162 ALLIED PARTICIPATION IN VIETNAM
[mil]lion worth of economic assistance to Vietnam. Japan sent two medical teams, considerable amounts of medical goods, 20,000 transistor radios, and 25 ambulances. In addition, Japan provided technicians and funds for the construction of a large power dam across the Da Nhim River, an electrical transmission line, and scholarships for students and technicians, and constructed a neurological ward in Saigon.
Republic of Korea
Korean military personnel constituted the majority of allied forces other than U.S. forces in South Vietnam. Korean military medical personnel provided some medical care to the local population in areas where Korean troops were stationed. In addition, seven civilian medical teams—118 doctors, nurses, and support personnel—worked in provincial health programs. Korea also donated more than $50,000 worth of relief supplies.
Laos
Laos contributed $4,167 for flood relief in 1965 and a small cash donation for refugees in 1966. An additional $5,000 in relief supplies was provided in 1968.
Malaysia
Beginning in 1964 Malaysia trained nearly 2,900 Vietnamese military and police officers. Groups of thirty to sixty men were regularly sent to Malaysia for about a month's training in counterinsurgency operations with the Malaysian Special Police Constabulary. Malaysia also provided some counterinsurgency equipment, primarily military and police transport vehicles, and medicines and relief supplies.
In early 1967 Malaysia received and accepted a formal invitation to send four experts on rural settlement and pacification to South Vietnam. The team was to make recommendations concerning hamlet security and psychological warfare. The Vietnamese did not feel that the team was very effective. At the close of 1967 there was some talk of a Malaysian proposal to increase the training staff and double the size of the training effort at the police school. While appreciative of the offer, police officials in Saigon pointed out that so many police had already been trained in Malaysia and the Philippines that there was little need for large expansion of the program.
