Article about the influence of poverty on the popularity South Vietnamese government

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363-07122 to 363-07130.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-07122 to 363-07130

Title

Article about the influence of poverty on the popularity South Vietnamese government

Description

Keever's title: "Prime Minister Ky Flies to Danang to re-take rebellious Northern Provinces", article about the influence of poverty on the popularity South Vietnamese government

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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, 05210, (UPIS)--President Lyndon Johnson’s fight against Vietnam’s “Other War”--poverty, ignorance and social injustice--is forgotten here tonight. The question is whether it is dead. To Americans [deletion: in Vietnam] here tonight, Vietnam’s “Other War” is the prospect of aye double [XXXX indicating deletion] civil conflict in which, as one official explained, “The non-Communist Vietnamese are fighting aye war among themselves while [deletion: trying to] the Americans are trying to help them fight aye war against the Communists. What could be worse!” Another harried diplomatic official snapped, “Who’s talking about the Honolulu image. We’re talking about survival here tonight--not only the survival of the military regime of Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky--[deletion: but the sur] but also the survival of the whole united anti-Communist front.” (More--Miller--BD) first add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x anti-communist front x x [XXXX indicating deletion] He continued: “If Ky and the people in the northern provinces are fighting each other, they [deletion: won’t] will notrptnot be effective in fighting the Communists. Even if Ky [XXXX indicating deletion] plasters over that problem, he still must re-establish order soon or obviously the war will be badly handicapped.” Vietnam’s political crisis plunged even deeper [XXXX indicating deletion] Tuesday as Prime Minister Ky flew to the city of Danang--which he said was “in the hands of the Communists” with [deletion: two] three Vietnamese Marine battalions in an attempt to bring the five northern provinces again under central government control after nearly four weeks of strikes, demonstrations, rebel agitation by Vietnamese troops, police and civil servants based there. An additional problem is that [XXXX indicating deletion] youthful street urchins and hooligans continued to demonstrate from the Buddhist headquarters in Saigon after [XXXX indicating deletion] Prime Minister Ky Monday [XXXX indicating deletion] had establish aye tentative compromise with Buddhist leaders. “But the Buddhists are just like the Communists,” one reliable observer explained. “The more concessions you make to them--the more they demand. They are intent on toppling this regime--and won't stop until they do.” (More--Miller--BD) second add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x they do x x x. [deletion: The] American Embassy officials were known to be “deeply concerned” about the [deletion: situation] explosive--possibly pivotal--situation, but were notrptnot informed about the process of negotiations between Prime Minister Ky and rebel forces in the northern provinces. “This is aye Vietnamese matter,” according to one reliable source. “It has to be settled by them--but the American officials are definitely concerned because the Americans are [deletion: fighting] so deeply committed to the ‘other war’ against the Communists--but [deletion: this] that is a cooperative venture [deletion: and] in which they need the Vietnamese [deletion: for that].” (More--Miller--BD) third add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x [deletion: for that] the Vietnamese x x x While the American officials, privately, appraised the effect of developments on the war [insertion: against the Communists] and the American military presence [insertion: here], Vietnamese political leaders, [XXXX indicating deletion] [deletion: appraised] assessed the Communist tactics. “The [XXXX indicating deletion] demonstrations in Saigon and the double civil war in the city of Danang are very close to [deletion: the Communist] what the Communists call ‘the state of general uprising,’,” one Vietnamese political explained. “Without firing aye shot, they have thirty thousand American Marines in Danang totally isolated in their billets and installations. How more effective could the Communists be? This is what is known as Communist political warfare--and the Americans have never understood that.” (More--Miller--BD) fourth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x understood that x x x. Vietnamese [deletion: politicians] political sources seemed to agree tonight [XXXX indicating deletion] with Chief of State Nguyen Van [deletion: Thei] Thieu that the rebels in the northern provinces “were playing into the hands of the Communists,” as attempts [insertion: continued] to negotiate with the dissident “Struggle Committee” which has been [deletion: leading] formenting anti-government and anti-American demonstrations, speeches and sermons. The ramrod of the dissident movement revolts around the extremist wing of the Buddhist hierarchy which has toppled governments in the past. Politically-oriented Saigonese were speculating tonight that the military junta, which is the political base of the anti-Communist war, could norptno longer survive the present chaos and political turbulence. “The more concessions Prime Minister Ky makes to the rebel forces in Danang--the shorter he will survive in power,” one source explained. “The best he can hope for is to remain in power long enough to eliminate the military junta as the political base of the anti-Communist war--and to usher in a provisional government.” There were norptno assurances in Saigon tonight that the provisional