111MILIMINIF

Nine years after a fateful assassination— The Cult of Diem

By ROBERT SHAPLEN

Decline. Madame Nu, President Diem's seemingly all-powerful sister-in-law, fans a deck of photo- graphs of Buddhists immolating themselves in protest against the regime's authoritarianism. -Barbe- ques," she said. With that, public confidence in Diem crumbled a little more. The time: May, 1963. SaicoN. brother and closest advisor, Ngo the remains were said to have been MONG the ever-increasing scores Dinh Nhu, both of whom were mur- secretly brought to the Mac Dinh Chi A of graves in Mac Dinh Chi cem- dered in midmorning of Nov. 2, 1963, cemetery. It was believed that the etery, the oldest and most pres- approximately 20 hours after the generals who planned and executed tigious one in Saigon, now spread start of the military coup that over- the coup did not want the embarrass- across several blocks near the Amer- threw them. ment of having the ghosts of their ican Embassy in the downtown area, Following the assassination of the two victims permanently haunting are two unmarked slabs of marble two brothers, which took place in an them at headquarters, particularly around which miscellaneous mourn- armored car after they were captured since Saigon at the time was full of ers occasionally place wreaths or in a Catholic church where they had rumors of new coups and counter- scatter a few flowers. Each week sought refuge, the two shot and bay- coups. fresh pots of blooming plants are set oneted bodies were originally buried Until two years ago, the two on the tombstones by the gravekeep- in a corner of the military headquar- graves, originally just small mounds ers, who are paid by members of the ters compound on the northern edge without any marble topping, were family of President Ngo Dinh Diem of of the city close to Tan Son Nhut air- scarcely noticed. A handful of rela- South Vietnam and his Rasputinlike port. They were placed there as a tives and friends of the two men paid precaution to avoid further mutila- homage to them each Nov. 2 and ROBERT SHAPLEN is For East C0f. tion by anti-Diemist fanatics. At 3 sometimes on Sundays during the respondent for The New Yorker, o'clock one morning two years later, year. But on the anniversary of their

deaths in 1970, between 1,000 and 2,000 people, including the wife of since the large-scale American in- President Nguyen Van Thieu — Thieu's father is buried alongside— volvement after 1965, the days of Diem now seem peaceful and golden appeared at the graves in what can to many people who feel themselves be said to have marked the formal worse off today than they were be- beginning of a revival of Diemism in fore. However, that is not true of all South Vietnam. Last Nov. 2, more Vietnamese, and if one stands back than 5,000 mourners visited the and regards the image of Diem in a graves and attended a requiem mass larger historical light, the picture is at the Saigon cathedral that was pre- considerably more complicated. viously announced in the newspapers by a committee of Diem's admirers. ISCUSSIONS about Diem nowa- Several thousands more who were D days are particularly haunting in the simply curious passers-by, and a light of the new Communist offensive sprinkling of anti-Diemists as well, in South Vietnam, which may well helped cause a huge traffic jam. be a climactic one. Many experienced These reverential demonstrations in observers believe that had Diem behalf of Diem are a manifestation lived the "big war" would never of the psychological and political have materialized and the South Viet- changes that have taken place in namese would not have suffered any- Vietnam in the decade since his where near 120,000 dead and 500,000 death. But in seriously re-evaluating wounded-100,000 of them perma- Diem's historic role and analyzing nently incapacitated—or that today his complicated personality, the cere- there would be 350,000 war orphans. monial and nostalgic tributes, in These figures date back to 1961, themselves, can be easily miscon- when the American Involvement that strued. They are symbolic and symp- has cost us 55,000 lives began on a tomatic performances, typically Viet- small but gradually increasing scale. namese in their hidden meanings, with advisers and funds. By the time flagellative and purgative, and their of the soup, there were 12,000 ad. message is one of both longing and visers in Vietnam, but those who admonishment. On the surface, they knew Diem best feel that neither he represent the natural and human in- nor Nhu would ever have invited or clination to look upon the past more allowed 550,000 American soldiers to favorably than the present. Under the fight in their country, and to permit circumstances of the long and de- the devastation caused by air at- structive war the Vietnamese have tacks, including bombing and defolia- suffered since 1963, and especially tion. There is evidence that shortly (Continued on Page 40) Fall. Diem's body lies in the back of an army personnel carrier—the end of the November, 1963, coup.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE MAY 14, 1972

