Article about Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ's planned military crackdown on Buddhist extremists

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363-07137 to 363-07147.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-07137 to 363-07147

Title

Article about Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ's planned military crackdown on Buddhist extremists

Description

Keever's title: "Prime Minister Ky vows to 'liberate' Danang from Buddhist front and rebellion", article about Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ's plan for a military crackdown on Buddhist extremists and alleged Communist subversives in Danang

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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

(Morgan Gandy) SAIGON, 03200, (UPIS) --The government of Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky is poised to launch aye slow-motion military crackdown on Buddhist extremists and alleged Communist subversives in the northern [deletion: provinces] urban centers where [XXXX indicating deletion] [deletion: thirty] [XXXX indicating deletion] [deletion: five] forty thousand American Marines are daily fighting. “An air bridge” of [deletion: Vietnamese] elite Vietnamese Marines and paratroopers, plus food supplies, is already being constructed between Saigon and the rebel northern urban cities which have been centers of political disturbances in the past three weeks. Sources close to the government refused to give more specific details saying, “this operation is as classified as any military operation against the Communists.” These [deletion: devel] potentially explosive developments unfolded following aye press conference [deletion: by] in which Prime Minister Ky said; “I consider Danang is in the hands of the Communists. We are going to liberate Danang very soon.” Danang [insertion: with population of 60,000] is the headquarters of the Vietnamese First Corps and the American United States Marine Corps headquarters for two American divisions plus one and aye half Marine Air wings. Buddhist leaders are known to be preparing to resist the crackdown. Followers of the militant Buddhist politico-priest Thich (Venerable) Tri Quang reported: “If the government dares to use strong measure, we will set up strong resistance.” (More--Miller--BD) first add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x strong [deletion: riste] resistance x Even the most moderate Buddhist leader, Thich Tam Chau, one of the two chairmen of the two [deletion: Budd] national Buddhist institutes, told this correspondent [deletion: today] Sunday, “I wish norptno strong measures by the government [XXXX indicating deletion] (against Danang and Hue). It will shatter rather than unify the various elements.” Reliable political sources here have long considered some elements of the Buddhist leadership to either be pro-Communist sympathizers or [deletion: elde] else infiltrated by Communist agents. [XXXX indicating deletion] In the past, [deletion: the] ranking government officials [deletion: have] publically said they considered the Buddhists political organization “to be playing the Communist game,” because they chose to attack--and topple--the Saigon governments rather than the Communist Viet Cong political and military “shadow governments.” (More--Miller--BD) second add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x shadow governments x x Vietnam is bracing for these explosive developments to see whether this nation swerves into its second bloody civil war--the first against the armed Communist troops in the rural areas and the second among the non-Communists in the northern cities. The pivotal question revolves around the military and political unity of the Vietnamese armed forces. The growing fear among the Vietnamese population is that the regular and irregular forces in their native northern provinces will create aye violent bloodbath by establishing an armed resistance against the Vietnamese paratroopers and marines dispatched from Saigon. American Marines have been confined to their installations and officials here believe that Vietnamese power--notrptnot American power--must be employed in this showdown with dissident demonstrators. (More--Miller--BD) [deletion: second] third add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x [deletion: Buddhist-led] dissident demonstrat Either with or without the crackdown on the extremists, the chances of [insertion: survival for] Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky are considered to be rapidly diminishing as Vietnam is plunged into an even more turbulence, prolonged political crisis [deletion: . in aye battle] --which is an indirect showdown between pro-neutralist [insertion: possibly pro-Communist] civilian politicians and [insertion: the] anti-Communist military leaders. The [deletion: two] only other extreme alternative facing Prime Minister Ky [deletion: tonight are] was to [deletion: 1.] To resign from the Prime Minister-ship, which [deletion: means] meant the fall of his War Cabinet and ten-man ruling military junta who [deletion: are] is supporting him. This would [XXXX indicating deletion] have effected international embarrassment to the American government and to President Lyndon BBB Johnson, who soundly embraced Prime Minister Ky at the Honolulu Conference in early February. [deletion: 