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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-07152 to 363-07157.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-07152 to 363-07157
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Title
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Article about a confrontation between American Marines and Buddhist protestors
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Description
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Keever's title: "Buddhist orgnaizers seek to topple Prime Minister Ky's Government", article about a confrontation between American Marines and Buddhist protestors
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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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(Morgan Gandy)
SAIGON, 31200, (UPIS)-A tense, direct--perhaps bloody--
formented
fon confrontation between American Marines and Buddhist-inspiced
demonstrators is expected soon in the northern provinces following
Thursday's small-scale street disorders in this capital city.
In their attempts to topple the anti-Communist military regime
of Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky, the extremist Buddhist leadership
IMMEDIATE
has these two short-term alternatives:
1. To organize aye massive show of strength of tens of thousands
Their inability to do this
MAJOR SAYon
of demonstrators on the streets of Saigon.
CiN THEIR GRS
during there Thursday morning n demonstrations here indicates
that the Southerners and other religious factions
in direct alliance with the Buddhist extremists.
are notrptnot
2. To increase their anti-government, anti-American pressure
in the northern provinces of South Vietnam-where the Buddhists are
strongest and most unified and where xxx nearly forty thousand
American Mepines Marines are fighting the Communist military troops.
By in pressing aye spectacular, headline-grabbing
confrontation with the American Marines,
the Buddhist extremists
are gambling that the American government will brixham soften
or vi thdraw its support of the military junta-but probably
not rptnot Prime Minister Ky-and hasten the return of civilian
government to Vietnam.
In private, Buddhist leader extremist leaders are known to advocate
the withdrawal of American military units-but the time period is unknown.
(More Miller-BD)
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first add-morgan gandy-saigon
X X X
S UNKNOWN
X X X.
ALSO
The
American Marines in the northern provinces are considered
Time BomB
in zutition to be sitting on of political dynamite because,
in the words of one high-ranking Vietnamese government official,
"certainly the Communists Dvd have infiltrated the Buddhist ranks
in Hue and Danang and certainly Communist agitation is going on
up there."
Some political sources believe the Buddhist extremists in
the northern provinces cities of Danang and Hue are,
ei ther
deliberately or inverta inadvertently, opening a second political
front for the Conti Communist Viet Cong, in the same way that the
National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFLSVN)
as their H
primary front. These sources believe the
serves
Buddhist second front, is in the short-run more dangerous than the
TEX NFLSVN for while the Viet Cong-North Vietnamese
(militarily and politically
troops control the majority of the countryside (but notrptnot the
population) th under the banner of the NLFSVN,
the Buddhist-
And
inspired second fon front has fofmented anti-government, anti-American
Communist -troubles in the urban centers, which
Military
serve as the art communist rear base areas.
(More Miller-BD)
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- Page 3
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second add-morgan gandy--saigon
x x x base areas X X X.
Reliable political sources believe
with
of a prolonged political crisis, to which no solutions e
yet
Vietnam is now in the midst
Ze
in sight
which will benefit only the Communists.
time",
Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky, who is considered to be "buying
and his anti-Communist military junta are continuing
to maintain their positions because of a political deadlock
which is surfacing underneath them.
ONXONUX
is The
RAYE
The political deadlock has resulted interrelated Loc Sp
Two
POWER
polarization of both Tagi religious and regional fections.
2
Both of these two sets of 1 power 1 blocs advocate the
the removal of the anti-Communist military junta from the
political
arena and the emergence of aye civilian government.
Both power blocs are considered to be in varying degrees pro-neutralist
and both want the Vietnamese armed forces, which is the only
cohesive anti-Communist,
anti-negotiation element in the country,
LongER
out of Fx politics so that it can notrptnot counterbalance the
pro-neutralist maneuverings.
But, the point of conflict is which civilian bloc will seize
power after the military leaves politics.
(More--Miller-BD)
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third add-morgan gandy--saigon
x x x leaves politics xxx.
Politically counter-balancing the militant pro-neutralist
Buddhists in Central Vietnam is the second power bloc
of a fragile religious coalition of Southern-born Vietnamese
from the Mekong Delta regiom south of Saigon. This coalition
is composed of the Southern Catholics, plus some Northern refugee
Catholics, a sliver of Protestant strength, the wealthy
Southern conservative Buddhists and two militant religions called
the Hoa Hao and the Cao Dai, which together number roughly
four million followers.
These Southern elements,
to Be
E, considered/more
pro-French than pro-American,are known to lean heavily towards
a neutralist settlement for Vietnam.
the
As long as these power blocs are in conflict, Prime Minister
Ky can remain in power--but the price is the continued political
detur disintegration and the slow demise of the anti-Communist
war effort. Without the support of the Vietnamese armed forcew,
militant Central Vietnamese winx Buddhist bloc are incapable
of toppling Prime Minister Ky; they can however, create enough
chaos and turbulence in Central Vietnam to demand major concessions
from the government or the Americans.
If these two power blocs stop fighting each other, however,
the Vietnamese armed forces will be unable to keep order and Ky
could be toppled from power.
(More Miller-BD)
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fourth add-morgan gandy--saigon
x x x from power x x x.
Ironically, in the light of Vice President Hubert Humphrey's
N
call for aye non-alighed South Vietnam and Southeast Asia, most
political observers here believe the official American position in
Vietnam is gradually swinging towards the go encouragement of aye
pro-neutralist civilian government which would eventually a re-arrange
the internal Vietnamese political pie to include the Communist-led
National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam.
Prime Minister Ky, landma
himendam while staying in
office by straddling these two conflicting political power blocs,
ha s been attempting to compromise with both groups. But what is
acceptable to one bloc is promptly vetoed by the other.
(More-Miller-RD)
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- Page 6
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fifth add-morgan gandy-saigon
X X X
The OTHER
effort x X X.
The most immediate, crucial issue of disagreement between
these two power blocs and the Vietnamese government revolves around
the composition of the committee to draft the national constitution.
demanded
The Buddhist extremists have given the government themchnice zammm name
to the committee the elected members of the forty-three councils
of the forty three provinces throughout the county country.
These councils were elected last May under the pro-Buddhist government
of Prime Minister Phan Huy Qua t; the Buddhist candidates ovaiwe
overwhelmingly won the seats on almost all of these councils.
Prime Minister Ky agreed with this demand; but then the Southern
disagree
bloo votood that demand and issued the counter-demand that the
conatuio constitution-drafting committee be myx filled with
candidates representing their five major Southern-oriented religions.
Prime Minister Ky coaxem then proposed a compromise plan in which
half of the members of the consitutionedrafting committee would be
filled from the pro-Buddhist provincial councils and half would be
kom
11lled the Southern religious representatives.
But,
this compromise was vetoed by both political factions,
leaving Prime Minister Ky still in office, but with norptno political
solutions in sight.
"The
Buddhists are playing a very clever game," one Western
diplomat groaned. "They demonstrate, strike and serem scream for a
civilian government. They have to created the problems and have
dumped the responsibility for finding the solution in the lap of the
Prime Minister Ky. But once he makes a solution, they veto it."
(Endit - Miller
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Date
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1966, Mar. 31
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Subject
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Vietnam (Republic), 1961-1975; Buddhism and politics; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Religious aspects--Buddhism; Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government; Buddhist monks; United States. Marine Corps
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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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B188, F3
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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
