Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part-V-B-4-Book-I.djvu/234

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  As the requirement for import of goods, material, equipment, and technical training rises, it will be met largely in the form of direct grant aid in physical terms, will go directly into the government sector, and therefore will not generate piasters.

Extraordinary aid in the form of imports to be sold for economic and social objectives in the program will serve to strengthen the economy and will also generate piasters for use by the government.

The import program, as a matter of policy, should be governed by the following criteria:

1. The program should be viewed as a whole, and the portion supplied by American aid integrated with the total import program. This requires jointly keeping the eligibility list under review. It is also desirable to increase the emphasis on capital goods.

2. The long term goal is a self-sustaining economy with a rising level of living; but in the present emergency the objective is to prevent a rise in per capita consumption and mobilize resources for urgent purposes.

3. The foreign exchange reserves of Viet Nam should be held in the region of $200 million.

4, Aid should, over the next several years, be equal roughly to the estimated difference between foreign exchange receipts and the foreign exchange payments of the VN economy,

5. Imports should be regulated with a view to protecting sound infant industries and encouraging private investment on the one hand while on the other protecting the Vietnamese consumer against undesirable rises in prices. Rh