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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08507 to 363-08510.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08507 to 363-08510
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Title
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Article about Buddhist agitation in South Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "Buddhist", Keever's title: N/A, Article draft about Buddhist agitation in South Vietnam, for The North American News Alliance
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AI Usage Disclosure
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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.
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Beverly Ann Deepe
64A Hong. Thap Tu
Saigon, Vic năm
December 10, 1966
Buddhist-page 1
SAIGON-Vietnam's National Buddhist Pagoda, although no longer
national, again maintains the calm, austere appearance of a pagoda instead
of the raucous political meeting place that it was for months earlier this
year.
A giant-sized, multi-colored Buddhist flag, flipping from an
elaborate steel flagpole erected by the Vietnamese Army's Engineering Corps,
is the most conspicuous display of motion where once schoolboys and
hoodlums pelted Vietnamese Marines with rocks and gas tear gas grenande
grenades and where spectacular suicides by fire startled the world.
Where thousands once congregated in an neon-lighted carnival
atmosphere for Saturday evening anti-government, anti-American "sermons,"
National Pagoda--called Quoc Tu--has recently scheduled non-political
"variety shows" by Buddhist youth, an extraordinarily tame change.
the
(More)
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Deepe
Buddhist page 2
YEAR
The Buddhist representatives and chaplains, which earlier this
by incited government soldiers and units to fight each other, rather
Met
than combatting the Viet Communist Viet Cong are now bee being selectively
oldier Comm. HEES
weeded out of the Vietnamese armed forces; 500 Buddhist represen
dis BandED;
at the company letél have been dwy 30 Buddhist chaplains at the
battalion and regimental level have been pruned out and
follow.
-and more are to
What is the reason for this shift towards tamedness for a religious-
and more significantly a political movement-which has sparked the
overthrow of three Vietnamese governments in the past three years and
which ignited enough anti-Americanism
earlier this year to force divisions of
American combat forces to be confined to their billets?
In the wake of the Buddhist political defeat by the government
of Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky earlier this year, political observers
here not three important causes for the change.
First the national r political-religious leadership of the Pegua
curve-roofed Pagoda is split at the top. Second, "the Communist elements
which had infiltrated into the movement at its peak of anti-Americanism
have already fled and formed other clandestine,
subversive organizations,"
one Saigon politican explained. Third, a potential realignment of other
Buddhist factions, once outside the scope of the Pagoda, is considered
to be shaping up.
(More)
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Deepe
Buddhist-page 3
Some political sources say "the Buddhist movement is now almost
finished-and it's a good thing, or else the Communists would have seized
control of the Buddhists and of Vietnam, " Others believe the Buddhists
are simply re-organizing and re-grouping, much as they did after the
spanichng their first victory, the fall of President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963-
and then they went on to wreek other successive governments.
Others argue,
that while the religious arguments and appeals of Vietnamese Buddhism
have been tarnished,
continuing their anti-government campaigns, but are now using the
emotional appeal of regionalism instead of religion.
the same politico-priests will and are clandestinely
YEAR
"You must never forget that the Buddhist-inspired uprisings against
購
the Ky government and the Americans are hut were but a dress rehearsal
for what they can do in the future-probably before the American election
in 1968," one Saigon politican warned.
On the surface, the Buddhist leadership as a whole has lost pe
considerable paige among some elements of their religious following;
some of the faml families of Buddhist priests who burned themselves alive
for the Buddhist cause now taunt the leaders with cries of: "You enjoy life
and fight each other-why did my relative die for you?"
But, below the surfrace, in whispered tones, some of the anti-Communist
Buddhist layment concede they themselves have only become more bitterly
anti-American and anti-government, arguing that "this is our greatest moment
of despair. For the anti-government sentiments of the population, instead
of being canalized by the Buddhists,
Communists."
Mou
will not be magnetized by the
(More)
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Deepe
Buddhist-page 4
MOMENTARY
In the midst of thiet
perary political vacuum, will be
urban-areps,
buddhistades, particularly in the urban areas, swing turimum
their support toward the American-supported government of Prime Minister
Ky? Or will they fall into the Communist fold, particularly in the
discontented cities where the Viet Cong subversive organization is
considered to be expanding?
Part of
of
Upon these questions hinges the future internal political
fate of Vietnám.
-30-
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Date
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1966, Dec. 10
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975
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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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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B118, F6
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Format
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dispatches
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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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Collector
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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
