Participant Training Program
From 1955 to 1961 the Michigan State University Group (MSUG) selected 179 Vietnamese to be educated in various foreign countries, including the United States, the Philippines, Japan, and Malaya. Working closely with the MSUG, the United States Operations Mission (USOM) also sponsored a number of Vietnamese. The participant program sought to improve South Vietnam's government by exposing its civil servants and police forces to modern administrative and law enforcement methods. In addition, gifted students were given the chance to pursue advanced academic degrees. Specifically, the National Institute of Administration (NIA), the civil servant training school that the MSUG helped establish in 1955, brought promising graduates and faculty members to the United States to obtain doctorates. Only partially successful, the participant program suffered from a lack of welldefined objectives and was constantly reevaluated by MSUG personnel.2045 Records
