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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04488 to 363-04495.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04488 to 363-04495
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Title
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Article about the Vietnamese reaction to Nixon's nomination
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Description
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Original title: "republican", Keever's title: "GOP Convention Transforms Richard Nixon from 1954 Model Hawn to 1968 Model Dove." Article draft about the 1968 Republican National Convention's nomination of Richard Nixon and the reaction to his shift on the Vietnam War in Saigon. Written for the Christian Science Monitor
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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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zcze sag
yy nnm
republican 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, AUGUST 13-A chapter in Vietnamese history books
was closed at the Republican Convention in Miami Beach. With finality,
an era embodying the lowy last hope of Vietnamese hawks for victory had
BEGAN moving.
nec ended.
South Vietnam wes in transition towards an even more uncertain
period..
WAS
It seemed a giant irony here that this chapter should be ended
by the same Republican authors who began in 1954 to write the very first
page of the book of the American committment to South Vietnam--Dwight
Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.
So, at Miami Beach,, not only had a chapter ended, but history
had paradoxically swung full circle back to the same Republicans who
Onceived
Book itself.
orested the fiant-papp
In 1954, the American committment began to
Vietnam began with a small military Advisory effort and massive political
Support for Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, who rule from 1955 to 1963.)
the first years of the Eisenhower-Nixon govermental
#=more reuter
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- Page 2
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zczo sag
Jy nnm
republican 2 (normass/deepe)
The finale of the chapter smother the smothered the last fragile
ray of hope of Vietnamese hawks and anti-Communist politicans to continue
pressing for a victorious solution to the war as an alternative to a
negotiated peace settlement. The oft-stated Vietnamese national
objective of victory was extinguished somewhere along the sands of
Miami Beach,, although the harsh realities of the war continue even
at the doorsteps of Saigon. Rather than go-it-alone it without American
support, the Vietnamese political circles have begun thinking about
foloo following the American peace-path, having decided they need the
American support as much--or even more-in peace than in war.
==more reuter
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- Page 3
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2050 686
Jy m
republican 3 (normass/deepe).
Few Vietnamese politicians caught the full dimensions of the ironical
aming of events from the Republican t in attitudes since regardings
Asia since the Eraton Eisenhowor-Nixon era. Vietnamese newspaper comment
concentrated on the fine-line differences between Mr. Nixon's peace stand
Some of th newspaper
and Mr. Humphrey's,
without noticing much difference.
seemed consoled that both Nixon and Humphrey had stressing
editorial commont
of late the "non-sell-out" type of posao. The issue of the
winning
the war rather than ending it was largely obscured.
But, the American Embassy reportedly did notice the shift in
Republican policy-ospecially Mr. Nixon's policy-but the Embassy noticed
it only in passing and without comment.
= =more reuter
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- Page 4
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Jy nnm
republican 4 (normass/deepe)
SAIGONESE
Most of what the Phonemese appreciated here is that one day,
they
as the Republican convention began, readers ope Saigon readers.s
DACHY
opened up their newspaper with the headline: "V.N. RETREAT WILL
REAP TRADEGYIKE." Whatever the meaning elsewhere, the political
translation here was the war-peace issue,
the hawk-dove controversy
PRENA
was still alive in the American political ame and that conceivably
an American Republican President might still press for winning the war
PRINTED
It
rather than ending it. The Vietnamese newspapers quoted American
wire service dispatches quoting former President Dwight Eisenhower saying,
"It is one thing to call for a peaceful settlement of this struggle.
is quite another to call for retreat by America. The latter is the best
way I know to stockpile tragedy for our children."
more reuter
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- Page 5
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zcze sag
yy nnm
5
republican 3(normass/deepe)
to them
It sounded las though the former president-general was the last
hawk in the American aviary and even his song had changed from "holding
the line in Asia" to the
But,
please negative pleas of non-retreat..
