Engineer Memoirs
the canal system as a rural communications net which supplied the farmers and by which
they brought their produce to centers of population.
The highways are what I would call a bourgeois means of communication. They are
much more the commercial means for the more bourgeois element of the society: the
tradesmen, the entrepreneurs, and the city dwellers.
I don't mean that the highway isn't used by the farmers to get back and forth, but you
don't see very many of them moving their rice on the roads. You do see trucks hauling
rice and produce to a certain extent, but I would imagine just from casual observation
that the great tonnage of agricultural produce in the delta moves by water and will
always do so. It's not a commodity where speed is important. The heavy tonnages of
rice move more economically by water.
What doesn't move economically by water is the more expensive goods that move over
the road--animals, for example. You see chickens and this kind of thing moving over
the road. You see the little people going over the road for trips to Saigon or driving
their motorcycles over the road. It's a retail type operation.
The other big element that the road serves is the ARVN. Generally, the U.S. does not
use the roads in the delta for supplies; we move our supplies by water or by air, as the
case may be. The ARVN makes heavy use of the roads. Their main supply is by truck.
The ARVN uses LSTs to bring supplies to ports in the delta, but from there their
divisions are supported over the road. The U.S. 9th Division was supported quite a bit
over the road from the Long Binh area to Dong Tam. But QL4 further south is very
important in the support of the ARVN 9th Division at Sa Dec and the ARVN 21st
Division at Bac Lieu. A great many supplies move over the road from Can Tho up to
Sa Dec and from Can Tho down to Bac Lieu. The big ARVN port operation here in
Can Tho and QL4 serve as the main supply route to these two divisions.
[Q:
Would you comment on the effects that the rotation of the two brigades of the 9th
Infantry Division will have on the group?]
A:
It's really useless to speculate on what will happen to the security with the departure
of the 9th Infantry Division. There's no question that the ARVN 7th Division is
capable, but I think only time will tell. You hear both optimistic and pessimistic
predictions. You just can't really tell, and I don't think you will be able to tell
immediately. There has been a lot of trouble along QL4 between My Tho and the Me
Thuan ferry even with the 9th Division in place. Actually I think the road may be more
secure between Vinh Long and Can Tho than it is on the stretch farther north.
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