From "Notes From a Subterranean Library in Oregon," a compilation of Ray Peat's newspaper letters and columns, compiled by T3Uncoupled (2023). Originally published 1967.

Ray Peat, "Pacification plan", p. 6

Recent estimates of the current annual cost of the Vietnam war range from $25 billion to over $30 billion. With a Vietnamese population of 13 million, this is about $3000 per year per person, or $15,000 per year for each family of five. In three years, this would amount to about $45,000 for each family in South Vietnam. If the United States government gave this amount to the people it would probably pacify them more effectively than the “defensive hamlets.” With that amount of money (contrasted to their present income of a few dozen dollars a year, it’s fabulous wealth), they could afford to be capitalists, and communism wouldn’t have the slightest appeal. It was President Kennedy’s knowledge that it’s cheaper to prevent revolutions than to defeat them militarily that led to the Alliance for Progress. Unfortunately that alliance hasn’t progressed beyond giving a few million dollars to a few Latin American banks to distribute on their terms to farmers who had land they didn’t mind mortgaging. Maybe Nelson Rockefeller or Robert Kennedy will be able to lead the United States back to a rational foreign policy.