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Part of Year Later: Viet Buddhists at It Again

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New York

l{etalb al'.'ribune

Monday, May 25, 1964

Year Later: Viet Buddhists atltAgain

1

By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent

SAIGON.
South Viet Nam's Buddhists,
who ·helped bring about the
overthrow last November of
President Ngo Dinh Diem,
are on the political warpath
again to the embarrassment
of Premier Nguyen Khanh's
strong-man regime.
The spectacular .self-burnings of monks, hunger strikes
and mass demonstrations
which shook the Diem regime
!~st year have not recurred.
But the Buddhist movement,
in diligently building up
its religious and political
strength, is subtly undermining the strength of Gen.
Khrmh's American-supported
government in the process.
The big question nowone -of the biggest for the
future of embattled South
Viet Nam-'-ls whether the
Buddhist leadership will take
an anti-Communist, neutralist or even pro-Communist
stand as Buddhist strength
continues to develop .,
, The Buddhists, who were
granted full religious equality
by C-en. Khanh May 15, have
been celebrating Buddha's
, irthday - which occurs to"·.. arrow - with a series of

WAS JUST a year ago, on Buddha's
IVietTbirthday,
that a militant minority in South
Nam began a dramatic protest against
the rule of Ngo Dinh Diem. The figure of a
burning monk became a rallying symbol
throu.JJ_hout the world, triggering the fall of
Diem last November. Tomorrow brings
Buddha's birthday again, and with it reports
of a new Buddhist militancy-this time against
the U. S.-backed Khanh leadership, which is
stru.ggling desperately against the Communist
Viet Cong. Special Correspondent . B everly
Deepe tells of the new development and what
- it can mean to the grim Southeast crisis.
According to highly infestivities and prayer meeting.s. Multi-colored Buddhist formed sources, the principal
flags, banned under the objective of the Buddhists at
Roman Catholic President this time is to expand and
solidify their strength. BudNgo Dinh Diem, and brightly lit lanterns decorate the dhism is the . principal rewindows of shops and homes ligion of South Viet Nam,
with an estimated 30 to 40
throughout Saigon.
Although Gen. K'hanh !has ' per cent of its 14 million
gone out of his way to pla- people practicing Buddhism.
The Buddhist leadership
cate the Buddhists, current
Buddhist policy frequently now is building and staffing
reflects an anti-government primary and secondary Budline and a reluctance on the dhist schools and higherpart of many Buddhist lead- level institutes, planning and
ers to take an open anti- collecting funds for larger
pagodas and establishing
communist stand.
grass-roots support both in
"The
Buddhists
have the city and the countryside .
adopted a wait-and-see attiAccol'ding to a Buddhist
tude," one high American
Thich
Due
source said. "They are not spokesman,
completely behind thi's gov- Nghiep, the Buddhists are
sending mobile teams into the
ernment."
Vietnamese villages propagating the faith and telling the
papula.tion to be "good citizens ." He explained, however,
it is difficult for the teams,
totaling 50 men, to take a
direct anti-Communist line
for fear Communist guerrillas would kill them.
Meanwhile, Buddhist pub -

lications are taking an antigovernment stand. Reliable
observers believe the Buddhists can rekindle the antiDiem emotions of the population by accusing the Khanh
government-or the "remnants of Diem regime in the
Khanh government"-of being as oppressive against
them as President Diem was.
At the center of the Buddhist establishment is the
Venerable Thich Tri Quang,
who plotted the strategic
moves of last year's crisis .
He is a small, frail bonze
(monk) with hypnotic hands
and intense eyes, whose title
is secretary ( and hence
strongman) of the Institute
of Buddhist Clergy. His source
of power, however, is his immense control of Buddhism
in the northern two-thirds of
Viet Nam, with his headquarters in the holy city of Hue,
a center of Buddhist learning and of the most :militant
Buddhist followers in the
country. It was in Hue that
the Buddhist revolt began
last May-a protest against
barring the Flying of Flags
on Buddha's birthday, in
in which nine persons were
killed.
The Diem regime accused
him of being a Communist,
and this charge is still circu- '
lated by some factions. However, during the final stages

of the clash with the Diem
regime, he was granted political asylum in the American
Embassy.
American officials here note
that "he has never made any
strong anti-Communist statement." Even some fellow
Buddhist priests and lay leaders consider him "headstrong
and fanatical."