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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04223 to 363-04237.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04223 to 363-04237
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Title
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Article about the Alliance of National Democratic and Peaceful Forces of Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "alliance", Keever's title: "Saigon Pro-Peace Alliance Evades U.S. Backed Government." Article draft about the Liên minh các Lực lượng Dân tộc, Dân chủ và Hòa bình Việt Nam (Alliance of National Democratic and Peaceful Forces of Vietnam), a pro-communist group agitating for peace between North and South Vietnam operating in and around 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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2020 sag
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alliance 1 (normass/deepe)
iNTERNAL AND
(This is the first of a two-part series on the international
implications of the alleged pro-Communist peace group called the
Alliance of National, Democratic and Peace Forces).
ten al
SAIGON, MAY The announcement of the nation-level committee
members for an alleged pro-Communist peace group is considered here to mark
a significant political step towards an all-out coordinated Communist
drive to topple the elected government of President Nguyen Van Thieu.
Reliable sources Vietnamese sources here believe the announcement
of the peace group's leadership, made over the week-end, marks a crucial
turning point for the American-backed, anti-Communist government here. It
is not considered a clear-cut political defeat for the Thieu government, but
fd it does represent an acceleration in the erosion of political strength
ten
in the government-controlled areas. Hence, the formation of the fine-member
Alliance is considered as surfacing significantly and openly revealing the
continued state of crisis and the unsolved problems of Thieu's elected
government which was uru inaugurated into office last October.
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zcze sag
Jy 1jp
alliance 2 (normass/deepe)
The announcement of the leadership for the Alliance is also considered
likely here to offer the pretext for the Communist t to use the name of
the movement in the future to perpetuate their so-called "general uprisings"
in the cities and towns while simultaneiously launching a concerted diplomatic
WHEN
offensive to win over I Toit leftists in America and internationally:
Thasi Washington-Hanoi peace talks are temporarily desirecki deadlocked on
finding a conference site.
"The Communists are interested in the substance rather than in the
semantics of words like 'front' and alliance'," one Vietnamese political
source explained. "During the French Indo-China war, the Viet Minh was
technically known as an alliance, while today the Viet Cong are called a
front. During the to Inde Indo-China War, Ho Chi Minh organized a
front within a front; now the Viet Cong have organized the
Alliance as an appendage of the National Liberation Front, or a satellite to it.
In general, the Communists want bigger
an ever-widening base of mass support.
with the
0 new
and bigger concepts to attract
GOVERNMEN
If the American' want to negotiate
new Alliance to to dump the Thieu government, fine--
idea, so now they'll try to destroy the
but Washington rejected that
Thieu government by themselves."
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2020 seg
vy 1jp
alliance 3 (normass/deepe)
Some
Just what form the Communists will use to topple fire in their
attempts to overthrow the Thieu government is still unknown here.
believe their m political offensive would be mu made in conjuc
conjunction with either ground assaults and/or rocket attacks on the
cities and towns. Saigon is currently in a high state of tonsion and
uneasiness as developments of this kind have been predicted fro for
more than a week by the Vietnamese and American military commends here.
Other sources believe the Communists will turn more and more towards
political agitation, subversion, attracting urban disse dissidents,
propaganda and terroristic activities as the speakea spearhead to destroy
the Thieu government, with military forces playing a distinctly supporting
role.
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zC2c sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
alliance 4 (normass/deepe)
The short-range,
immediate significance of announcing the national-level
committee members of the Alliance last week-end is considered by
Vietnamese political sources to be:
Ken
The
1. This is the first known migration of as many as nine
personalities of what an amounts to the upper-crust, snob-set Vietnamese
moving to the pro-Communist side since 1960 when the National Liberation
Front
itself was established. This is not considered an outright
defection of pro-American, anti-Communists to the pro-Communist camp.
important members of the announced Alliance are not knwon known here as
anti-Communists; several have histories of pro-French leanings or
pro-socialist and pro-leftist peace leanings or activities in the past.
Yet, these committee members are not specifically known to sai gone se
as Communists either, nor is there immediat, specific evidence of Communist
While numerically insignificant in
backgrounds, informed sources report.
ten
political terms, the mine personalities-intellectuals rather than politicians-->
are nevertheless considered as psychologically important in softening the
atti
itudes of other urbanites towards the Communists.
