ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the rights and wrongs of Viet Nam and the counterinsurgency effort made by successive American administrations and to dwell instead on certain counterinsurgency dilemmas. In the broadest sense, counterinsurgency is a branch of defense and therefore inherently also a choice between evils. The dilemma arises when a government resolves the first and decides it must take action in rural areas. While most governments usually resolve the first dilemma by deciding that some action must be taken in the rural areas, the second one is not so easily determined. Dilemmas also exist in development, both economic and social; in practice they are difficult to separate from those that are political, and they are even more numerous. The dilemma is clear but not easily resolved: how to gain active popular support and help the people without helping the insurgents also. The dilemmas inherent in civic action programs are compounded when one considers foreign aid.
