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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04365 to 363-04374.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04365 to 363-04374
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Title
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Article on Prime Minister Trần Văn Hương's new Cabinet
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Description
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Original title: "cabinet", Keever's title: "New cabinet: Saigon Tiptoes to Peace." Article on Prime Minister Trần Văn Hương's decision making as he was filling his new Cabinet. 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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zczc sag
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cabinet 1 (normass/deepe)
(This is the first of a two-part series on the newly-installed Cabinet of
Freime Finister Tran Van Huong ).
and as
SAI GON, MAY 27-Against the backdrop of the Paris peace talks,
government soldiers fought Viet Cong troops amongst this capital's suburban swimming
pool and
snob-set villas, the words of Prime Minister Tran Van Teng
Huong in introducing his new Cabinet this weak week-end seemed poignantly
accurate:
"The country is facing a difficult situation...Vietnam is turning another
historic corner more decisive than others...My purpose to cooperate with the President
is to sacrifice the rest of my life for our country because I believe the life or
death of Vietnam depends on the honesty, competency and responsibility of those
who have authority."
-more reuter
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cabinet 2 (normass/deepe)
Huong, with thick-lens glasses perched mid-nose, spoke into a battery of
microphes in the middle of the Rares Presidential Palace ballroom, aglitter with
Louis XIV-styled chandliers and lush, hand-woven Vietnamese carpets. His words were
directed at two men at the other end of the expansive ballroom: President Nguyen Van
Thieu, wearing a dark-colored civilian suit, and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky,
wearing a high-buttoned bush-jacket outfit, often called by some Vietnamese as a
Laos Mao-Tse-Tung outfit sans med mandarin collar.
Thieu's response to Huong's wer words were agreement that the country was in
a difficult positich position, agreement that the constitution must be respected,
indicating that the President was the key policy-decision-malain maker with the
Prime Minister simply executing po the announced policy, agreement that the
ine integrity and prestice of the new Cabinet was critical at this moment. Unlike
Huong, Thieu spoke of the Paris peace talks:
--more reuter
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cabinet 3 (normass/deepe)
"The Communists have taken advantage of these talks in Paris and the
partial bombing halt to increase the war, and to increase their infiltration into
the Couth South. They hope to take advantage of the peace talks to obtain on the
battlefield what they could not obtain on the battlefield. They are going to
launch more suicidal attacks with the hope of making noise abroad and at the same
time to attack the cities to create death, suffering and homelessness to tens of
thousands of people."
Gh
Thieu and Ky then stode across the carpet--all this being televised to the
Vietnamese people-to congratulate Huong and his cabinet, standing in formation across
the expanse of the ballroom.
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cabinet 4 (normass/deepe)
It seemed that these three men--
-Thieu, Ky and Huong--would ecide the direction of
what Huong had termed Vietnam's historical turning point--its life-and-death destiny.
Is the installation of Huong and his new Cabinet a step towards peace in
South Vietnam?
complex
American officials, speaking in private, viewed the sit question in all
i ts simplicities and answered yes. Vietnamese political sources viewed the
questions in its labyrinth of complexities and answered maybe.
The American mission, speaking officially, regarded the Cabinet change as an
internal Vietnamese matter" and hence beyond official comment. In private, though,
American sources said the Mission had pushed for Huong for Prime Minister inx last
and would have
November-before serious contemplation of the Paris peace talks-
potential
preferred him over the outgoing Prime Minister, Nguyeh Va Nguyen Van Loc. These
sources say Huong's Prime Minister-ship opens a significant,
accommodi accomodation between the Saigon regime and the Communist side, specificially
the Na Southern-oriented National Liberation Front.
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cabinet 5 (normass/deepe)
They argue that Huong gives more prestige to the civilian components of the
government, which wo may be more willing to compromise with the National Liberation
Front, while simultaneiousl concurrently reducing the power of the Vietnamese
militant Vietnamese generals who are curr unwilling to agree wo to an
internal polic political compromise with the NLF.
Vietnamese political sources, including some in the gov current government and
some close to Huong, regard this line of reasoning, in the words of one to the world
"a first-class American Maid MadisonAvenue snow job designed to sell the idea
that Saigon will accommodate wants to accommodate with the Communists." These sources
said Huong's first order of business is not to accomodate with the Communists--but to
unify the nationalits. They note that the key certainty is not an accommodation with
rhe Communists--but the pivotal uncertainty of unification of the nationalits.