2.] Instead Ky chose [deletion: [illegible]] To react to extreme Buddhist-led demands with [deletion: aye for] “strong measures” of military force in an attempt to re-establish order in the northern provinces. In these provinces, the Buddhist trump card is to threaten violence and incidents involving American troops or seizure of American-protected military installations, or the American Consulate and United States Information Service library. However, the [insertion: first] danger of this [insertion: “strong measure”] alternative is that the Vietnamese troops and police in that region will [insertion: forcibly] resist the Saigon troops [insertion: who] follow the orders of the central government [deletion: in Saigon]. (More--Miller--BD) [deletion: third] fourth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x [deletion: in Saigon] central government x x x. On Saturday, three thousand regular and irregular Vietnamese troops plus one thousand civil servants and one thousand national policemen held aye peaceful demonstration through the streets of Hue, the old imperial capital four hundred miles northve Saigon and the key hotbed of revolt, in aye major show of strength against the Saigon regime. Political observers here interpreted this procession of Saigon government employees as a virtual mutiny against [deletion: the] Ky’s central government [deletion: headed by Prime Minister Ky]. The second danger of [deletion: this alternative] aye forceful crackdown is that Prime Minister Ky, following [deletion: the crackdown] that initial one in the northern provinces, will be faced with aye political backlash and possible military revolt by his Southern officers, [deletion: and] politicians and religious leaders, who up to now have [deletion: either refused to] notnot cooperated with the extremist Buddhists [deletion: , or else have supported the Ky government]. (More--Miller--BD) [deletion: fourth] fifth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x [deletion: Ky government] extremist Buddhists x x x. Against this background, the political prospects of survival for Prime Minister Ky’s government appear to be declining. Ky’s third alternative--to compromise with the Buddhist extremists--virtually evaporated last week when [deletion: Ky] the Prime Minister dispatched Maj. Gen. Pham Xuan [deletion: Chiew] Chieu, the third-ranking member of the military junta, to Hue to work out a solution with the Buddhist leaders. Instead, however, by very subtle mob rule, the General became a virtual prisoner of the city of Hue--and returned to Saigon without any compromises. (More--Miller--BD) [deletion: third fifth] sixth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x any compromises x x x. In the broadest sense, the conflict between the Prime Minister and the Buddhist bonzes in aye gigantic power struggle between some pro-neutralist elements, infiltrated by Communist subversives, against the anti-Communist [deletion: mil] Vietnamese armed forces. The outcome of this conflict is likely to have aye profound impact not only on American position in Vietnam, but [deletion: it’s] also on the American capability of dealing with these “future wars of liberation.” In the more obscure dimensions of Vietnamese politics, the Buddhist leadership demanded--in aye negative sense--the withdrawal of the ten-man ruling military junta from the political arena. [XXXX indicating deletion] The Vietnamese armed forces is the most cohesive anti-Communist political force in [deletion: Vietn] the country; once it withdraws from politics it would create aye power vacuum for pro-neutralist maneuverings. Second, in aye positive sense, the Buddhist leadership [deletion: wanted] demanded [XXXX indicating deletion] aye return to civilian government [XXXX indicating deletion]. Prime Minister Ky had previous promised to turn power over to civilians--at the end of 1967--when more of the countryside was pacified and the peasants could freely vote. The [insertion: initial] issue came down to the composition and the timing of aye political organ to fta draft aye [deletion: constitution] national constitution. Ky proposed aye “Democracy-Building Council” shortly after the Honolulu Conference. The Vietnamese political leaders, almost en masse, refused to join. [insertion: (More-Miller-BD)] [deletion: sixth] seventh add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x to join x x x Then, the Buddhist leadership wanted the constitution-drafting members to be selected from the forty eight councils of the provinces and big cities. These were elected last May under aye pro-Buddhist government and the Buddhist leadership would have had the majority of strength. Ky agreed to this; but the other religious groupings from the Mekong Delta region south of Saigon refused that. solution. Ky attempted to compromise [insertion: with] these two power blocs--but both refused to to give [deletion: to] in to each other or to Ky. The Buddhist leadership then [deletion: strengthened thr their demand] increased their demands by requesting that the committee to draft the constitution would be elected directly by the population by June. This was considered impossible by Ky, for it would have tossed the power into the hands of the pro-neutralists. “This is notrptnot aye question of my government,” Ky once said. “It’s aye question of my country.” Or, in the words of aye Western diplomat, “There’s