on the Bible not to "betray- Bao Dai. It has been com- monly supposed that Diem China, the southern part of was Washington's choice for Vietnam. Diem's efforts to the job. Secretary of State persuade Bao Dai to stick to John Foster Dulles, who al- firm conditions for his return most single - handedly was failed and, when the Emperor about to project the United agreed to come back under States into Vietnam to replace terms Diem thought incom- the French, undoubtedly ap- patible with nationalism, he proved of him, having been again went into seclusion. In influenced by Cardinal Spell darin concepts on which his August, 1950, he disconso- man, with whom Diem had nationalist aspirations and lately left Vietnam, traveled become friendly in the United acquired ideas about Western briefly to Japan and the States, and others; but the democracy had been superim- United States en route to Eu- fact of the matter is that the posed. Diem's whole concept rope. In January, 1951, he re- French Government picked of government was a tightly turned to America, where he him for the post, which no knit and formalized Confucian went most of the next two one else wanted anyway. The one. Beyond stressing his years at the Maryknoll Sem- French assumed he would fail moral virtues and obligations, inary in Lakewood, N.J. in the almost impossible task in an article called "Demo- of saving the South and that cratic Development in Viet- they would then be able to nam," which he wrote before IEM'S moment came by D pick up the pieces and work default. In June, 1953, he left out some sort of new arrange- the United States for Europe ment to retain their commer- again, and, after briefly stay- cial advantages there, still us- ing at a monastery 4n Bel- ing Bao Dai as their pliant in- gium, he took up the nation- strument, and then try to set alist cause once more in Paris. up a new relationship with In June, 1954, while the Ge- the North. neva Conference to end the war was still in progress, When Diem returned to Sai- Diem was prevailed upon by gon on June 25, 1954, riding to the palace from the airport Bao Dai, who was still Chief in a curtained car so that of State, to become Prime none of the thousands of peo- Minister of South Vietnam. In ple who lined the route caught a ceremony at Cannes, in even a glimpse of him, he had southern France, Diem swore lost none of the strong man-

Diem's manner and methods methods and manner Diem's

T

be divided into two periods, periods, two into divided be

mandate." mandate."

has unimpressively and unsuc- and unimpressively has

nonidentity and chaos into into chaos and nonidentity alone carried Vietnam from from Vietnam carried alone

stead of French identity; and and identity; French of stead time of the coup, when the the when coup, the of time ident Thieu, an elected one, one, elected an Thieu, ident

as a legitimate, although des- although legitimate, a as stability but a Vietnamese in- Vietnamese a but stability

the second, from 1959 to the the to 1959 from second, the ignated, leader, whereas Pres- whereas leader, ignated,

peculiar personality cult in in cult personality peculiar

during during

cessfully sought to copy copy to sought cessfully

statehood, bringing not only only not bringing statehood, cult that still lingers now and and now lingers still that cult threat of Communism became became Communism of threat

and interpret the "democratic "democratic the interpret and

is accepted and admired by by admired and accepted is the first, from 1954 to 1959, 1959, to 1954 from first, the South Vietnam, and it is this this is it and Vietnam, South

heaven as he celebrates the the celebrates he as heaven

ing help, projected his own own his projected help, ing

national cult." It is no wonder wonder no is It cult." national

those who look back on Diem Diem on back look who those plaining that "the magistrate magistrate "the that plaining diator between between diator

that Diem, with Nhu's increas- Nhu's with Diem, that

in his official capacity must must capacity official his in

"basic principle" "the mys- "the principle" "basic tique of government" — ex- — government" of tique

