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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04741.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04741
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Title
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We Get Tough, the Viets Lean to Neutralism
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Description
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Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the growing discontent among South Vietnamese citizens towards the war, page 5
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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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We Get Tough,
The Viets Lean
To Neutralism
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
A high-ranking American Official on a fact-finding
mission recently was eating dinner with a Vietnamese
couple both staunchly anti-Communist, who were decrying
the marked deterioration of the internal political situation.
The American official asked if they were not encouraged
"after recent events," meaning the bombing of North
Vietnamese military installations.
The Vietnamese wife chipped at her strawberry finger-
nail polish and asked, "What happened recently?"
The Vietnamese husband responded, "Oh, you mean the
aggression against North Viet Nam?"
The American official was flabbergasted at their re-
action, which indicated how much more worried they were
about Saigon politics than they were reassured by the
bombing of North Viet Nam.
The bombing raids including the largest one last week
-came paradoxically when the internal political situation
is potentially ripe for the acceptance of a negotiated settle-
ment with the Reds.
As the American military posture grows tougher, the
internal political line is leaning toward neutralism.
These two trends are contradictory-if Washington in-
tends to prosecute the war to total victory. But if Wash-
ington intends to negotiate, the tough military stance
would be considered enough to represent an apparent
American military victory, although the Communists would
be admitted into a coalition government-the prelude to
neutralization.
These are the factors which are worrying the anti-
Communist Vietnamese since the first retaliatory bombing
of North Viet Nam Feb. 7:
The unimpeded rise of the militant Buddhist Insti-
tute, now a political force second only to the Viet Cong
Communist political machine, and the Buddhists' official
appeal for peace, "and for Vietnamese to stop killing fellow
Vietnamese. The fear is that this emotional Issue could
in time cause the collapse of the South Vietnamese armed
forces and government.
At least one quarter of the ministers in the new gov-
ernment formed Feb. 16 are considered "Buddhist min-
1sters;" another one-quarter are considered pro-French,
if not French agents; the remaining half-described by one
observer as "the best-intentioned bunch of nitwits ever to
fill a cabinet"-are considered weak personalities who would
easily bend under prevailing political pressure from pro-
neutralist factions. No element appears prepared to resist
the Buddhists politicians or other pro-neutralist factions.
This potentially pro-neutralist trend in the civilian
government was relatively unimportant as long as the
Vietnamese Armed Forces Council, considered to represent
anti-Communist power, acted as a super-government.
But, with the Feb. 19 coup attempt and subsequent dis-
missal of Lt. Gen. Nguyen Khanh as commander-in-chief,
the Council diminished in political importance. Gen.
Khanh used the armed forces as an anti-Communist
political counterbalance to the pro-neutralist Buddhists
mass power. Now that he is gone, the generals are fighting
among themselves; at least one General has slipped over
to the political side of the Buddhist Institute, and is in-
directly calling for peace.
DIVIDED OBSERVERS
A peace movement-labeled communist-inspired by
the government has surfaced in Saigon. The movement
has circulated a petition calling for a ceasefire without
conditions without demanding a stop to Communist
aggression and has obtained the signatures of 471 persons
-many of them the most respected in Vietnamese society.
Thirty-five signers have been arrested. The movement is
now believed to be whipping up students and workers to
spearhead its cause through street demonstrations protest-
ing the arrival of South Korean troops-and by implication
calling for the withdrawal of American troops.
The anti-Communist pillars of Vietnamese society
and government are in disarray. The Catholics, usually
anti-Communist in viewpoint, are divided and are dis-
credited since the abortive Feb. 19 coup. The American
officials in Saigon are generally discredited by both the
Left-wing faction, who hold them responsible for the
Feb. 19 coup attempt, and by the Right-wing faction,
who feel U. S. policymakers have made a general mess
of the political situation, so jeopardizing the war effort.
The most important body-the armed forces-is suffer-
ing from high desertion rates; the fear is that a "push
for peace" might cause its collapse.
Fewer and fewer anti-Communists are doing less and
less about the Communist political subversion-which is
now considered to be-the Red's major reaction to the
American military offensive.
"It is a principle that the hotter the military war,
the more the Communists will push the political sub-
versives," said one counter-guerrilla expert.
The pessimists among foreign diplomats and observers
here consider the anti-Communist war lost. The optimists
believe the trend can still be reversed with a great deal
of luck.
The pessimists fear the Communists in the provinces
-and the Buddhists in Saigon and the major cities-
will begin street demonstrations demanding peace at
any price. They argue bombing North Viet Nam is now
incidental; American policymakers, if they intend to
hold South Viet Nam, must send in American combat
troops.
The peace movement is the most discussed develop-
ment in Saigon. Vietnamese families refuse to hold piastre
currency; the price of gold has risen up to 30-40 per
cent during the past three weeks." One business man said
the Vietnamese are burying gold outside Saigon, hoping
"to get it out in the confusion before the Communists
take over."
Other housewives have begun stockpiling rice. The
price has risen sharply, although it normally drops fol-
lowing the Chinese New Year.
Vietnamese friendships of long years standing are
being broken up because of the tense political climate.
"Who are our friends-and who are our enemies?" one
young Vietnamese housewife pondered.
"I have to ask myself that ecah time before I send
out dinner invitations."
Another depressed woman sighed, "It is a time when
each Vietnamese has two feet and two faces."
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Date
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1965, Mar. 7
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Public opinion--Vietnam (Republic); Public opinion; Civilians in war
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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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Container
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B4, F6
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Format
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newspaper clippings
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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
