"The Status Quo Seekers"

Item

derivative filename/jpeg
363-02160 to 363-02166.pdf
Digital Object Identifier
363-02160 to 363-02166
Title
"The Status Quo Seekers"
Description
Original title: "The Status Quo Seekers." Article by Keever about the US's foreign policy toward Vietnam as attempting to maintain the status quo. This is article 6 of a 7-part series reflecting on the overthrow of Ngô Đình Diệm
Transcript
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- Page 1
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deepe
article 6 of 7 article series
pago 1
THE STATUS QUO SEEKERS
SAIGON--Twenty-five years ago, a Saigon businessman
and Ho Chi Minh worked closely together to rescue American
flyers shot down by the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh, now president
of Communist of North Viet Nam, was thon leading a small band
of guerrillas fighting against both the French colonialists
and the Japanese invaders.
The Vietnamese leader and the businessman walked
through the jungles; slept on straw mats in peasants' houses;
schounged cold rice when they could.
"I remember one night, Ho Chi Minh told me everyone
has a weakness and I have one too. I like American cigarettes,"
the Saigonese recalled recently.
"Ho Chi Minh was very pro-American then," he continued.
"After all, Roosevelt was talking about the Four Freedoms.
America had just conquered its own economic depression and
seemed ready to help the poor people elsewhere."
Today, America claims Ho Chi Minh as its No.1 enemy
in Vietnam var.
In another case, an American technical expert was
captured last year by the Communist guerrillas and held
prisoner in the mountains for five months.
(More)
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doope
article 6 of 7 article series
page 2
During that time, the American civilian became
acquainted with a young "white-collar Communist," who walked
miles through the jungle to serve as his English-language
interpreter. During their acquaintance, the young Vietnamese
explained that he was from the provincial capital of Qui Nhon
250 miles north of Saigon.
"When I was a high school student in Qui Nhon, we
always went to American movies," he told his American captive.
"The nicest compliment you could say about a young man was.
He's as handsome as Robert Taylor. And we had another expression:
He's as rich as an American."
But last month--20 years later--there were bloody
anti-American demonstrations in Qui Nhon.
Those two examples illustrate the changing inage
of American foreign policy in Viet Nam. A Vietnamese
businessman in Saigon called the policy that of "the status
It is commonly accepted here that American
quo sookers."
policy here is either static or reactionary. But some
obeervers here believe that American policy is too revolutionary-
or perhaps it preaches an irrelevant revolution.
"Communism in Viet Nam is a 19th century philosophy
preached to people with a 13th century mentality," one long-
time American observer in Viot Iam explained. "We're simply
too far advanced for them."
(More)
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- Page 3
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deepe
article 6 of 7 article serios
page 3
Western observers here casually accept that "freedom
We're simply
and democracy means nothing to the Vietnamese.
holding the line against Communist expansionism--that's all."
Few observers can explain why American can not export
freedom and democracy to underdeveloped lands. The following
is one theory:
To Americans, freedom and democracy gives to the
individual citizen certain rights and protections against the
oppressor--which is the state.
But in Viet Nam, the state is closely identified with
a small ruling minority; the individual is insignificant.
Because of his Confucianistic heritage, an individual is
viewed only as a member of a family or a village. Ho's
But what is important
accustomed to authoritarian group life.
to the Vietnamese is equality-not equality of individuals-
but equality between classes,
"silver" and the "black" race.
to bring into balance the
Democracy in America is the right of an indivudual to
vote--without pressure--for representatives who will legislate
the law ofthe land. It also means these laws will be enforced
by an independent executive branch, freely contested before
an independent judician branch--and all three would be checked
by a free press.. The objective is to protect the individual.
(More)
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deepe
article 6 of 7 article series
page 4
But this system is irrelevent in Viet Nan--for all
branches ofthe government and the press is concentrated in the
hands of a small ruling minority. Opposition would be bought
off or suppressed.
Viet Nam is now in the process of drafting a
constitution and establishing a legislative branch. The
judiciary branch soldom operates entirely independently from
the rulers--juries and judges alike can be easily swayed by
money or pressure groups.