"sacred respect" as "the me- "the as respect" "sacred

ipating in a religious rite." rite." religious a in ipating

conduct himself as one partic- one as himself conduct assuming power, he cited as a a as cited he power, assuming

The "sovereign" was thus due due thus was "sovereign" The

HE Diem regime can best best can regime Diem HE

which Diem almost almost Diem which

the the

people and and people

among the Americans. At the the At Americans. the among

plicated and often brief con- brief often and plicated

as increasingly since then— since increasingly as

events in Vietnam were inor- were Vietnam in events

Nhu engaged in to counteract counteract to in engaged Nhu dinately affected by the com- the by affected dinately

country into disarray and and disarray into country experiments that Diem and and Diem that experiments

successful successful

tests for influence and power power and influence for tests self -destruction. -destruction. self

steadily more real and when when and real more steadily

the ideological and practical practical and ideological the the Communists proved un- proved Communists the

then into tyranny and near near and tyranny into then

ALLIES?

given its approval for a coup to remove Diem from office—but not for his murder. murder. his for not office—but from Diem remove to coup a for approval its given

Robert McNamara (left) and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. Washington had already already had Washington Lodge. Cabot Henry Ambassador and (left) McNamara Robert

Throughout the Diem era— Diem the Throughout

—

Diem at a September, 1963, meeting in Saigon with Defense Secretary Secretary Defense with Saigon in meeting 1963, September, a at Diem

an an

drove the the drove

had. had.

The ultimate effect of all this, this, all of effect ultimate The

hibit rather than help what- help than rather hibit

South Vietnamese might have have might Vietnamese South

in Saigon and Washington. Washington. and Saigon in

became more bureaucratic, in- bureaucratic, more became as time wore on, was to in- to was on, wore time as

ing American "empires," both both "empires," American ing

personal: in later years they they years later in personal: evolution of their own the the own their of evolution

ever nationalist revolution or or revolution nationalist ever outset, when there were not not were there when outset,

so many Americans involved, involved, Americans many so

these contests were primarily primarily were contests these

volving thousands of compet- of thousands volving

The sharpest personal con- con- personal sharpest The

did and immediately estab- immediately and did

Lawton Collins, a former gen- former a Collins, Lawton

lationship with him. Collins Collins him. with lationship

CIA., and Ambassador J. J. Ambassador and CIA.,

months later. later. months brother Allen, the head of of head the Allen, brother lished an extremely close re- close extremely an lished

nam a few days before Diem Diem before days few a nam

eral. Lansdale arrived in Viet- in arrived Lansdale eral.

John Foster Dulles and his his and Dulles Foster John flict in the early Diem days days Diem early the in flict