Ten
Communist radio broadcasts
but
indicate more than the fine have been officially named to the committee,
the ther their names were not released. In
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zczo sag
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alliance 5 (normass/deepe)
Since 1964, Allied counterinsurgency experts here predicted-and
feared this specific moment when, as one said at the time, "the Communists
will eventually man attract very respectable non-Communists to front
This will
for them--but behind the scenes the Communists will hold power.
be a very clever pay ploy by the Communists--and a very difficult one
for the Allies to counter."
the Communists have made political
2. In terms of guerrilla geopolitics,
inroads into the cities at a time when militarily they are attempting to
encircle some urban centers from the outskirts
ts
and when economically, they
are trying to strangle these populated centers from produce from the
countryside.
that while
In captured documents, the Communists have revealed that
simply dominating the countryside to encircle the cities is indecisive for
them; they must make gains in the cities and towns as well;
the peasants are the foundation of the revolutio their so-called revolution,
the revolution will fail without either the passive or active cooperation
The Alliance for of National,
of some middle and upper-class elements.
Democratic and at the
Forges
,
acknowledg acce accepted
Communist inspired and organized,
as
is hence the first surfacing of the se
upper-crust elements actively joining the Communists in the midcouts their
$
hideouts in the jungle of their Cambodian sanctuaries.
The se upper-crust
elements are in addition to secret Communist agents and fifth-fummits
columnists which have penetrated social and religious organizations in the
Police
cities as well as many effe echelons of the anti-Communist government and army.
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alliance 6 (normass/doope)
"There's no indication this Alliance has a broad base," one informed
source explained, "Nor does it claim to have. It is obviously a
creation of the
nal imberertion and extension of the National Liberation
Front and Hanoi, although this does not mean everyone in it is Communist.
are not known for their political bili ability, but
These individuals
for their intellectual standing....
"But unquestionably,
there is alot of con political confusion in
political
the cities," he continued.
Slowly, Thieu and the government, in sort of a glacier movement, Th
trying to form a strong political structure which doesn't exist here.
in order to get a broader national government.
"There's alot of ferment bubbling up and around.
Low
Bit is still in
For S
the formative stage, and to be realities and many rel realistic
Vietnamese politicians believe that we are getting to the end of the shooting
hero may be in one month or one year. if the non-Communists are
going to stand up against Communist pressure,
the Thieu government en
especially with t roots in the provinces,
needs a political base, but these politicians find it hard to put aside
their personal differences to build it. But,
exenx I don't want to
towards that goal. Even if
over-state the progress that has been made
everything wont according to schedule, they cou the non-Communiss
non-Communists could not do it in a year.
The essential problem is
The
The nationalist
but they're nothing now
there is no political ideology on the non-Communist side.
political parties were important thirty years ago,
and to they have nothing new to offer the population."
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2020 506
yy ljp
alliance 7 (normass/deepe)
Mon-
In short, while the Communists are have made their first top stops
political stops to move up the economic ladder, the anti-gove anti-Communist
political forces are attempting to move down the economic ladder into the
peasant ranks of the countryside.
The Communist radio broadcasts during the Tet offensive in late January
the Alliance for of National,
first mentioned the Alliances
Democratic and Peace Forces, under a var variety of names, as representing
*
a return t of the government of the people in Hue. Later the committee
NAME
em members for
e chapter was
in Hue and the two northernmost provinces of Quang Tri and Thus Thien.
Le Van Hao, a professor of ethnology at the Universities of Saigon and Hue
13 S named chairman. He was the is the son-in-law of a businessman closely
identified with the economic managing the economic interests of Ngo Mrs.
Ngo Dinh Nhung the brother sister-in-law of the late President Diem;
the businessman was also a r distà relative by by marriage to the Diem family.
Named deputy chairman was a lady, Mrs. Tuong Vy,
important girl's schoo, school in Hue and the mother-in-law ofa a Vietnamese
a former director or of an
general, currently head of the political warfare department,
as well as the
mother-in-law to a rich pharmacist who is currently acting as an assistant
to President Nguyen Van Thiou
Aos Also named deputy chairman was
Don
Buddhist monk, the Venerable Thich Dau Hau,
Phu J Ngoc Tuong, was a named secretary general.
his student/protege, Hoang
Don
The Venerable Thich bau Hau,
a Buddhist spiritual leader who was heir apparent to Thich Tri Quang in Hue,
is also listed on the newly-announced committee list for Saigon.