government--if and when it was ushered in--would be anti-Communist in character. [XXXX indicating deletion] However, [deletion: few] reliable sources [insertion: did notrptnot] believe the situation was so critica in Vietnam tonight that the Communists could or would seize power [deletion: [illegible]] “under the noses of the American troops.” (Endit-Miller--BD) (Morgan Gandy) SAIGON, 05080, (UP (UPIS)--Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky [insertion: is schedule to] personally pilot [insertion: in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday] aye flight of Vietnamese combat fighter-bombers to Danang to “liberate from Communist hands” the nation’s second largest city. More than [deletion: 120] onethousand twohundred elite Vietnamese strategic reserve troops arrived in Danang Monday evening for “the military operation” by United States Air Force CCC-onehundred thirty giant tubrojet troop transport and by Vietnamese Air Force CCC-forty seven “Gooney Bird,” plane of World War II vintage. Prime Minister Ky was expected to set up his headquarters at the Vietnamese Air Force [deletion: headquarters] command and personally direct the “military operation” to re-take Danang, [deletion: which is also the] aye city of onehundred sixty five thousand which also serves as the top command of the forty thousand American Marines fighting in Vietnam. Prime Minister Ky and his Vietnamese troops are expected to meet some--but very little resistance--from extremist troublemakers and demonstrators as they march and are trucked from the Danang airbase into the main street section of the city. All American military and civilian personnel [insertion: in Danang and Saigon] were confined to their billets and installations Monday night and early Tuesday. (More--Miller--BD) first add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x [deletion: the city] early Tuesday x x x. At aye press conference Sunday, Vietnam’s youthful [XXXX indicating deletion] prime minister said, “I consider Danang to be in the hands of the Communists. I will soon launch an operation to liberate Danang.” He accused the Mayor of Danang, a thirty seven yearold medical doctor named Nguyen Van Man of using government funds to [XXXX indicating deletion] for foment demonstrations of civil servants, military troops, police and students. “Either the Mayor is shot, or the government falls,” Ky exclaimed. The Mayor, described as “innocuous” and also anti-Communist, however, announced that he would set up strong resistance to meet the “invading” Saigon troops. Sources close to the government said that the Mayor is protected by twenty tough bodyguards, but “if Ky can get his hands on the Mayor he’ll shoot him right in the public square.” (More--Miller--BD) second add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x public square x x x. While at first predicted that the Danang resistence would be more serious, Prime Minister Ky seems to have [XXXX indicating deletion] eased the political crisis by reaching aye tentative compromise with the United Buddhist Church, which has been agitating not only in Danang, but also in Saigon and other cities along in the [deletion: provinces nort] northern provinces for the past three weeks. One ranking Buddhist leader from the northern provinces, Thich Thien Minh, who is in charge of Buddhist Youth activities, was granted permission to fly [insertion: late Monday] to the imperial capital of Hue, fifty miles north of Danang, to appeal to the population “to return to their normal way of life.” Sources close to the government said that the Buddhist leader could notrptnot guarantee all the citizens, troops and civil servants in Danang and Hue would heed his appeal, but that the majority would. [deletion: These extr] The minority extremists would be subject to reprisals by the Ky’s central government. (More--Miller--BD) third add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x central government x x x. The shaven-headed Buddhist monk, a chief lieutenant of more prominent Buddhist leader Thich Tri Quang, [XXXX indicating deletion] both from the northern provinces, flew to Danang after a full [XXXX indicating deletion] morning of discussions with Prime Minister Ky Monday at which at least a momentary compromise was reached. Also present in the discussions were two other Buddhist leaders: Thich Tam Chau, [deletion: aye] an important northern refugee priest [deletion: and] who heads the Buddhist Institute of Secular Secular Affairs and [deletion: Thio Ho] Thich Ho Giac, deputy chief of Buddhist military chaplains, who represented the [deletion: south] Southern-wing of the Church. The Buddhists made two specific demands, according to reliable government sources. First, they wanted aye military position for Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chanh Thi, also born in [XXXX indicating deletion] Hue, whose ouster from the ten-man military junta on March tenth [XXXX indicating deletion] upset Vietnam’s political equilibrium. Ky, who had already publically promised this to Thi, immediately agreed to this demand. The second Buddhist demand was that the forthcoming National Political Congress, representing all major religious and political factions in the country, would [XXXX indicating deletion] designate aye body to draft and ten [deletion: app] then approve the national constitution. Prime Minister Ky reportedly agreed that this Congress could designate delegates to draft the Constitution--as the Buddhists wanted--but said “if possible” this body would also approve the constitution. In the past, Ky has vowed to hold aye national referendum to approve the constitution. [insertion: (Endit-Miller-BD)]

Date

1966, Apr. 5

Subject

Vietnam (Republic), 1961-1975; Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government; Public opinion; Nguyễn, Cao Kỳ; Poverty; Subsistence economy

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