The War in Vietnam

BUDDHIST LEADERSHIP HURT—The Buddhists’ startlingly efficient tactical and propaganda leadership has been severely hurt. Many of the dissident Buddhists, if they are not in jail, have apparently gone underground.—Time.

IN BRIEF—U THANT, United Nations Secretary General: Exercise tolerance and settle the matter in the name of peace, justice and fair play; Secretary of State DEAN RUSK: [A] dirty, untidy, disagreeable war; MME. NGO DINH NHU: My people never beat anyone, chiefly the Americans, without some reason.

VIETNAMESE HUMOR—A current joke in Saigon is that the United States Mission is like a log drifting downstream covered with ants—each of whom thinks he’s steering.—Newsweek.

STRATEGIC HAMLETS—In the past year nearly one million Vietnamese who were formerly subject to sporadic Communist incursions or even outright Communist control, are now covered by effective government administration and protection. This has been achieved largely through the strategic hamlet program. This program is the heart of the war effort in Vietnam. It is a co-ordinated across-the-board political, economic and military responsibility to the Communist threat.—THEODORE J. C. HEAVNER, former deputy of the United Nations Working Group.

UNSUCCESSFUL DEBUT—Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu … making her first appearance on a national television news panel show … was a flop. Not even the obvious chic and charm of this oriental beauty could cover her virulent anti-Americanism.—The Chicago Tribune.

NEUTRAL CLASS—As the war staggers on, many middle class Vietnamese in Saigon … are turning to neutralism as the only possible foreign policy which might bring peace and prosperity to South Vietnam. They feel that American tactics have failed because the underlying policy of trying to convert South Vietnam into an anti-Communist bastion is mistaken. To insist on a policy of purging Communists cannot fail to tear South Vietnam apart. Besides, South Vietnam is too weak, and too small, and too vulnerable to be an effective bastion against the Chinese colossus.—The Nation.

SCREAMING MATCH—We did not go there to make certain that every single peasant has rural electrification and social security by tomorrow morning. Therefore, Diem’s domestic shortcomings are really none of our business. If his shortcomings are military in nature or effect, let’s get rid of him and find somebody in his place. But let’s not, at any rate, go on and on with this trans-Atlantic screaming match as though this were the most important thing in the world.—Columnist WILLIAM S. WHITE.

PEACE CORPS-TYPE AID—The kind of aid we really should be emphasizing [is] the same sort of thing we are doing with the Peace Corps and through the Alliance for Progress, the kind of activity which does not feed communism by turning people away from us, but turns them from communism because they find ours the better way. But it takes a different point of view from that of the military leadership which sees the whole struggle in terms of armored cars, machineguns, and snipers.—Senator VANCE R. HARTKE of Indiana.

VAGUE AMERICAN POLICY—It will take a great deal of wisdom for the Vietnamese Government to recover what has been lost in the last few months. I cannot clearly see what American policy is at this stage. The American Government has wanted to try to discover new tactics to make it possible to beat the world Communists. As a result Vietnam has become secondary in this and it has been placed above the interests of Vietnam.—NGO DINH NHU.

A CATHOLIC VIEWPOINT—As so often happens when Catholic interests are involved in a major incident abroad, a series of news stories in the secular press is challenged by accounts written exclusively for the American Catholic press.… The term “persecution of Buddhists” is too strong to accurately describe the situation. Buddhist complaints … have been filed in only three of the nation’s forty-one provinces.… Charges of Catholic domination are unrealistic since only five of seventeen cabinet ministers and only three of nineteen generals are Catholics.… We regret that once again the reports given credence in the Catholic press diverge so greatly from what the most reputable secular papers report.—Commonweal.

VICTORY IN 1964—I think the national campaign plan will be successful, and I feel that we shall achieve victory in 1964. We realize that United States aid has reached its ceiling, and now is the time to fully utilize it to achieve successfully the objectives of the national campaign plan.—Maj. Gen. TRAN VAN DON of South Vietnam.

COMMUNISM’S BEST ALLY—President Diem must decide whether he is fighting for his family or for his country, and whether he can afford to permit unbridled license to his sister-in-law, who is developing into the Communists’ best ally right in his own palace.—The New York Times.

WITHDRAW SUPPORT—Our efforts have increased, the situation has worsened.… It is urged upon us that the Communist presence in South Vietnam requires us to support the Diem regime, regardless of how repugnant it becomes, and irrespective of its contemptuous refusal to respond to our entreaties. To accept such an argument is to concede that the great American Republic is no longer the master of her own course in South Vietnam, but has become the servant of the mandarin autocracy which governs there.… Persecution of the Buddhists … is an affront to the good conscience of the American people. If these cruel repressions are not abandoned, further American aid … should be terminated.…—Senator FRANK CHURCH of Idaho.

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