Article about South Vietnam political crisis

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363-01205 to 363-01211.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-01205 to 363-01211

Title

Article about South Vietnam political crisis

Description

Original caption: "crisis" Article about the political crisis in South Vietnam, including an interview with Nguyễn Thị Mai Anh, South Vietnam's first lady. For the New York Herald Tribune

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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.

Transcript

Beverly Deepe 101 Cong Ly Saigon crisis one June 4 Saigon--Mrs. Nguyen Du Thieu gracefully hopped into her slightly battered Renault, and carefully [XXXX indicating deletion] straightened her fragile pink ao dai before pushing the starter. “This car is a wreck,” he mumbled absentmined absentmindedly. “Hung and I were going to buy a new one, but decided against it. Everything we do depends on the situation.” The young, perk housewife and mother of three rambled on, eager to have an attentive ear to listen to her [XXXX indicating deletion] troubles. “We “We were going to “Six months ago, we were going to re-decorate our house and build another wing,” she continued as the atu auto lurched up to a modest French villa. “Then the first coup came. We waited a couple of months and were again going to start construction. Then the second coup came. [XXXX indicating deletion] Then we gave up--we’re not going to do anything because of the situation.” (More) Deepe crisis--2 She parked the car and entered her nest living room furnished with an odd mixture of French sofas and Vietnamese lacquerware. Turning on lazy overhead fan, she continued. “My morale is drov dropping by the minute,” she explained, sipping hot jasmine tea her made a maid had handed her. “It doesn’t show up in military statit statistics, but the Communists who were in jail duner under Diem (President Ngo Dinh Diem, killed in Novemeber November coup d’etat) are now coming back to Saigon. They’re everywhere. They’re working with the agitating the students--I know, because my sister goes to school. They’re in business and labor. And they’re high up in the government. I was talking a a to a close friend I’ve known for ten years--he’s now in the government and high up too. He said something and a light flashed through my mind. I thought he has that tendency too--My God, he’s a Communist too. Now Hung and I trust no one; we talk to no one; we do nothing.” She nervously [XXXX indicating deletion] fidgeted with her chipped red fingernail polish fingernail and with a poignant mixture of frustration and despair continued: “We don’t want to live with the Communists but we know the government won’t give us exit permits to leave. I often wonder why we were we born Vietnamese? Why couldn’t we have been born Swiss or Anarctican or something else?” (More) Deepe Crisis--3 The articulate, well-educated housewife feared what the Vietnamese call the “invisible hands” of the pro-Communists in the urban centers and the potential danger of their assassinating at the right moment staunchly anti-Communist persons. But she, continued emphasized, in the provinces, the danger is different--armed Communist guerrilla attack--but no less deadly. “A friend of mine lives in a large Catholic village fifty miles north of Saigon,” she said. “Two weeks ago the Viet Cong (Communist guerrillas came to her village and told the people to move out because they were going to attack. My friend just brought her elderly mother to live in Saigon.” The perk housewife represents a small minority of persons--mostly Catholic--who are committed in fighting the Communist guerrillas. They know they will be persecuted under a Communist regime. They are generally strongly pro-American and show an intense concern with developments in Viet Nam, though the Pate Pathet Lao advance in Laos is too remote to concern them. They have enough problems at home. In the potpourri of views about the situation in South East Asia, [XXXX indicating deletion] two other views are more prevalent. A second stream of thinking springs from those persons who have consistently said the Laos neutrality agreements would fold up and the Communist ger guerrillas in South Viet Nam would continue to get stronger. They see no crisis at this time. (M9re) Deepe Crisis--4 The third viewpoint comes from what the Vietnamese call the “black people”--the peasants, cyc trishaw-drivers and “people of the street.” Largely uninformed, and illiterate, they are accustomed to living with from crisis to crisis and their life of labor blue-collar labor would not be much substantially different under Communist regime. In the Western sense of logic, the young Catholic housewife who fears a Communist takeover should be an avid supporter of the government of prime minister Generaly Nguyen Khanh. The 36-year-old goateed general, however, lacks an amazing amazingly lacks a figment of support from the urban masses, though perhaps the illiterate class have the fewest impressions. Concurrently there is a growing articulation of anti-American sentiment. General Khanh is openly criticized--even by pro-American elements--of being “an American puppet”, which [XXXX indicating deletion] only reinforces Communist propaganda. Some charge him with a “lack of political sense,” others blame him for corruption in his government “which is three times worse than under Diem.” Even civilians working within his government are antagonistic against the predominant authority resting in the hands of military officers. General Khanh has attempted to mediate between all factional disputes--between the Catholics and the Buddhists, between various political parties, between factions within his own military junta--but has compromised with all, satisfied none and gained the support of few. From these fragmentary reasons, perhaps the core of the criticism is that [XXXX indicating deletion] in this critical time of crisis, he is not leading this government. (More) deepe crisis--5 “If [deletion: you] I had the time and you gave me a piece of clay, I could make a lovely vase,” explained an anti-Communist businessman. “But we don’t have the time to make mistakes--and you’ve given me a piece of mud. That’s General Khanh. American can’t make him a leader, and we can’t dump him until Washington decides to. We blame [XXXX indicating deletion] the Americans for giving us this chunk of mud.” In the countryside, the government is not General Khanh, but the province and district chiefs he appoints. After whirlwind changes of these provincial leaders during the two coups, the attitude of the rural population is difficult to know. Americans in Asia see the Indo-China situation as wacky, but sadly so. “Cambodia is the most neutralist country here spouting the Peking line..but it has no Communists, except those in jail,” explained one long-time American resident here. “Eber “Everyone thinks Laos is--or was--a neutralist coalition, but it isn’t. It’s three separate governments with belligerent co-existence. And the most anti-Communist country--Viet Nam--has the most Communists, but we can’t find them. They’re like ghosts.” (More) deepe crisis--6 Most Americans in Asia genuinely accept the State Department line that the fight is against Chinese Communist imperialism, an argument which has missed even the most patriotic Vietnamese. Vietnamese [deletion: thin] view the Viet Cong Communist guerrillas as another political party, but one operating with guns. The Americans in Asia, however, are far more anti-French that than the official American government line. They note that while the Communists have consistently “nibble up ground and then sit back to talk about it” the one important change in this year’s crisis is the loss open loss of French support in Indo-China. Last fall, Gen. de Gaulle’s neutralist proposal directly contradicted American policy for Viet Nam and within the past weeks the French in Laos, who are military, culturally and politically important there, have shifted to the Chinese communist proposals for solving the current crisis. The French here openly “excruciatingly criticize” the Americans, saying that the West will lose the Indo-China area. [deletion: The Americans contend the French believe the West will lose simply because the French wa] “The French think we’ll lose,” explained anAmerican businessman, “simply because they want us to lose so badly. If they couldn’t defeat the Communists here, they refuse to believe we can. It’s all a matter of national prestige.” Many of the attitudes in Asia revolve around an interpretation of time. The French and Communists believe the West and the nationalists are (More) deepe crisis--7 running out of time. Some Americans believe the West is “simply buying time--especially in Laos. We’re not winning, but we haven’t lost.” A Western diplomat says confidently, “Time is neutral. It’s on the side which utilizes it.” But the fatalistic Orientals have learned to survive thousands of years by simply ignoring time. -30-

Date

1964, June

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975, Nguyễn, Thị Mai Anh; Christian Science monitor

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6297

Size

21 x 27 cm

Container

B3, F7

Format

dispatches

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Collector

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections

Language

English