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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04440 to 363-04446.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04440 to 363-04446
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Title
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Article about Communist attacks and Cao Dai militias
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Description
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Original title: "attacks." Article draft about recent Communist attacks and Saigon's loss of support from the Cao Dai religion. 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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seze sag
Jy nnm
attacks 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, AUGUST 19-Widespread Communist ground and indirect firepower
attacks has produced a fairly stiff ripple of military activity here--but
not repeat not the expected third wave of an offensive.
American officials here are still reserving opinions of whether
the week-end rippling of stiffer fighting, breaking the two-month-old
ground lull, is even a prelude to the long-predicted tidal wave. kuriom
expectation here had been that the predicted offensivo would
The
than
ve drive more vigorously into the major cities-rathor hugging he
tengo Vietnam's fragilo o frontiers.
= =more reuter
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zC2c sag
attacks 2 (normass/deepe)
In private, however,
several opinions in seem to
The
prevail before any ex concrete pattern has yet been established.
first--and predominant view-is that attacks along the borders are a diversion
division for the bit bigger future battles around Saigon, Hue and other main
cities.
The Communists would temporarily revert to their old border
stra tegy of last fall, in an attempt to siphon off Allied troop
concentrations from the more populated areas.
Also
Some intelligence sources/ believe,
that the Communists
are attempting to open up their corridors of infiltration and to
Countryside.
exp a wider area of the mu
extend their authority over
For example, on August 12, a decoded Communist message from units outside
the greater Saigon perimeter complained that Communist troop movements were
difficult and slow because Allied forces were too active around the larger
cities. "So we must pin down by mortaring and rocketing the enemy along
our gf corridors of infiltration," the message stated.
nore reuter
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zcze sag
yy nnm
attacks 3 (normass/deepe)
A second private opinion, expressed by some officials, is that
the Communists will simply continue to nibble at exposed areas of the
countryside, such as along the borderlines, while maintaining a constant,
but lower-level of activity countrywide.
Just what, if any, political connection the breaking of the
ground-war lull has with either the Paris peace talks or the upcoming
However,
Democratic convention is hard to assess here.
The independent
English-language "Saigon Daily News" seemed to present a rather
**
articulate assessment in its editorial commentary on the end of the lull.
ER WROTE
"These attacks should end the controversy whether or not the
AND
communists have shown restraint have withdrawn some of their troops
back to their side of the seventeenth parallel.
President Johnson
has been correct to put the number of communist infiltrators at 30,000
for July. In retrospective the controversy was a loss of time.
The communists are still very much on the war path; they still cling to the
policy of fighting while talking....let us not forget that the terms of
but will also be
of any settlement in P Paris not only reflect,
agreed to on the basis of the realities on the battlefield....
"Bitter fighting is ahead and the communists have not be
abandoned their plan to attack Saigon because they believe if Saigon falls,
the whole country will fall as a ripe plum."
==more reuter
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zeze sag
yy nnm
attacls 4
(normass/deepe)
Within a v
MORE NARROW,
limited
political sense,
Vietnamese sources
noted two internal political interpretations of the ending of the lull.
The first is that the Communists are as attempting to commemorate the C
August 19th revolution which took place in 1945, when the Communist-led
elements seized power from the defeated Japanese at the end of
World War II.
Amxm@mum. For internal psychological purposes,
said
A
for
Vietnamese sources, the Communists may attempt to play up the importance
R SEVERAL WEEKS until Septem BER
of that anniversary until early Septembery when the Communiston
when,
elled
twenty three years ago, President Ho Chi Minh was named President
of the country.
==more reuter
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5020 Sag
yy nnm
attacks 5 (nozmass/deepo)
Moro significant,
however, Vietnamese sources note the concentration
of ground and fire attacks on in Tay ninh province (12 attacks in a throe
hour period on Sunday evening) plus infiltration of bands of Communiste
into the provincial capital of Tay Ninh city, 60 miles northwest of Saigon.
"Pop. 40,000)
Tay Ninh city contains the "Holy Coo" autno autonomous "Holy See"
of the pre powerful Coo Dai church, a. Vietnamese-styled militant,
nifestmodmodum amalgamation of, Buddhism, Confucianicm, Taoisme
plus soft
of Victor Hugo. More than half the population of the
Gilows
province before the Cao Dai ohurch-188,000 church mombore out of a
total population of 295,000.
The Great Temple of the Cao Dai religion-
the city.
a huge garrish odifico foaturing dragons and other fairytale creations-
US.DE MN. Autonomous. How
is aldo also loonted in the province.
Throughout Vietnam,
some two million Cao Dalists look to Tay Ninh
province and to the Great Temple in the Holy See-as their holyland.
And, for some time the politics of the Cao Dai church has been very,
very shaky, Vietnamese sources say.
more router
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2020 sag
yy nam
attacks 6 (normass/deepe)
Throughout Vietnam, the leadership of the Cao Dai church is
considered fragmented into thirteen separate,
factions.
MOST
But, the ruling
important
some times feuding
Ams ReS. DE IN.
echelons have viod for control
of Tay Ninh province itself. In general, Tay Ninh province has
nominally been pro-government, especially since the fall of
President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. Diem had crushed the religious
army of the Cao Dai in the mid-1950s.
However, under the surface, the pro-entre
pre-fict Cong
GOVERNM
anti-government wing of the Cao Dai church had been quietly vying for
power. These elements include church leaders who are now residing in
Cambodias they also include pro-Communists, pro-neutralists and
pro-aph French elements. For some time, nationalist/Cao Dai
leaders feared that the Communists would attempt to attack Tay Ninh
city and if it could be held long enough-the pro-government church
About a month ago,
leaders would be driven from the province.
when more Communist saboteurs and agents were noticed in the city,
these pro-government leaders Cao Dai leaders pleaded that the defense
were unable
to do so,
in the province be strengthened. But,
Having
here been forced to
leaving
Tayninh.
the Allied commands here
concentrate their troops outwards from Saigon,
a Partial
AAS
ative military vacuum in the fringe areas like
WHEN
During this month in which Communist pressure was building up
in the province, some of the pro-government church leaders did flee to Saigon,
VIETNAMESE SOURCES Report.
== more Renter
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zcze sag
yy nnm
attacks 7 (normass/deepe)
Also, earlier this year, one of the pro-government Cao Daiist leaders,
elderly Lam Van Tet, was announced as having jointed the alleged pro-Communist
Alliance for National, Democratic and Peace Forces of Vietnam,
It would be a crippling blow to the Vietnamese government at this
time if
it lost even the nominal support of the Cao Dai church--
and the nominal,, though unrealistic support it claims to give the
government through its two million followers. Also, in the light
of peace neg negotiations, American intellectuals and political
scientists have generally looked up the Cao Dai church as a bloo vote of
anti-Communist support, which would fadimxagon allow an
BETWEEN
Ant. Commun.
accommodation with the Communists without the inevitability of a
Communist take-over.
Now, however, a pivotal internal question for the future is
whether the Communist attacks in the province--and the crossfire of
Tring in the pockets of fighting in the city itself--will soften
anti-Communism of the Cao
the art bonus nominal a
Dalists.
#end reuter
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Date
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1968, Aug. 19
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Subject
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Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam; Saigon (Vietnam); Caodaism; iên minh các lực lượng dân tộc, dân chủ và hòa bình Việt-nam; 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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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