Saigon newspaper
TO VIETNAM CONFLICT."
four days later, on August 11, the
headline read: "NIXON PROMISES 'HONORABLE END'
Somehow in those four
had made a subtle change.
the emphasis and words and adjectives and tone
Also, Mr. Nixon of 1968 had changed
significantly from the Vice President Nixon of 1954, while I when
Vietnamese politico-intellectuals recall he aqvi advocated using a
American atomic weapons in support of the French during the battle of
Bin B Dien Bien Phu.
==more reuter
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ZOZO: Sag
Jy nnm
republican 6 (normass/deepe)
Originally, Vietnamese intellectuals and politicians had watched the
prelude to the Republican Convention with a great deal of interest--
interpreting American politics in their own Vietnamese framework.
American politics were confounding them in the same mischievous manner that
Vietnamese politics have for year baffled Americans here. Obviously,
thought,
mony Vietnamese intellectuals bought
Governor Nelson Rockefeller would
win the nomination because he had high prestige and alot of money and
Richard Nixon
came from an elite, famous American family.
Of course,
FIND
could not win the nomination because he had lost previous elections had
low prestige. In Vietnam, no one respects a loser. Some Vietnamese
still believe President Joh Lyndon Johnson will maneuver for his own
re-nomination at the Democratic Convention, despite his final public
surprise public announcement on April 1 that he would not. Few Vietnamese
Rememb
can envison a leader voluntarily relinquishing power; ad they have seen
mostly. VIETNAMESE
ambitious generals throwing coups to seize power.
BEGINNING of t
More significant,, however, the Vietnamese watched the Republican
convention as a full-blom blown floor-fight between dovish Rockefeller
and hawkish Nixon-all centering on either peace or victory for their little
tired country. Instead, at the end of the convention, they witnessed
without realizing it the transformation of a hawk. It was the transformation
of a 1954 model hawk into a 1968 model dove--the change of Nixon himself.
9
==more reuter
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zC2c sag
Jy nimm
✓ normass/
republican (normass/deepe)
Perhaps, the most important Vietnamese to catch the full
dimension of the event was President Nguyen Van Thieus for strangely enough,
whether or not by coincidence, the transef transformation of Nixon
paralleled a similar transformation of the Thieu
Officially,
Presidont Thieu did not comment on the nomination of Mr. Nixon.
However, when asked if Nixon's nomination would influence the Vietnam
"At Pes present,
War,
President Thieu said ytical cryptically,
Mr. Nixon is a presidential candidate, not the President yet."
LAST
Yet, significantly, month President Thieu left for
President Eisenhower--we shall surrender to
PINOT
Honolulu speaking like
BUT
the Communists' but last week,
President Thieu, like Mr. Nixon,
began talking about peace.
am In the same
Saigon
newspapers frontpaging Mr. Nixon's "Honorable Peace" nomination speech
BUT Equally SIGN.
in Miami Beach, the smaller headline on page two read: "PRESIDENT THIEU:
PEACE MAY BE RESTORED NEXT YEAR."
==more reuter
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zozo sag
yy nnm
republican 8 (normass/deepe)
It is readily accepted here that the Democratic convention will not
present a hawk-dove choice on the Vietnam war issue-but will involve
only a choice among the doves of various peliel political colorations.
And, barring unforeseen developments in this highly unpredictable year,
the American election debate will center, not on the war-peace
is issue, but solely on peace itself. The question is simply one
of which adjectives the various Presidential nominees will select to
describe and define the peace. And this itself opens a new chapter
about a new era in Vietnamese history books.
(Hank I plan to cable several short political pioors this week.
I'm also still attempting to set the foreign minister's interview. I
airmailed several days ago my long overdue Saigon mood zeepager.
apologies for the delay.
Communist offensive. But,
My
This week is discussed as a likely target for the
unless we get very sold solid exclusive
information, we will file am no prediction pieces about the offensive
until it happens. Opinions are a d plentiful,
know when and if the offensive will come.
but not even the generals
Regards Bev).
EL AN
== END RETER.
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Date
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1968, Aug. 13
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Subject
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Republican National Convention (4th : 1868 : Chicago, Ill.); Presidents--United States--Election--1968; Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994; Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969; Public opinion; Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States
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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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B10, F38
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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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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
