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Part of World Furor Over Execution

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World Furor Over Execution
t
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent

SAIGON.
The case o! Ta Vinh, the
Chinese business man who
was executed Monday for
war-profiteering, began as a
simple economic trial and now
has evolved into a controversial issue here and abroad .
His pre-dawn public execution by firing squad In Saigon
has poured fuel on an already
simmering Internal situation.
Ta Vinh's Chinese wife is
known to have asked the Militant Buddhist Organization
for financial support-and
possible political revenge. The
organization-widely thought
to contain pro-neutralists and
pro-Communists- has engineered the downfall o! previous governments, and could
do the same with this one.
At the international level,
the issues became more
snarled.

U.S. WARNING
Officials o! the American
Embassy-speaking privately
and unofficially-are known
to have warned South Vietnamese government officials
that they could expect a political black-eye in the American and European press-and
one that would harm the
"new society" image adopted
at the Honolulu conference
last month.
One diplomatic flap was
caus.ed by the fear that Peking would exploit the execution of a Chinese business
man and thus gain support of
the hundreds of thousands of
overseas Chinese, while the
Taiwan government would
tacitly and silently be left
backing the Saigon 1•egime.
It could be considered a
gree.t irony that Peking lnight
come out in support of a
"corrupt
c~pitalist."
When Ta Vinh's trial began,
Chinese business men in
Saigon's twin-city of Cholon
favored the Saigon government. As the trial progressed,
however, more and more
Chinese resented the way the
case was handled.
Two other Chinese business
men got six-year prison terms
for economic speculation and
hoa.rding.

ANTI-CHINESE
The Chinese considered
these trails as being antiChinese instead of anticorruption. They complained
that while Chinese business
men were corrupt, the bribes
went into the pockets of Vietnamese
government
employees, specifically at the
Ministry of Economy, where
bribes up and down the administrative ladder were necessary to get required paper
work for import and export
licensing.
The government hastily
countered these arguments,
however, when only hours
after the Ta Vinh execution, a
Vietnamese public servant confessed, was convicted and was
given a death sentence for

Premier Ky
embezzling the equivalent of
$70 ,000 In public funds.
If this Vietnamese public
servant is executed, Premier
Ky undoubtedly will · gain
enormous support within the
country. First, the Vietnamese
are tired of the overwhelming
waves of corruption. Second,
It will give Gen. Ky an appearance of governing in opposition to American Embassy advice, which could strengthen
his prestige.
A week earlier, the Economy
Minister was replaced by a
young, energetic banking expert who is widely reputed by
the business community here
to be both honest and capable.

DTSCONTENT
The extent of corruption,
nepotism and bureaucratic
inefficiency-plus the fact that
the reins of economic power
are in the hands of a
privileged few with vested
interests - has consistently
been the root of discontent
among the low-class and
lower-middle class elements
of the population.
The corruption is commonly
believed b:1- almost all Vietnamese to be operating at a
peak level. Premier Ky faces
even more complicated economic problems than his
numerous predecessors - for
the American build-up of
troops, coupled with increased
Viet Cong sabotage of roads,
canals and rivers- has produced inflation that is potentially as dangerous to the
country as Viet Cong troops.
Chinese
business
men
throughout Southeast Asia
operate an enormous economic
network, in which smuggling,
black marketing and "high
finance" are interwoven with
"high politics" and espionage
-including some for the Chinese Communists.
In the face of these economic problems, which are
the essence of Saigon's political problem, the case of Ta
Vinh means that the government of Prime Minister Ky
must govern-or else, like its
predecessors, it will fall.