--more reuter
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cabinet 6 (normass/deepe)
wa5
one
as
"South Vietnam is not prepared for peace any more than it was prepared for
war a decade ago,"
Vietnamese influential politician explained. And,
another added, "The question is whether Huong can unify the Vietnamese nationalists
enough to prepare us for the luxury of peace."
then the non-Communist
If Huong succeeds in this unification process,
government could in some way allow the Communists into the legal government--if, of
course, the Communists are willing to enter it.
Ifx This entrance in t into
Saigon government --very much on Saigon's terms-would be possible because the
Washington-Saigon bargaining position in the peace talks would be greatly enhanced
by having some a large chunk of the non-Communists unified, these sources say.
If Huong fails, then to allow the Communists into the government,
even as an
organized minoti minority, would still mean then could "swallow up" the
nomadamm dis-organized, non-Communist majority
dominant control in the South and eventual re-unification with North Vietnam.
and ultimately seize
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cabinet 7 (normass/deepe)
In short, Vietnamese political sources believe the American officials are
selling the ideal of Huong's appointment as a significant step towards an
accommodation with the Communists becaust it reduces the power of the opposition
Vietnamese generals. But, the Vietnamese believe it may enhance the prospects of
peace in the South-assuming p Paris peace talks reach this t stage-by strengthening
the American position in Paris.
"The qu important question is whether Huong succeeds or fails in bringing
unity to the nationalist side," one Vietnamese source explained. "The secondary
question is whether he will accommodate with the Communists. If he succeeds, South
Vietnam has a chance to survive as a free country and the Americans will continue
to support South Vietnam to remain free. If he succeeds, there is still the hope of
defeating the Communists politically,/////// in the Saigon arena
at at the conference table. B
more reuter
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cabinet 8 (normass/deepe)
"If Huong fails, the Vietnamese think the Americans will still force Saigon
to accommodate with the Communists--and this will amount to an American sell-out.
The non-Communist nationalists must get unified before an accommodation is reach
with the Communists-or else it is a political defeat for both the non-Communists
Vietnamese and for the American position."
Beyond Hugon Huong's prodigious task of unifying the nationalists lies the
question of how much compri compromise t either the Americans or the Communists
will make from their he relatively frozen positions regarding the future Saigon
government. These concessions center around President Thieu-not Huong-who is
the anchor man of the legal v government.
--more reuter
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cabinet 10 (normass/deepe)
American sources here believe that in the coming weeks the political
focus of personalities may well shift from President Thieu to President Prime
Minister Huong--with Huong gaining more of the public limelight to establish
"the national image," in the words of wone. But, Vietnamese sources here view the
legal
foundation of the Saigon government as still resting in the Presidency, based one the
American-promoted elections of last year.
But,
Vietnamese sources believe some compromise solution is shaping up
to break through the officially-stated impasse baixenx of the Communists and the
non-Communists regarding the future Saigon government.
newly-appointed foreign minister,
These sources believe the
Tran Thanh Chanh, is more of a negotiator than
a foreign minister. (He met both American envoy Harriam Hari Harriman and North
Vietnamese env representative Xuan Thuy, now in Paris, during the 1962 Geneva
Conference on Laos). Thanh would be ready to go to Paris to represent South
Vietnam--if the Paris talks evolve into discussions about the future of the South--
these sources believe.
--more reuter
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cabinet 11 (normass/deepe)
Officially, the South Vietnamese government position for some years has been
that Saigon would discuss the future government in the South with Hanoi-but not with
the National Liberation Front, which was regarded as simply a puppet of Hanoi's
Communist regime. Later, the stand was modified by to say, as did American
Secretary of State Dean Rusk, that the National Liberation Front could be presente
represented on the Hanoi delegation. Then, six weeks more than a month ago,
the outgoing Foreign Minister Tran Van Do stated that Saigon would meet with the
National Liberation Front, and the Front, if disarmed, would be treated much like
a political party. Hence, this gradual softening, plus the appointment of
Foreign Minister Thanh, has increased the view here that in the event of a second-has
public phase to the Paris discussions, Saigon would officially begin talks with the
National Liberation Front, either publica publicly or secrety secretly in Paris or
elsewhere.
---more reuter
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Date
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1968, May 27
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Subject
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Trần, Văn Hương; Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government; Prime ministers; Cabinet officers
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6361
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Container
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B10, F36
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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
