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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04794.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04794
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Title
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Coups Are Old Hat to U.S. Saigon Families
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Description
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Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the reactions of Americans in Saigon to the wave of coup d'etats
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Date
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1964, Oct. 4
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Subject
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Vietnam (Republic)--History--Coup d'états; Public opinion; Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Container
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B4, F6
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Format
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newspaper clippings
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
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extracted text
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"iJ
Sunday, Octobe.- 4, 1964
New York
J{eralb at'tibu·ne
Coups Are Old Hat to U.S. Saigon Families
By Beverly Deepe
A Specia_l C,orre~pondent
SAIGON.
In case o! coup, reach for
baseball bat.
Tha.t's the routine for
Americans living here, says
the young wife of a United
States Army captain.
"Every one brings a baseball bat when they come here
and chips a notch on it for
each crisis. Mine is about
full."
The mother of three small
children, she said her family
had been here "three coups"
-indicating she was an "old
timer" who lived in Viet Nam
since before last November
when the Ngo Dinh Diem regime was toppled.
Of the latest coup, on Sept.
rn, the captain's wife said:
"Oh, this was just another
crisis. We just stayed home
like always.''
The rwmber of coups here
has become a standard unit
of measure for American
families - two coups means
since January. Average tour i.~
two years.
For example, Mrs. Joe W!lliams, wife of a Navy commander, has learned Viet
Nam quickly. On Aug. 5during the Tonkin Gulf crisis
-she and her husband were
playing golf in Norfolk, Va.,
when informed they were
being rushed to Viet Nam.
"I nearly fell off my golfcart," she gasped. Three
weeks later, "still in a state
of shock," she anived in
Viet Nam just as student
demonstrators forced Prime
Minister Maj . Gen. Nguyen
Khanh to step down from
office. Undaunted, she y, pt
shopping the first day, returning to find her house had
been on fire. Later, on a calm
Sunday morning, she and
husband Joe went to the
radio station to telephone
relatives in Tennessee. "A
man came running upstairs
and asked why · all the troops
were outside the gates." Her
husband explained in Southern drawl: "The rebel troops
had taken over, and we did
not even know it. The guard
made us sneak ·out the back
alley to avoid them.''
They taxied .t hrough a calm
section of the city and "Mo," ,
as Mrs. Williams is calledcasually went shopping for
earrings.
"When we heard troops had
surrounded the airport, we
knew she cOUid not get to
our home nearby," her husband explained calmly. "She
went to friends and as she
got out of the tax! the
armored cars rolled by. Tha,t's
when it really hit her."
Though not a shot was fired
during the bloodless revolt,
some American housewives
complained they had been
kept in the dark about the
developments. With civilian
telephones cut off, they were
forced to rely on the American military radio station
which warned Americans to
keep off the streets and not
to attempt breaking through
any roadblocks. Even during
the late evening hours, the
radio station repeated the
early morning rebel statements which wanted to arrest Premier Khanh. Many
thought that the coup
against Gen. Khanh had succeeded even though negotiations were later initia,ted.
But the "oldtimers" took
the Sunday, troop movemen~s
casually.
"I stopped at my jeweler
to pick up my dangly earrings
and the proprietor was stuffing all his gold in the safe
and screaming it's another
coup ," the wife of a Navy
lieutenant said. "Well, give
me my earrings," she told
him . "We might be evacuated." He kept screaming it's
a coup and who could think
about earrings . But she got
them.
Even American teen-agers
view Viet Nam with cloistered
calmness. (Most American
families live behind barbedwire or bamboo fences sprinkled throughout the old
French quarter.) When a
grenade exploded down the
block from one American
home the 12 - year - old son
wrote grandmother, "Nothifg
much happens here. They
just bombed the bar across
the street, but only a couple
of people got scratched." (His
mother censored the letter.)
Despite casualness American families have received
evacuation instructions and
hav,e been told to keep one
evacuation kit packed.
One housewife has packed
in her evacuation kit two silk
brocade dresses. "The Commies can have my washed out
cottons," she said.. Nearby
the .door sits a brown attache
case with "every letter my
husband has written to me in
ten years of marriage. I am
not going to leave them be· hind."
She looked around her airconditioned study and moaned,
"but I have to leave my wedding pictures and my mother's
sterling s!lver candelabra.''
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