was between Edward G. Lana- G. Edward between was

dale, who was sent to Viet• Viet• to sent was who dale,

appeared on the scene five five scene the on appeared

nam to work with Diem by by Diem with work to nam By that time, chiefly under under chiefly time, that By Emperor, Diem was persuaded Personalisme stresses tiara by Lansdale to ignore the work, and it is the working summons. In October, 1955, in class, the peasants, who are Lansdale's guidance, Diem had a referendum organized and better able to understand the established a small and inex- manipulated by Nhu, who out- concept than the intellectuals perienced but at least Viet- did himself, Diem unseated . . . . It is those who partici- namese administrative appa- Bao Dai as Chief of State, pate physically and selflessly ratus to replace the old French winning by the overwhelming in the fight against Commu- one. Beyond having to cope and unnecessarily rigged and nism who are the most privi- with the tremendous problems humiliating margin of 5,722,- leged, then those who coura- of reconstructing the war-shat- 000 votes for himself to 63,000 geously serve the interest of tered country and extending for Bao Dai. A few months the villages without profit, his own authority, which at later he became President in- and finally those who engage the outset scarcely reached stead of Chief of State. diligently in productive labor beyond Saigon, Diem had to for their own as well as their find new homes for the nearly A YEAR after the referen- villages' benefit." one million refugees (almost dum, in October, 1956, the This was all well and good, all of them Catholics) who had Constitution of the First Re- and Nhu and Diem sub- fled to the South from the public was promulgated. De- sequently sought to apply North after the Geneva agree- spite the fact that many Viet- these principles in the or- ments were signed. namese still consider it the ganization of large regroup- Under the anarchic circum- best one the country has ever ment centers to combat Com- stances that prevailed during had, it had some signal weak- munism called agrovittes and the first year of Diem's re- nesses, perhaps the greatest of then, afterward, to the small- gime, it was inevitable that which was the "special pow- er strategic hamlets, which plots to unseat him would ers" set forth in the final ar- were surrounded by barbed arise. A particularly signifi- ticle giving the President more wire and moats and were cant plot manqud produced a encompassing powers than supposed to be self-contained bitter and prolonged engage- even the French Governors and self-defending units. In ment of,. force between Diem's General or the Emperors ever these experiments, which were forces, and the 2,500 troops of had. While the document pro- the forerunners of today's still the Binh Xuyen, a gangster- vided for separation of pow- largely untested and fragile like organization that con- ers, Diem's right to rule by pacification program in South trolled gambling and prostitu- decree in any emergency was Vietnam, Diem and Nhu tion in the city and that, with tantamount to the "divine failed to consider the practi- the approval of both the right" he believed he deserved cal problems of security as French and Bao Dai, ran the in his own conception of hold- well as motivation. police, The fight took place ing the heavenly mandate. Whatever they intended by during the first few months of The other major shortcom- 1955 and directly involved personatisme, the key to the ing of the Constitution, which error of their ways can be the struggle between Lansdale was directly attributed to and Collins. Collins and Diem found in the creation by Nhu Nhu, was the introduction of in 1956. of his private politi- never got along, and Collins a the theme of personaltsrne, cal organization, the Person- mystic doctrine that blended alist Labor Revolutionary Western and Eastern thought party, called Can Lao. The and attempted to define, in Can Lao, whose members vague terms, the philosophic were said to total between and spiritual responsibility of wanted to replace him, in the 50,000 and 60,000 but may the individual in the new con- midst of the Binh Xuyen fight. have been considerably few- trolled democratic society. It But when Collins was in er was, in effect, Nhu's private embraced French Catholicism Washington to press the political intelligence -network. and certain more general as- point, and had just persuaded He used it mainly to detect pects of Christian as well as Eisenhower and State Depart- anyone he suspected of being ment officials, the Binh Xuyen Confucian thought, and it in- cluded elements of Marxism a Communist or an opponent made the second of its two of the regime_ Though it major attacks and Diem's as well. In essence, it was a seldom held meetings and troops surprisingly held their convenient pseudo-philosophi- was loosely constructed its own and then drove the rem- cal mixture of moral precepts very existence served to in- nants of the gangster group that Nhu tried to rationalize spire both fear and awe. By into its marshland base around Saigon. With the sup- carefully selecting his own port of Lansdale and Gen. henchmen, including seven for authoritarian government John (Iron Mike) O'Daniel, bureau chiefs, Nhu was able under a benevolent cover. No the head of the new American not only to eliminate anyone one, however, who talked to Military Assistance and Advi- he disliked or mistrusted but Nhu about personaiisme, in- to build his own paramilitary sory Mission, Diem's position cluding myself, ever really un- was saved and Collins was political machine in the coun- derstood what he meant by it reversed. tryside. This served both to During the height of the "The personaliste concep- stifle any opposition and to Binh Xuyen crisis, Bao Dai tion holds that freedom in an inhibit any dynamic sense of had sent Diem a cable asking underdeveloped society is not village and hamlet growth him to resign and return to something that is simply given that his personaliste theories France. Despite his earlier or bestowed." he told me. "It propounded. One simply did pledge not to "betray" the can be achieved only through militancy and vigilance . . .

