Editing Strategic Hamlet Program (section)

== Life in the Strategic Hamlet ==
As George Kahin suggests, life in the strategic hamlets was about more than fighting communism, it underpinned ‘a deeper globalisation problem within Cold War politics’; imperialism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kahin|first1=George|last2=Pauker|first2=Guy|last3=Pye|first3=Lucian|date=1955|title=Comparative Politics of Non-Western Countries|journal=American Political Science Review|volume=49|issue=4 |pages=1022–1041|doi=10.2307/1951390|jstor=1951390|s2cid=144602873 }}</ref>

In the hamlets, the peasants were subjected to social control including constant surveillance from troops and watchtowers, identification cards needing to be carried by peasants at all times, and permission being needed to travel beyond the confines of the hamlet.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Latham|first=Michael|title=Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and 'Nation Building'|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2000|location=Chapel Hill|pages=154–156|chapter=Modernization at War: Counterinsurgency and the Strategic Hamlet Program in Vietnam}}</ref>

From the 1950s onwards, [[Non-governmental organization|Non-government organisations]] (NGOs), or [[Civic action program|Civic action]] groups like the [[Peace Corps]], were called into Vietnam, including in the hamlets, to help build infrastructure like dams and public roads.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Morello|first=Carol|date=15 October 2020|title=Peace Corps Turns 60, Looks to an Uncertain Future|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/peace-corps-announces-suspension-volunteer-activities-evacuations-due-covid-19/|access-date=19 May 2021}}</ref> Kennedy believed that the provision of livestock, cooking oil and fertiliser alongside the establishment of local elections and community projects would give peasants a ‘stake in the war’.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Latham|first=Michael|title=Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and 'Nation Building' in the Kennedy Era|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2000|location=Chapel Hill|pages=188|chapter=Modernization at War: Counterinsurgency and the Strategic Hamlet Program in Vietnam}}</ref>

A key strategy for hamlet residents was the U.S. 'self-help' projects. These projects would increase the connections between officials and the peasantry to create loyalty to Diem’s regime. According to Hilsman, giving the hamlet people a ‘choice’ on which projects would most benefit their hamlet community would earn ‘an enormous political gain’ to counter the NLF’s portrayal of the U.S. as an imperial power.<ref name=":3"/> But, as former USOM official stated, whilst the projects undertaken were supposed to be decided by the hamlet people in local meetings, it was often the case that high-profile officials working within the hamlets decided on such projects. There was 62 projects made in 1964, with expansions expected in 1965, but as Latham suggests, ‘U.S. policies ignored the contradiction between the promotion of freedom and the construction of forced labour camps.’<ref>{{Cite book|last=Latham|first=Michael|title=Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and 'Nation Building' in the Kennedy Era|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2000|location=Chapel Hill|pages=187}}</ref>

Building schools and educating the peasants were also encouraged in the hamlets as the U.S. felt that education would instil new political values which would create a new cultural perspective for the Vietnamese population. This links to [[American Interventionism|American interventionism]], which suggested that intervening in foreign relations would preserve American values and maintain Western security.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Blower|first=Brooke L|date=2014|title=From Isolationism to Neutrality: A New Framework for Understanding American Political Culture, 1919–1941|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26376561|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=38|issue=2|pages=351, 369, 346|doi=10.1093/dh/dht091|jstor=26376561|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Hence non-state actors played a role in the programs' implementation. Aid workers from the United States Operations Mission oversaw hamlet school construction and teacher-training programs. [[International Voluntary Service|IVS]] education volunteers provided grassroots-level assistance to Vietnamese instructors and served as teachers in the strategic hamlets. As Elkind writes, the volunteers primary mission in the hamlets was to inspire a “desire for education” among the local population. They strove to accomplish this goal through “the mental conditioning of villagers to accept change and development.” Elkind also wrote that the volunteers’ had a disregard for the negative consequences of the program in the people forced to move to the hamlets and that this ultimately contributed to a widespread belief among the Vietnamese people that neither the South Vietnamese government nor its American supporters had their best interests in mind. Elkind wrote that their vision of helping Vietnam’s people was incompatible with the counterinsurgency goals of the strategic hamlet program.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Elkind|first=Jessica|title=Aid under fire: nation building and the Vietnam War|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=1976|location=Lexington|pages=153–155}}</ref>