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The monetary moves are expected to raise living costs by at least 15%, but the impact will be softened somewhat by pay raises for civil servants and combat soldiers. Another big cushioner is the fact that most of the 359,400 G.I.s who have been pulled out of Viet Nam so far have been combat troops from the boondocks, not the big spenders on the bases near the cities. Only when the still-substantial flow of Pentagon dollars is cut back to a trickle will Saigon begin to be able to tell whether Phase II will work.