Unidentified photographer 1961 Strategic Hamlet in the vicinity of Vung Tàu, Vietnam
35mm negatives (x2), panorama Private collection of Wolfgang Wiggers The Strategic Hamlet Program (1961) was a plan to isolate rural peasants in Southern Vietnam from contact with the Vietcong. The peasants were forced to live in "protected hamlets" where they were physically isolated from the communist insurgents. Their old villages were often burned and those who refused to live in the gated hamlets were summarily executed. Of course the forced relocation was deeply unpopular.
