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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08390 to 363-08399.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08390 to 363-08399
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Title
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Article about the South Vietnamese election
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Description
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Original title: "Election", Keever's title: N/A, Article draft about the South Vietnamese election, for The Australian
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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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Mr. R. M. Duffield
Foreign Editor
The Australian
GPO
Box 4162
Sydney, Australia
Saigon, Vietnam
August 22, 1967
π.
Sat 31
any. 22.
Dear Mr. Duffield:
election.
want.
I'll enclose your requested piece on the Vietnamese
Hopefully, it's somewhat in the ballpark of what you
We
heard up here you were on strike. If true, I hope
things have settled down.
There's no such animal here as an inch-per-mile mape to
the best of my knowledge. However, I'm trying to scrounge from
the USAF a 1:50,000 scaling, which is about as close as we can
come here. I'll send it along to you later.
Sincerely yours,
сле
(Miss) Beverly Deepe
P. S. In the event of any payments, could you please send them to
through the Chartered Bank of Saigon. My thanks.
me
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Beverly Ann Deepe
64A Hong Thap Tu
Saigon, Vietnam
August, 1967
Australia
Election page 1
SAIGON The Vietnamese elections for President and the 60-man
Senate on September 3 are a crucial hinge determining the agonizing
issues of peace or war-or viotory or defeat-for this country and
its Allied supporters.
SHORT-RAGE
The prospects:
more war, at a fiercer, bloodier pace plus
more political disadvantages for the newly elected government
in Saigon and its Allies.
"These elections mark the end of one ✓ pa chapter and the
beginning of another," one Vietnamese political source explained.
"But, we don't know what the new chapter is all about. In fact,
we don't even know what kind of book the ohapters are in. Tot outsiders,
this appears to be a big oomedy. But, to the Vietnamese
are part of a giant tragedy.
the elections
More
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Deepe
Election page 2
The Vietnamese electoral campaign is considered here as a
verbal exercise between ten civilian "hawks" and the one military
ticket of "super-hawks."
all extents and purposes,
that they are for
All of the leading candidates are, for a
hard-line anti-Communists. All have oampaigned
"peace." Most have advocated discussions
with Hanoi but not with the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam
(NLF). Only one candidate,
Truong Dinh Dau, has advocated even
unofficial discussions with the NLF. Yet,
the purpose of these
discussions is to convert the non-Communist man elements from seeing
HAVE th
the NLF and then to join the newly-elected Saigon regime. The context
in which virtually all the candidates use the word "negotiation"
is to ask Hanoi and the NLF
to
to compromise. Even the
capitulate, rather than
Vietnamese Constitution, pomulgated on
April 1, under which the elections are being held, is considered
as a "hawkish"
anti-Communist document, barring a Communist government
serious
or a neutralist, coalition government in the South. Hence, the
document itself is considered here as a blook to any negotiations
with Hanoi and the NLF,
for the Communists main aim in negotiations
the place of the NLF in the future government-would be ignored and beyond
the realm of discussion.
Not even the most optomistio officials here believe the Communists
are ready for this kind of negotiations.
(MORE)
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Despe
ection page 3
Those are the three leading Presidential tickets:
**Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, 44, bas boen a military officer
for 19 years. He attended an infantry school in France early in his
career and later two American military institutions-the Command and
General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1957,
Course
familiarization of modern weapons
and a
1 three years later,
Thieu lead the 5th Infantry Division to the Presidential Palace in
sai goh in 1963 to spearhead the coup d'etat against former President Ngo
Dinh Diem From that group of doup coup-leaders,
marriage.
Thieu is the only
one to have a survived to date. The light-framed general
was born in Central Vietnam and was converted to Catholicism with his
Because of the enormous controversy about Diem, also a
Catholic, Ed the current Vatioan line is to avoid supporting a
Catholic President during the elections, reliable sources report.
Thieu has the disadvantages of being a Catholic in a largely non-Catholic
country, yet none of the advantages of their bloc vote during the election.
mieres running mate is Nguyen Cao Ky, the 36-year-old pilot
who has served as Vietnam's Prime Minister for the past 27 months.