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE as one was told, or one found the laws outlawing dancing oneself discarded or arrested. as immoral—had begun to play a vital role. THE fact that Diem The Vietcong threat to abolished local village elec- security by the end of 1958 tions in 1956—the same year was already considerable, he refused to go through with especially in the Delta, and a the Geneva plans for holding year later the hard core of a referendum with North Viet- guerrillas was up to 5,000 and nam over the unification issue Would double by the end of —was another ominous note. 1960. It was at this time, in Diem made his decision on 1959, that, according to some the grounds of security—he members of the old regime I was afraid the communists have recently talked to, Diem might win as much as a fourth and even Nhu realized there of the votes—but most Viet- - was something wrong with nationalists thought the Can Lao and similar ap- he should have faced the is- proaches to fighting the Com- sue squarely, that it would munists. They wanted to have been better to confront change both their strategy an overt rather than a covert and tactics, but they simply Communist challenge, or at didn't know how because they least a combination of the two were too removed from the rather than the purely covert manifold realities of the revo- one already being set in mo- lutionary struggle in the tion at the time. countryside. The National Assembly By mid-1959, these sources elections of 1956 and 1959 in say, the three problems of South Vietnam were primarily pacification and administra- charades and the assemblies tion, security and the creation were mockingly referred to as of a better political cadre "the national garage." There were restudied with the ob- was a tremendous propaganda jective of seeking new ways effort to make the second vote of approach (today, 13 years appear to be popular and later, this all has a familiar democratic, but, as one of ring). There was an effort, Diem's chief press advisers for example, to reorient the wrote: "What actually hap- Can Lao so that its loyalties pened on election day and would be directed toward any BROTHERS—Ngo Dinh Nhu, left, and Ngo Dinh Diem. during the preceding weeks national government, not just "Diem was, in a subtle sense, the victim of fratricide." shattered the democratic the one in power: but this hopes of South Vietnam, Not was ludicrous in itself, since only were the campaign proce- the old Can Lao members by dures designed to give the this time had been so Government-approved candi- thoroughly indoctrinated and dates a definite advantage, motivated by ambition and but every elementary standard fear of incurring Nhu's wrath of justice and fairness was that they were incapable of violated on election day in change. order to get the approved The Americans, specifically candidates elected." Most of the then Ambassador Elbridge them were specifically chosen Durbrow, played an important by Nhu and his staff. By this role at this point. Durbrow time, too, Madame Nhu—who tried to persuade Diem to was a member of the Assem- get rid of Nhu and to bring bly herself and the author of some new political parties the highly unpopular "family and faces into the Govern- laws" prohibiting divorce and ment, as well as to dissolve 21