The "free" press is either the instrument of political
parties, the government or other powerful pressure groups.
Low-paid reporters frequently supplement their income by becoming
intelligence agents for the secret polico-perhaps for the
Communists. Without adequate libel laws, oditors sometimes
threaten to publish damaging stories-which may be true--about
an individual, but withold publication for payoffs. Some
newspapers are formed simply as a means to blackmarket rationed
newsprint.
Although Viet Nam is now considering a referendum
to ratify the nation's constitution, free elections in the past
have been a myth. Votos are readily bought--more important, the
uneducated votor is subject to pressures from either the
government and to a greater extent from the Communists at the
village level. When the Communists have the influence to collect
taxos in the heart of Saigon, they also have the power to
influence voters in distant cities and villages, supposedly
ફોટો ડોસો દ્વારા જ મા રન જ બન
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- Page 5
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deepe
article 6 of 7 article series
page 5
In an initial attempt to import democracy to Viet Nam
the United States made the free election of hamlet councils
a prerequisite for American aid to strategic hamlets. But in
Cuang Tris a very secure province although bordering North
Viet Hon, a local police official complained.
"Yes, we had free elections--but in 416 strategic
hamlets, 100 hamlet chiefs turned out to be Communist. We had
to arrest them."
Nor is the American economic principle of private
enterprise applicable in Viet Nam, at this times. For it is
the individual with 15,000 piastres ($200) who receives licenses
to open a bar on main street, to cut precious lumber on
government land, to receive the contract for government
construction.
In the provincos, a war widow complained bitterly and
refused to pay her landlord more than the logal one-quarter
share of her crops.
The landlord drove a herd of water buffalo
As the landlord
across her rice paddies, destroying the crop.
ho was also a village notable, the police and other village
administrators ignored the legal appeals of the widow.
(More)
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- Page 6
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deepe
article 6 of 7 article series
pago 6
Like the Americans, the Communists also promise
freedom and democracy--but the Vietnamese view their promises
differently. The Communist approache is to lift an individual
from one collective order based on Confucian parental
authoritarianism and placing him into another collective
society. But in the new order of the Communists, the power is
shifted from the "silver" race to the "black" race.
individual as such is insignificant.
Still the
While control of American aid and material is fairly
strict, the fact that is channeled through existing central,
fegional and district levels of government gives the impressions
the United States is reinforcing the corruption--and the
status quo.
One articulate Vietnamese Air Force major, complained
angrily about the Saigon political situation and said, "The
Catholics, the Buddhists and the politicians are fighting the
government--and each other--not because they have any political
programs. They only want to put the American aid into their
And they're
oum pockets. You must know that is the reason.
doing it while we're losing the war.
You must know we're
losing the war."
Ho was almost in tears when ho finished his
explanation in scissored English.
(More)
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deepe
article 6 of 7 article series
page 7
While a tide of Anti-American feeling surges in the
urban centers, some Vietnamese officials criticize the Americans
form not interfering more into Vietnamese affairs.
"The Americans-simply by being here--are interfering
in our affairs," one Vietnamese general explained. "They should
go further and make the government be honest. But they do not
have the courage--they are afraid of being called colonialists.
They'll be called colonialists anyway."
For the Vietnamese, the important promise isnot
freedom or democracy, but equality--that some sense of balance
be restored to the great inequities of wealth and future
opportunities.
Almost tragically, the Vietnamese do not believe
that this equality exists in America. For they view the
current Negro--White clashes and the civil rights issue not
as discrimination against Negro individuals, but against
Negroes as an economic class as well as a racial group.
This is the crushing significance in Viet Nam of America's
civil rights issue.
-30-
Date
1964, Oct.
Subject
Vietnam War, 1961-1975; United States--Foreign relations--Vietnam; Diplomacy; Vietnam (Republic); Strategy
Location
Saigon, South Vietnam
Coordinates
10.8231; 106.6297
Size
20 x 26 cm
Container
B3, F3
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