Thus,
**Tran Van Huong, 64, is considered the leading civilian candidate.
His given name of Huong means "perfume." He served as Prime Minister
for
nearly three months in late 1964 and early 1965 during the
ohaotic period in which Vietnam witnessed a number of coups, false coups
and demi-coups, all of them leading to an upsurge in Communist activity
before the commitment of Allied troops.
(More)
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Deepe
Election page 4
During his brief Prime Minister-ship,
Huong cracked down
one Buddhist-inspired street demonstrations, which won him the admiration
of the Roman Catholics.
He is expected to win a large percentage of the
Catholic vote. Born in the heavily-populated Mekong Delta, south or
of Saigon, Huong is also considered the most popular candidate in that
area. Ho taught school in the delta for nearly a decade in his
earlier years; many of his students or the students of his student-
are actively campaigning for him. Many Army officers, some holding the
rank of general, were among his pupils in earlier years.
Known for his integrity and hist honesty, Huong served as
Mayor of Saigon in the mid-50s during the early days of the Ngo Dinh Dicm
regime. He caught the public eye because he rode his bicycle to work,
rather than being chauffeured about in a government automobile.
maintained his honesty during this period,
He
although he reportedly wa
imprisoned
backed by the pirate gang known as the Binh Xuyen. Later, Jared by the Diem
rogime, he wrote a set of poems entitled, "Inspirations from Jail."
His running mate, Mai Tho Truyen, is a reaung Tay T-
which
prominent lay leader of the Southern-styled Buddhist movement,
refused to participate with the more militant Centrel Victromote
WH
breed toppled Huong. The ticket is expected o win some
support from the southern Buddhists,
some Roman Catholics-andi ironically,
it hopes to cull votes from the militant Buddhiste buong cracked dom
62
on the line of reasoning eng that the militant monks would prefer
Huong over the military ticket.
Euril
More
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Deepe
Election page 5
The
“Phan Khao sương 62, was head of the elected Assembly which
drafted the new Constitution promulgated April 1 of this year.
assembly has been renamed Provisional Legislative Assembly until the
current elections are f concluded and Sun serves as President of this
body. He also served as ceremonial ohief of state in 1964 and 1965,
JUNE
before the generals took over power in 1965.
An agricultural engineer by profession,
was born in the Southern, Mekong Delta region,
Suu, like Huong,
but is not so well
known as Huong He fought against the French colonialists
IMPRISONED
and later
against the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, which put in prison and tortured
him. He still walks with a limp because of these maltreatments in
prison.
Unlike Huong which who is considered to have a rigid way
Suu is largely considered by Saigon intellectuals as
too flexible. Suu-his name means "Buffalo" -is of the Cao Dai
of thinking,
religion, an offshoot Buddhist hybride but is not considered to be
a religious candidate.
Suus running mate is Dr. Phan Quang Dan, a Harvard-schooled
medical doctor born in Central Vietnam. The Suu ticket may make a better
showing in the central provinces than Huong because of having Dan on
his list.
(More)
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Deepe
Page 6
The military ticket of the generals is predicted to win easily by a
large majority; some Vietnamese political sources predict they will win
by 65%. A large turnout of the 5.4 million registered voters (those living
in government-secured areas) is also predicted.
The most sizzling question here is, however, not how big a vote the
generals get, but whether the results will be interpreted as such to in-
dicate a fair and honest election. The charges of the civilian candidates
that the generals are rigging the election are largely considered true
here by the rank and file Vietnamese following
electoral race; even
a number of important Congressmen in America have voiced concern with the
way the election was being handled by the generals. But, for all practical
purposes, thservers here, including the Western press that is charged with
ALLEGED
the responsibility of tracking, down arrower infractions of the electoral
law, will be unable to determine whether the election is in fact rigged or
fair, except in isolated incidences.
