Headed by Wesley Fishel, the Michigan State University Advisory Group (MSUAG) contracted with the South Vietnamese government to train civil
servants, civil guards, and police, reforming the National Administration Institute along American lines, reorganizing Ngo Dinh Diem's administration, studying
social problems, and issuing reports and recommendations to South Vietnamese and American policymakers. The MSUAG operated between 1954
and 1961. Fishel was a formidable supporter of Ngo Dinh Diem. Given to social science lingo, Fishel extracted democratic principles from practically
all of Diem's oppressive and authoritarian actions and claimed that the internal Communist threat left Diem no choice. Limitations in South Vietnam's
exercise of democracy were explained away with such assertions as the "people of Southeast Asia are not, generally speaking, sufficiently
sophisticated to understand what we mean by democracy." According to Fishel, South Vietnam needed tough leadership, not democracy. He defended
corruption on the grounds that all Asian governments were corrupt. Early in the 1960s, the program was dissolved when Michigan State University refused to
control returning scholars who openly criticized the South Vietnamese government.
And Other Vietnam War Short Stories
http://www.vietnamwar.net
