S. Viet Deputy Premier Studied Here

South Vietnam's new deputy premier enrolled in a Harvard Business School program in 1970 to avoid answering charges that he had embezzled up to $250 million from his own agency in Vietnam, a Vietnamese graduate student said yesterday.

Ngo Vinh Long '68, a student in East Asian Studies, said that Nguyen Van Hao, then head of the U.S.-funded Rural Development Bank, left Saigon on government orders "because to tell the truth about the money's disappearance might have implicated other high officials."

Hao was removed from his government post and came to Harvard in the summer of 1970, in the midst of Vietnamese press and congressional demands that he testify concerning his "responsibility" for the bank scandal.

From September to December 1970, Hao attended the Business School's Program for Management Development, a post-graduate course in management policy for American and foreign executives.

Woodford L. Flowers, head of Business School Executive Education and head of the Management Development program in 1970, said yesterday that executives in the program must be sponsored by their organizations.

Flowers said "This means that Hao's participation was sponsored by the South Vietnam Government."

The bank scandal was "the biggest scandal in the Saigon government up to that time." Long said. "Because it hit so close to the Theiu regime, the only way they could defuse criticism was to remove Hao and send him out of the country," he said.

"Hao was also able to use Harvard's prestige as a further enhancement for his career," Long added.

A spokesman for South Vietnam's embassy in Washington said of the charges against Hao yesterday, "I don't have enough information to say whether they are true or not."

Hao returned to South Vietnam following the completion of the Business School program, and was put in charge of a reformed government Rural Bank.

Last week the Saigon government announced Hao's appointment as Deputy Premier for Economic Development.

Long said that "under charges of corruption, it is insane that Hao would be appointed to a higher position."

Alexander B. Woodside, associate professor of History, said yesterday that charges of corruption against Hao are widespread in South Vietnam. "He is a highly controversial figure even for the South Vietnam government," Woodside said