Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part-V-B-4-Book-I.djvu/134

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  field, our overall objective could be seriously endangered and we might once more find ourselves in the position of shoring up a leader who had lost the support of his people.

Next to specifying the means, the cost and the resources for interdicting Viet-Cong access to South Vietnam and reducing Viet-Cong operations to a minimum, the tasks of rallying the people to the government and improving the government's relations with the people are the most urgent. A new type of political development is long overdue in Vietnam to spark a new spirit. This should be something much broader and more relevant than the so-called "liberalization" program. The government's rapport and acceptability must be strengthened with the following key elements of the population:

(a) The young professional intelligentsia in the civil service, private organizations, and the faculties.

(b) The provincial, district and village administrators who must be replaced or reoriented for democratic, humane, modern style handling of the little people.

(c) Village youth leaders, village councilors, farm family heads, and teachers.

These key groups could reach the general population in rural and urban areas on a personal basis; new means of mass media can reach the population on a quantitative basis. Rh