THE if necessary, was ready to kill the second group of plotters, more recently, the N.B.C. tele- which had the main support vision show called "The of the Americans. Death of Diem" revealed, were ready to support a coup. (2) The group nominally President Kennedy, who was everything turned out as ex- headed by Gen Duong Van in Hyannis. Mass., had some• pected. At 3 P.M., an hour and Minh, the senior general in what reluctantly given in to a half after it began, Diem the country, who had been his anti-Diemist "hawks," led called Don from the palace— relegated by the mistrustful by Roger Hilsman, then Assist- all but a few of the coup Diem to a role of adviser. Its ant Secretary of State for Far generals were at military actual leader was Gen. Tran Eastern Affairs, but then had headquarters, as were some Van Don, acting chief of staff had some second thoughts. of the colonels and hangers- of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Nevertheless, the word went on whom Don didn't trust though without direct control out to proceed'. but to save Diem asked Don: "What are Of troops in the field. Gen. Diem's life. At the last you doing?" Don reminded Tran Thien Khiem, today the minute, Colonel Conein inter- the President of their con- Prime Minister of Vietnam, vened and convinced Thao versation the day before. Diem who was then operations that he did not have enough said he was ready to announce officer at military head- strength. By then, secretly, a new policy. Don replied, quarters and thus the man "Why didn't you tell me that with direct control over Conein was already co-oper- yesterday? Now it's too late." troop dispositions, was in ating in behalf of Ambas- sador Henry Cabot Lodge and One by one, starting with touch with both Groups 1 General Minh, he put 8 or 10 and 2 but eventually worked the C.I.A. to help the second (Don-Minh) group to stage a of the other coup leaders on with General Don. For weeks the phone to talk to Diem, to before the coup, this second coup. At that time Don was still ready to hold off if Diem prove his point. Diem hung group was in constant touch up. Fifteen minutes later, Nhu with Lieut. Col. Lucien Conein, introduced certain reforms. called, proposing that the of the C.I.A. Don was Conein's He visited Diem in the palace in the last week of August.. coup leaders come to the main contact The original and gave Diem a memorandum palace to negotiate. Don con- aim of this group was to over- the generals had prepared sulted his fellow leaders and throw Diem and Nhu but to that dealt with such reforms. they all said no. During both fly both men out of the coun- Diem promised to study it conversations, Don demanded try, to Tokyo or Manila, in a that the two brothers resign plane provided by the Ameri- On Oct_ 31, the day before the and promised them that they cans. Nhu was to remain in coup, Don, at the instigation would be allowed to fly out exile but Diem was to be per- of the Americans. again went of the country with their mitted to return afterward in to the palace and spoke first families. a figurehead role as Chief of with Nhu and then with Diem. At 4:30 P.M., still on Nov. State. He warned both men that the situation in the country 1, Diem had his last talk over (3) The group headed by was bad and asked them what the phone with Lodge, during Col. Le Quang Tung, who was they were going to do about which Lodge, after expressing Chief of Special Forces and the generals' earlier memo- his admiration for Diem's the most trusted officer of randum and the promised re- "courage" and "great con- Diem and Nhu. When Nhu got forms. Both brothers said that tributions to your country," wind of plots Nos. 1 and 2, he the situation had returned to added his fears about the sought to use Tung in mount- normal and there was no need President's "physical safety" ing a fantastic scheme by to do anything. Don left with- and• asked Diem if he . had which this group would strike out saying anything further. heard of the offer of safe con- first in a phony coup called The next day, at 1:30 P.M., duct out of the country. Diem Bravo One, during which Nhu an hour after Don went to said no, which was untrue. and Diem would be "over- the airport with Ambassador Lodge then promised to do thrown" and would flee to a Lodge to say good-by to Adm. what he could to assure Harry Felt, the Commander Diem's physical safety and of the Pacific Fleet, who had Diem replied: "I am trying to been visiting Saigon and had re-establish order." coastal resort near Saigon. talked to Diem just that After vainly telephoning Then, when the real coup was morning, knowing nothing around the country to various defeated by what he assumed about what was about to hap- troop commanders to seek would be loyal troops and the pen, the coup began. Group support, Diem and Nhu made palace secured, Nhu and his No. 1—the Do Mau-Thao one the mistake that probably cost brother would return in an —had no choice but to go their lives by departing from operation called Bravo Two. along with it. Six days ear- the palace about 8 o'clock There were various dates lier, on Oct. 