Some Buddhist
sources believe he was captured by the Communists during the battle of Hue and
INVOLUNTARly Ent
HS NAME
WAS
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Se
vy 1jp
alliance 8 (normass/deepe)
Also during the Tet offensive, Communist radio broadcasts
SAD
mentioned a saigon chapture chaptur chapter had been established, but
no names were listed. Last week-end, both Liberation Radio and Hanoi
Radio mentioned that the Saigon committee-exterea,to expended to moan
gon
the national-level committee) hed met on April 20-21,
leaders.
PORTED
along with numbers
program and
of i unnamed other persons are listed their sted the
Their program is i described here as a carbon copy of the 14-point
National Liberation Front program, issued last September, the in terms
of their main objectives of fighting the common enemies of the Thiou-Ky
government and the Americans. However, the tone is less strident and the
words are less biased: "the Americans" replaces the Communist language
of the American imperialists," for example.
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alliance 9 (normess/deepe)
al- LEVEL
The ton members listed as heading the nation-ide Alliance
seemed to be well balanced between the three contained a mixture of
the three regional divisions of Vietnam, North, Central and Southern;
of various rogious roligious groupk groupings and of various professions,
although heavily wieg weighed towards lawyers, doctors and professors,
which are consisted the well-oduct educated layer of Vietnamese society.
Am
The chairman was listed as Frinh Dinh Thao, a semi-retired Saigon
Taye ley lay lawyer, about sixty years of age. He was born in North
Vietnam, but moved to the South at middle age "and spoke with a Southern
er
His lay law degree was earned from
dialost," one Southern montioned.
his studies in France; his non, also a lawyer) is married to the daughter
acco
years ago
of one of the richest jewelers in saigon. Thao was considered by informed
saigonese to be "buddy-buddy" with Nguyen Huu Tho, head of the National
Liberation Front; the two lawyers reported worked toge
Other
in peace movements
at the end of the French Indo-China War, when in 1954, he was reportedly
arraised by arrested by the Saigon government and sent to Haiphong,
still
an open port for the exchange of pors refugees and soldiers before coming
under Communist otro control. Thao was reportedly told if he wanted to side
with the Communists he could sa stay up no North and live with them. However,
he reportedly loft Haiphong and returned to South, some sources say via
Paris.
In 1965, he was again arrested for hi signing a pro-Communist
peace poti ti9 petition Jand was one of three persons the Saigon government
pushed across the was tried by a special tribunal and then released.
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2020 986
Jy ljp
alliance 10 (normass/deepe)
"Thao is just another kind of hippie, but an old hippie,"
ono Saigon who know him explained.
"He spends all day with his dogs.
He has twenty dogs and he spends 20,000 piastres ($200) a month just
for dog food. The rest of the time he just takes care of his mango grooves.
Moy the Although the mangoes bring him in several hundred thousand
plastres a year, he grows them just for their beauty."
Vice Chai Chairman Lam Van Tot is a Southern-born Cao Daist,
a regius religious sect worshipping Buddha, Confucius, Victor Hugo and
Jesus Christ. Tot was rather prominent in Saigon as the chairman of the
All-Religions C₁tizons Front established in 1964 with the Rev. Hoang Quynh
representing the Catholics,
and Cao Daists.
Joked explained.
and others representing the Hoa Hao and Buddhists
"Tot is kind of a professional chairman," one saigone se
"He'd be chairman of any kind of group that asked him.
And many groups asked him, some so he would contribute to the group f
some because he was such a nice man.
He never got mad, no matter how
much anyone criticized him, and if the group wouldn't let him talk, he'd
just sit there and keep his mouth shut." He is reportedly rather elderly,
How, hurly roughly seventy years old) and walks with a cane. While listed
as an engineer, a more accurate translation would be a land surveyor;
ho is also a large landowner, which Viet Cong end Hanoi radio broadcasts
conveniently failed to mention. He ran for but lost his election to join"
the current se upper house of the legislature that is now in session.
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alliance 11 (normass/deepe)
A second vice chairman if the Buddhist monk Thich Do Don Hau,
who is also de vice chairman of the Huo chapter in Hue. He, like the
chairman of the Hue crouping, are thought to be in hiding outside of
Hue, where heavy fighting has taken place in the past few days between
U. S. Army 1st Air Cavalry, 101st Airborne and North Vietnamese Army
units.