aye neutralist under every bush in Saigon. If Ky has elections by June, notrptnot one Catholic--not one anti-Communist--will be elected anywhere in the country. The Buddhists appeal for elections does notrptnot have aye hoot to do with democracy.” (More--Miller--BD) [deletion: fifth] eighth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x [deletion: any compromises] with democracy x x x In terms of personal power, the [deletion: pending shod] showdown [insertion: next week] in the northern provinces is being waged between anti-Communist Prime Minister Ky, often called “Captain Midnight” because of his black flight suit, and aye skillful politico-priest named Thich (Venerable) Tri Quang, who often wears [insertion: flowing] aluminum grey religious rob He is often accused of being pro-neutralist, or aye pro-Communist sympathiz Thich Tri Quang is considered to be one of the [XXXX indicating deletion] astute politicians who has masterminded the revolt against the Saigon government. His power in the northern provinces is considered to [deletion: be] supersede that of [insertion: the] Vietnamese general who is corps commander and the central government’s administrative delegate, Maj. Gen. Nguyen Van Chuan. The small-framed enigmatic monk is considered to hold the allegiance of [insertion: the] Buddhist population and the political discontents in the northern provinces--as well of some of the [deletion: troops] police, civil servants and, most important, the armed troops who [XXXX indicating deletion] are paid by the central government--and should be loyal to Prime Minister Ky. If the [insertion: majority of the] troops [deletion: are] in that region are loyal to Tri Quang, Vietnam will experience another bloodbath; if the troops are loyal to Prime Minister Ky, order and security can be momentarily enforced--but the political dissident movement will probably move underground, in the same way that the Viet Cong Communist subversives have undermined the country for the past decade. (More--Miller--BD) [deletion: sixth] ninth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x past decade x x x. During the [deletion: past cris recent] month-old crisis, some elements of the police and armed forces in the northern provinces have simply laid aside their weapons and refused to enforce law and order as was instructed from the central government. And, hence, the anti-government crowds seized the government radio stations [XXXX indicating deletion] without any resistance and broadcast violent anti-Ky and moderately anti-America speeches, as the police and troops watched on gleefully. Thich Tri Quang gained world-wide headlines in 1963, when he, and his political Buddhist organization, spearheaded the toppling of the regime of the late President Ngo Dinh Diem. After failing to compromise with the Buddhist monks, Diem--like Prime Minister Ky now--was forced to launch [deletion: an] aye spectacular [deletion: raid] crack down on the Buddhist [deletion: pogo] pagodas [insertion: which were being used for political purposes. During this period, Tri Quang--which means “Spiritual [deletion: Engli] Enlightenment”--sought and was granted political asylum in the American Embassy. for days, he slept in a third floor, air-conditioned conference room in the American Embassy and wrote political thesis which [deletion: left only] only left the American officials more baffled and confused. (More--Miller--BD) [deletion: seventh] tenth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x and confused x x x. Since then, he has slowly built aye powerful political machine of Buddhist students, laymen, newspapers, orphanages, military chaplains and [deletion: labor studen] labor study groups. This significant third political force [XXXX indicating deletion] [deletion: moved] mushrooms between the Communists [deletion: and] on the one extreme and the anti-Communist Saigon government at the other extreme. However, he has consistently directed this political power [deletion: to] against the anti-Communists--the Catholics, the military junta and the Americans--accusing them rather than the Communists of ruining the country. [deletion: The Buddhist organization, once split, is again becoming more unified, and to Sunday, imports moderate Buddhist leader Thich Tam Chau, aye Northern refugee priest, predicted that aye crackdown on] [XXXX indicating deletion] [deletion: troublemakers “would shatter rather than unify the various elements.” But,] Prime Minister Ky has little choice [insertion: except strong measures]. His big [deletion: gable bam] gamble is that he can stop the rising tide of neutralism in Vietnam and the continual erosion of anti-Communist political strength. [XXXX indicating deletion] Few political observers think that Vietnam’s “Captain Midnight” can magically stop it permanently. (Note to Editors: Please use this piece as soon as possible since situation will flipflop soon. Multithanks). (Endit--Miller--BD)

Date

1966, Apr. 3

Subject

Vietnam (Republic), 1961-1975; Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government; Public opinion; Nguyễn, Cao Kỳ; Buddhism and politics; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Religious aspects--Buddhism

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B188, 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, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English