407 



(2) to enable South Vietnam to further its own development of in- 

 dustry, housing, and public works "while carrying out an expanded 

 defense effort." Emphasis was to be placed on public health programs 

 in Thailand and Laos, rural electrification cooperatives in South 

 Vietnam, training and equipping of local engineering and public 

 works agencies for rural development work in Laos, and Thailand, 

 and expanded technical assistance to Lao agricultural development 

 ("particularly agricultural credit and marketing, and the introduc- 

 tion on a wider scale of improved livestock and seeds"). 58 



The various studies of the Lower Mekong Basin had all agreed that 

 a good deal of preparatory planning and training should take place 

 before actual construction of dams and power plants. Much of this 

 work was already underway in mid-1965. Thus, ECAFE reported in 

 March that 54 different teams were at work in the basin on such tasks 

 as fishery and forestry studies, mineral surveys, demonstration farms, 

 irrigation experiments, and river navigation surveys and channel 

 marking. 59 



At the conclusion of the calendar year 1965, the annual report of 

 the Coordination Committee to ECAFE listed, in addition to various 

 dams and other construction projects and progress in organization 

 and staffing, the following "highlights" which illustrate the kind of 

 supporting developmental program then judged necessary for the 

 Mekong engineering tasks — in view of the relatively primitive econ- 

 omy and technology of the region ; analysis of 200 samples of Cambo- 

 dian bauxite; soil study of the Laotian resettlement area; mineral 

 survey of northeast Thailand ; exploratory development of a rock salt 

 deposit in Thailand ; construction of tug boats for river navigation ; 

 study of feasibility of pulpwood industry; training of river pilots, 

 hydrologists, and systems analysts ; and development of a network of 

 demonstration farms. The Coordination Committee itself had as- 

 sembled a substantial organization (See organization chart in annual 

 report for 1965, page 210) . 60 



It was evident, of course, that electricity and irrigation water would 

 be useless without capital, labor skills, agricultural knowledge of the 

 specialized procedures appropriate for irrigated crops, marketing and 

 transportation of produce, and a more highly developed economic 

 system. In the absence of fertilizer, for example, perhaps the silt- 

 laden floods of the Mekong served a useful function to enrich the soil 

 of the delta. Health of the population was an important factor in 

 development. 61 



It was significant that as late as 1970. the Bureau of Reclamation in 

 its Stage One Feasibility Report was to report that: "Under the 

 Mekong Basin Development Project AID is presently (FY 1970) 

 supporting the following ecological and social studies which will pro- 

 vide new information for future Pa Mong investigations : 



1. Water-borne Disease Study — With emphasis on snails as vector ; 



2. Aquatic Weeds Study ; 



68 Department of State Bulletin (June 28, 1965) , pp. 1056-1060. 



68 Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, "Putting the Mekong to Work — an 

 International Undertaking," feature no. 14, (March, 1965). 



80 Committee for Coordination of Investigation of the Lower Mekong Basin, Annual 

 Report, 1965 (New York : United Nations, 1966). 



41 See U.S. Congress. House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, "Beyond Malthus : the Food/ 

 People Equation," (Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971), 92nd 

 Cong., 1st sess., 1971. 