Secretary General
Duong Ky was arrested for his anti-government
actions in 1965, was one of three sent over the Ben Hai bridge to North
Vietnam in 196. that year,
ro went to Paris and returned to Saigon in 1967,
Active in the past Bu Buddhist-inspired
informed sources report.
demonstrations and orisis against a succession of governments following
the fall of Ngo Dinh Diem,
University of Hue.
and
he was a for a time a professor at the
lue uni
more routor
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2020 sag
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alliance 12 (normass/deepe)
Lidsted as assistance secretary general is a rether well-known,
wealthy women doctor in Saigong duo, quynh mong Quynh Hos
Now)
she maintained a good medical
in her late thirties br early forties,
practice of her own and left behind a fashionable villa on Hong Thap
She had received her f
Tu Street, in the elegant French quarter.
doctor's degree in France, and relialbe s reliable sources who knew her
said she was once engaged to a Frenon Frenchmen who was a member of the
Communist Party. He died before they were married and she never wed anyone else.
the se sources say, because her brout
She was bitter for some time,
brother laye lawyer in the resort city of Dalat was murderered and
B
in the early 1960s, but she suspected
Hor
robbed, supposedly by hooligans,
that government agents during the Diem regime committed the crime.
father, from the we a wealthy Southern family, is a retired teach at
a French boy's school in Saigon.
"Sho's just a hippie," one Saigon sa Saigonese said,
referring to
"She's charming and rich. But why didn't she get married and enjoy
Miss Hoa,
life and help her clients who need a good doo tory doctor?
Instead she is
in the
going into politics, sacrificing her future for the dumb people in
countryside, just to be food fooled by the acnivellian Communists."
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alliance 13 (normass/deepe)
she had been arrested by the government of Prime Minister Nguyen
Cao K in 1965 and 18tor was released by that same governmen
A second assistant secretary general was 15 listed as Le Hieu
Dang,
who was well known as depty deputy cheri chairman of the Salen
Saigon study on student Union, with headquarters on to the mainstreet of
Saigon,
in 1966 and 1967. He was known to have participated in the
American-sponsored summer programs student programs which helped
rebuilt and clean up some of Saigon's slum districts.
A third assistant secretary general, Thanh Nghi,
author as a French-Vietnamese
dictionary.
is known as the
He holds the equivalent
of a master of arts degree from France. Nearly fifty, he is considered
by anti-Communists as "sort of a beatnik,"
because of his short jagged
and was
haircuts. A frequent coffee-shop gossip, he was often accused of being
on an announcer on Radio Catinat, Saigon's mythical rumor-mill,
The government
once put in jail for some of the distortions he mouthed.
at the time su suspected him of working for the French intelligence
agency in Vietnam.
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RANCE,
alliance 14 (normass/deepe)
Three others are listed as standing committee members.
7/AS
Educated in
NvNguyen Van Kiet in 1966 1965 held a government position dealing with
MS.
Well its H well-P
primary and middle-level education, He holds
MERung Delta. And At
LACED FA
ན་མིན་ཐར་འདང་ the University of Saigon.
Saigon me
Union,
in 1967,
degree
Tran Trieu Luat graduated from the
ZeNiversity of
was vice chairman of the Saigon Student
lead ai anti-government demonstrations, and then became a
professor at the University of Saigon in the education department.
Litele little information is available,
even from official sources,
áo about Nuynh van . Huynh Van Nghi, who was not further identified
by the Communists.
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alliance 15 (normass/deepe)
Saigon
The reaction to the names of the committee members seemed to split
into two broad categories One, voibed by Southern businessmen and a few
Northern refugees unable to flee the country,
"These Alliance
people are very rich. They have all kinds of (educational) degrees.
They belong to upper-class families. If they can get along with the
Why can't we?"
Communists,
Others,
"These
who have suffered bitter past experiences with the Communists,
such as Northern politicians explained in the words of one;
Southerners haven't had any experience living under the Communists.
The Communists are just using these Alliance people as figureheads, but
they are not given any real power by the Communists.
The se Alliance
they are confused. The Communist
appear fo
people are dreamers;
cooperation in this case is as sweet as honey, but they will soon find out
this honey is very sour."
tommorrow
(Hank: I'll send the second piece tomorrow. I'm also flying to
Cantho for one delta interview, re turning to Saigon at nightfall.
I'll try to file that story Saturday. Multi thanks for your long letter and
generous arithmetic.
REPLY
I'll get a off to you this week-end. Also,
embargo is breaking somewhat on the Ashau Valley operation,
the
and we'll try to
file some thing on that over the week-end or Monday. Regards. Bev).
==endi treuter
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Date
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1968, May 2
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Subject
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Liên minh các lực lượng dân tộc, dân chủ và hòa bình Việt-nam; Saigon (Vietnam); Vietnam (Republic); Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Peace; Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States; Vietnam, 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, F23
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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
