(from ongoing Vietnam Legacy Project, as detailed here July 4, 2009)
THE INDOCHINA CORRESPONDENTS
The Saigon Post, Feb 15, 1971
SAIGON NOTES
by
Daniel Cameron
And now they are dying again---this time not in Vietnam. They were all
photo-journalists who go into war. An anti-aircraft shell smashed their Huey
chopper in the sky over Laos during the South Vietnamese incursion. Four went
down, besides the Vietnamese crew. Larry Burrows, Life Magazine. Henri Huet, the
Associated Press. Kent Potter, United Press International. Keisaburo Shimamoto,
Newsweek.
I remember Larry Burrows in a chopper on May 2 of last year. There he was,
bespectacled and famous, yet flying into the X-Ray Zone of the Fish-hook to see
the first wave of American troops into Cambodia. He carried four cameras.
Somebody told me that KENT POTTER was from my home town, Philadelphia. I
didn't know that.
HENRI HUET, another seasoned pro, was a Frenchman and one of the real
friendlies at the AP Bureau in the Eden Building. He was tiring of Japan and
didn't mind coming back here. One day up in Pleiku he and DAVID ROSENZWEIG, also
of the AP, joined a party of two helicopters. The first one, which they almost
boarded, was shot down. Their chopper landed at the wreckage and found no
survivors. A great many choppers have gone down in this war.
That was then for DAVID ROSENZWEIG. He had already done a lot of good
coverage in Cambodia during the torrid May-June campaign and began to tire of
the war. He didn't get to this recent action in Laos. He had quit and gone back
to California to get married.
TAXATION
According to a former very high-ranking official, the GVN is planning new
ways to create a viable tax collection system. If it succeeds, it will have done
that which has never been done before around here.
The present tax control program is very unpopular. In questionnaires,
householders are asked to list all their items of property, including air
conditioners, TV sets, radios etc. People are alleging that some tax collectors
are becoming outright extortionists.
President Thieu, it's reported, is considerng a revision of the whole tax
campaign. He may consider methods like arbitration and other techniques used in
the United States. One obstacle to tax collection is the fact that 80% of
Vietnamese businesses do not keep books. How long this will continue is still
debatable.
Sources say that the most successful tax evaders in the country are corrupt
Generals, former high-ranking Government officials, and wealthy, influential
businessmen. The United States is expected to support some of these Government
of Vietnam efforts to get these uncollected assets into the nation's
treasury.
AROUND THE TOWN
DAVE BAQUIRIN of the Manila Chronicle has arrived for a six-month tour. The
English press is sometimes called the most free in the world, but from what we
hear, that title may also be claimed by the Filipino press. Seven of the eight
leading newspapers in the Philipines, incidentally, are in the English language.
DAVE told us that one Filipino newsman, in order to get a story on the drug
scene, went so far as to smoke pot and jab himself with heroin. Sounds like
enterprising journalism.....TITO CARBALLO, in from Cambodia, says that no matter
what you read in wire-service dispatches, Phnom Penh is still standing. And
although hypertension has been afflicting LON NOL, there are no signs of it
affecting most Cambodians, according to medical reports. The pace goes on. You
sip each hour instead of gulping it.....Discussed sundry items recently with
retired BRIGADIER GENERAL RICHARD S. WHITCOMB (a Colonel in the D-Day landing at
Normandy.) He commented on Joe Fried of the NY Daily News. "Fried is one of the
newsmen who are on America's side," the General said.
P.S. Tips? Contact Saigon Notes, the Mon-Wed-Fri column. Names withheld on
request.
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