Thus far, the election at best has become something of a fiasco. It
has revolved from a verbal free-for-all among the Vietnamese genetals in
late June to a generals versus certifying committee tiff to a generals in
versus civilian candidates debaole in early August to a dead lock between
the military ticket and the ten civilians oandidates, who temporarily
refused to campaign. Once, they started to campaign, the civilians charged
the generals were rigging the election; the American officialdom here and
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Deepe
Page 7
INWASHington,
President Lyndon Johnson denied the charges-which has caused the civilian
candidates simply to counter charge the America Ambassador, Mr. Ellsworth
Bunker, with meddling in Vietnamese affairs.
If the election comes off fairly smoothly with the results generally
accepted in Vietnam as well as internationally, the Communist-inspired
National Liberation Front will have suffered a sizeable, significant politioal
Beng
defeat, which would have undermined its claims of the sole representatives
of the Vietnamese people. The election would have established the legitimacy
of the anti-Communist, pro-Allied government in Saigon. The Allies here are
currently faced with the astronomical dilemne the they have million troops
in Vietnam at the invitation of a government that no longer the
government of Prime Minister Phan Huy Quat in early 1965- and even when it
existed, it was never considered legal, and for that matter, rarely considered
a government. Thus, a gin gegitimate government is needed to legalize
the Allied presence here, and whether Amerioan-South Vietnamese government
policy is to bring in more troops or to begin talking with the Communists,
or straddling both courses simultaneously, the Allies need a legal Vietnamese
government to validate the moves.
A significant fringe benefit from a popularly-elected, constitutional
government here would be a much more palatable regime to justify to the
Allied friends and enemies at home and abroad the inore sing measure of Allied
committment of group troops and ground support elements.
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Deepe
Page 8
However,
However, thus far, the Communists have exploited the election fiasco to
their full benefit. For months, the Communists had charged the election o
With
"
of being an "American invention which would be rigged to serve American
VIETNAMESE
interests. The generals have at least partially proved the rigging charge
BARRED
to have some validity, for they conveniently weeded out and bed prestigious
non-Communist candidates who could have seriously challenged them at the
polls.
LARGE
The Communists are expected to mount a well-coordinated pre-election
Military
propaganda
e-side IIIey offensive to match their continuing nolitical pa
against the election. Officials here note the Communists have the
d/
Capability to launch well-time attacks on election day to disrupt the
balloting in the remote villages as well as in the center of major cities.
But, more worrisome is the full-scale propaganda war that the Communists
have been consistently tining at the election. More and More Vietnamese in
the government-controlled zones are being persuaded byt their propaganda
Misconduct
line as well as by the momact of the generals during the campaign.
On top of the economic and political discontent already dormant here,
the election process is bringing a new kind of political disillusioment.
While the rural areas under government control appear to be relatively
passive about the election, the impact of the blossoming disillusionment
has hit a significant element-the middle and upperclass in the cities,
which makes them ride for Communist propaganda and subversive recruitment.
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Deepe
Blection-page
The significance of the disillusionment is this: The
Allied forces oan not win by holding only the oities. They must win
sizeable chunks of the countryside and hence the importance of the current
slow rate of progress in the rural pacification program.
But, the Communists oan not win by holding only the countr
countryside. They must orack the government's hold on the urban
population. Hence, the importance of the battle for the middle
and upper-class Vietnamese, which is the backbone of the government
support,
Continuously, day in and day out, Radio Hanoi sprews out
suoh political material;
"The forthcoming election farce will further exasperate the
internal contradictions plaguing the ranks of the U. S. laokeys
in South Vietnam.... One can thus rightly oonolude that the Saigon
authority is none other than the shadow of the U. S. polioy of using
their henchmen. Whether under a 'military' or 'oivilian'
oover,
under an open military dictatorship or with 'Presidential* ог
Congressional
trappings, it will remain an out-and-out puppet
administration."
If the events on election day somehow prove the Hanoi predié
prediction correct, the newly elected Saigon government will become more
and more isolated from its own people. And, in time, this could b
aid the Communists in taking over the country.
Conversely, if the results of the election are favorably
accepted within South Vietnam and internationally,
the anti-Communists
will have on a orucial battle in this highly political war.
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Date
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1967, Aug. 23
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Subject
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South Vietnam; elections; South Vietnam government; 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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B188, F8
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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
