented on the board of International House. This
Board was composed of officials from various US Federal agencies in Saigon. It
had the responsibility of supervising the club's finances and, presumably,
keeping the wrong hands out of the right pockets. Although no Embassy official
is implicated in any wrong-doing (aside from gross negligence) MOLLENHOFF
writes:
"The intital investigation of International House gives a clue as to how
one State Department official was able to afford Monday night parties with guest
lists as long as your arm, and still repay an old credit union debt of thousands
of dollars."
The International House was not an agency of the US Government. It was a
private club managed by non-Government managers. As an American official
explained to us, it wound up becoming a 'baby' of federal agencies here because
that was the only way it could get duty-free food and liquor. He said that
without these duty-free privileges the club would not have been able to serve
its 5000 members at bargain rates.
"There was a need for such a club," he said. "Almost everybody wanted it.
And so we let ourselves take the responsibility for the financial
supervision."
According to MOLLENHOFF, a Justice Department audit says that "much of the
fraud was apparent, but nobody paid any attention to the evidence."
State Department auditors say the records are missing, equipment is
missing, money is missing and it's almost impossible to reconstuct financial
transactions.
While official members of International House were meeting regularly in
Saigon, non-officials with hot hands were apparently having a good time
operating slot machine rackets, equipment-purchase rackets and kick-back
rackets. Liquor, meat and other foods would be bought from "favored" vendors for
as much as 30 or 40 percent more than the going market price. The vendors split
the amount of the overpricing with "key club employees."
An American official tells me, "We had no idea what was going on."
The funny or sad part is that he was probably being perfectly honest in his
reply. Did the Board of International House ever anticipate such possibilities
for hot hands in the "I" House?
Apparently not.
MOLLENHOFF writes: "The US Embassy had the authority to audit the club, but
it did not have the specific responsibility to conduct periodic audits.
Consequently the club personnel operated with little or no supervision."
ps. Information suitable for this column can be mailed to The Saigon Post.
Or leave name on bulletin board at JUSPAO , 145
Nguyen Hue St.
Comments