Diary records some of Entin's daily work and interactions while stationed in Quảng Ngãi province, a Viet Cong stronghold. Describes travel from Saigon on Air America, stopping in the city of Da Nang, outside of Tam Kỳ, what was then Quang Tim Province, and finally arriving Quảng Ngãi. Recounts the variety of projects in rural reconstruction and development that USAID (United States Agency for International Development) attempted to provide, including education, agriculture, revolutionary development cadres, self-help projects, electricity, irrigation, fisheries, health, etc. Describes the "rice culture" in detail and the women workers who "appear to be the chief beast of burden." Entin interacts with few Americans but is impressed by the professionalism of the military advisors he does come across. Although working in "pacified or secure" areas, Entin records his interpreter’s fear for his own life, his mother having been killed by "VC terrorists." Careful for the security of all, and slightly suspicious of "returnees," Entin takes Vietnamese lessons and remains moved by the poverty he sees all around him. At the end of the diary he recounts witnessing, from above in an Air America plane, a "piece of WAR": a US plane flying low dropping bombs on a structure in a small hamlet. "And men are fighting for reasons," he writes, "even if these reasons do not always appear legitimate to me."
Requests to publish, redistribute, or replicate this material should be addressed to Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Contact host institution for more information.
