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Part of Viet's Course: It Changes With Our Men

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It Changes

With Our Men
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.

Not long ago, American
Ambassador Maxwell Davenport Taylor descr1'bed li!e in
this turbulent capital city as
"a constant surprise" and "a
spicy way to live."
Saigon's ree.ction to the 6·3year-old Gen. Taylor is somewhat more restrained. His
lfive-month tenure in the
wood - paneled Ambassador's
Office on the fifth :floor of the
.American Embassy has caused
a mixed reaction among the
Vietnamese· and Americans
living here.
While all are in common
agreement that the political
situation has plummeted
since his July arrival, some
say that Gen. aTylor would
have had to be a "miracle
worker" to have salvaged
any sort of stability out
of the massive in-fighting
among Vietnamese factions,
some of which are suspected
of being Communist penetrated.

DONE NOTHING
Others have a lukewarm attitude to him. "He's done
nothing to be congratulated
for or reproached for," one
Vietnamese captain laughed.
"He tried to please everyone----,
the generals, the politicians,
the Buddhists, the Catholics.
No one can succeed in that."
Many in the American community, however, openly
blame him for "stiffness and
lack of imagination" during
the prolonged state of crisis
i!or the past several months.
One called him "the original
uncer,t ain trumpet," a reference to his polemic book
called "The Uncertain Trumpet," named after a Biblical
quotation, "For if the trumpet
give an uncertain sound, who
shall prepare himself to the
battle?"
Whatever the improbabilities of out-intriguing the
Vietnamese in their course
towards political self-destruction, American observers here
note two specific effects of
Gen. Taylor's brief tenure in
office. One is that his tenure
has practically nullified the
tenure of his predecessor,
Henry Cabot Lodge. Gen.
Taylor's attempts to assist the
stability of the current government is viewed here as a
reversal when in late August
last year Washington officials
and Lodge in Saigon withdrew
support from another civilian
government headed by Ngo
Dinh Diem; It was under Mr.
Lodge that Maj. Gen. Nguyen
Khanh came to power in the
civilian government--and five
of Viet Nam's most competent
generals were exiled in a
mountain resort city on
charges they were attempting
to neutralize Viet Nam. Now,
10 months later, at Mr. Taylor's suggestion these five
generals have again been returned to powerful positions
in the army. Under Mr. Lodge,
the systematic program of
American economic aid to the
provinces continued to flourish-despite two coup d'etats.
Now, as even more political
instability has diseased Viet
Nam, this system is in the
process of change and the traditional form of ·working
through government ministeries is again slated to be
reinstated.
The second effect of the
Taylor tenure -which has
also hindered Gen. Tayloris that the current political
instability of the Vietnamese
has been accompanied by a

little-noticed "American coup"
in the American mission.
There has been such a. rapid
turnover of America.n personnel-in the highest echelons
- of each key American
agency that a current American joke here is: "If my boss
calls, get his name."
The first high-priority task
Gen. Taylor assigned himself
on arrival was to improve
co-ordination of a.ctivities
within the American mission
and to set up a joint Vietnamese - U. s. mission coordinating committee to discuss day-by-day implementation of key programs.
Foreign diplomats believe
he did an admirable job a,nd
would have succeeded except
for the Vietnamese government change, with a, complete switch of ministers, and
the "American coup" in
which, since the beginning of
the year, the local heads
of the Central Intelligence
Agency, the U. S. Information Service, the Agency for
International Development
and the Embassy-all of the
U. S. civilian agencies-plus
the Military Assistance Command have been changed.
Gen. Taylor brought with
him a :first-rate embassy
staff, including Deputy Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson,
an expert on Far Eastern
affairs, and William H. Sullivan, former head of the Vietnamese task force In Washington. They were to aS11ist ,
in the strengthening of coordination.
Mr. Sullivan left here last
month, officially with "mission accomplished." But no ·
i!!OOner tlad he departed than
a vicious battle broke out in •,
the AID, which led to th~
resignation o! a Sullivanappointed counter-insurgency expert, Dr. George K.
Tanham, in protest against
the views of the AID director
here.
Some personnel changes
were initiated under Mr.
Lodge. With the arrival o!
Gen. Taylor, they increased
and caused a lack of continuity in day-to-day implementation of policy.
Despite the pressures of his
assignment, Gen. Taylor has
been occasionally seen entering the Embassy whistling an
incoherent tune with his
jacket flopped over one shoulder. At home, he occasionally
has a scotch-soda or gimlet
before dinner. A safe has been
installed in his home so that
he can carry classified documents with him to read· after
work; on week ends he carries
home three to five-inches
worth of fat reports (in the
Pentagon, he psed to carry
home a suitcase of material
for the week end).
He drives around Saigon in
,a Chrysler "that was dredged
up" from a warehouse; his
Cadillac "was falling apart
with a broken transmission,"
an associate explained. He is
covered by a minimum of security officials, though barbed
wire barricades block off the
street on which he lives. Unlike his predecessor, he does
not carry a weapon. Occasional intelligence reports are
received that the Viet Cong
Communist terrorists will try
to assassinate him, but he appears unconcerned and refuses to change his schedule
of activities.
Gen. Taylor is still agile
and handsome at 63-a young
Vietnamese waiti;ess at an
American military installation reportedly told him once
at lunch, •"You No. 1 sexy."
Despite a sprained knee, the
tall Missourian still enjoys
swimming and aides regularly
schedule tennis matches for
him.
"He wins more games than
he loses," one aid said, "but
he does not win them all."