26, this group of that evening. They did not set for the different coups. colonels had again wanted to as has been maintained, leave On Aug. 23-24, just after strike on its own, and again by a secret tunnel, but simply the attacks by Nhu on the had been called off by Conein went out a back door and Buddhist pagodas, the Do and another C.I.A. man. took a Land Rover to a point Mau-Thao group wanted to near the Saigon River, where strike. The Americans by then, THE final coup went off they transferred to a Citroen as the Pentagon Papers and, with precision, though not and went to the home of a rich Chinese friend named Ma Tuyen. The flight was ar- ranged by a loyal Diem aide, and had originally been a precautionary move in con- nection with the phony Bravo One and Bravo Two plots Nhu had created. Whatever chance that plan might have had of succeeding was rendered null by the failure of the brothers to rally any support, and by the fact that Colonel Tung, the Special Forces commander and head of the counterplot, had been shot and killed about 6 o'clock. evening. The first man into coup leaders: resignation- The attack on the palace the palace among the plotters i.e., surrender. began about 9 o'clock that was Colonel Thao, wno got General Minh, who was there about 5 A.M. on Nov- furious because Diem had re- 2 and was told by a captured fused to talk to him over the officer where Diem and Nhu phone, held an informal poll were. But by the time Thao among a dozen or so of the reached Ma Tuyen's house, coup leaders on the terrace Diem and Nhu had gone. at military headquarters to determine what to do with THEIR original plan had Diem and Nhu. General Don been to flee by boat and car spoke first and said they to the Central Highlands head- should be sent abroad, as quarters of Gen. Nauyen planned. He then went into Khanh, commander of the Sec- headquarters to prepare two ond Corps. Khanh, regarded as beds for the brothers. So far a lone wolf by the other plot- as I have been able to deter- ters, knew about the coup but mine, no formal vote was had remained on the side- taken among the other gen- lines. (Three months later, he erals and colonels to kill was to lead his own coup Diem and Nhu, but the con- against the victorious junta sensus was that they should and take over himself.) Real- he killed. (General Minh, who izing they were cornered, gave the order to kill them, Diem and Nhu had abandoned has since—just before the last the idea of going to Khanh's election—acknowledged his headquarters and had sought "responsibility.") refuge in the Sacred Heart A column of two jeeps and Church in ChoIon, not far an armored personnel carrier from Ma Tuyen's house. They was thereupon dispatched to got there about 6 in the morn- the church in Chalon. Two ing of Nov. 2, shortly before colonels and a general were Thao reached Ma Tuyen's. in the jeeps. The orders_ ap- Almost as soon as he parently were to assassinate reached the church, Diem Diem and Nhu before return- took confession and then ing to military headquarters. called General Don at military The brothers gave up at the headquarters. He asked that church without any resistance, the lives of the soldiers loyal though, when they were to him be saved, but Don re- bound and thrown into the minded him that, though they personnel carrier, Nhu cursed had put up a white flag at his captors. Capt. Nguyen Van the palace, the soldiers had Nhung, General Minh's per shot and killed one of the sonal aide, was inside the coup captains who had come armored vehicle. Riding on forward to accept their sur- top but looking down through render. After some further the turret was Capt. Duong conversation, Diem agreed to Hieu Nghia. At a railway the conditions set by the crossing en route, possibly on

17=- 77,7; that our deep subsequent in- the orders of Gen. Mai Huut volvement in the war was the result of that approval, but Xuan, the senior commander have been found to eliminate present—Nhung shot and bay- Nhu, Vietnam would have one can speculate that if a 1960 coup had succeeded, be- oneted Diem and Nhu; it is been a lot better off today fore the emotional stakes not clear whether Nghia fired than it is—at least a major were so high in Vietnam, we any shots. war would have been averted, might not have become as in- Nhung was strangled in they say, and hundreds of volved as we did, simply be- thousands of lives would have prison three months later. cause American passions, Nghia today is a full colonel been spared.' fanned by the Buddhist revolt and a province chief in the The time to remove Nhu, which was so greatly publi- Delta, and, like some others however, one way or another, .cized were not then so aroused. who took part in the coup, he was back in the late fifties, Our emotional commitment has promised to relate "the and by 1963 it was too late: reached its crisis point in full story some day." Colonel Diem, to all intents and pur- 1963. After that, we were, in Mao, the leader of the colo- a way, hooked. nels' group of plotters, whom I knew well and who told me Over-all, however, the real many of the coup details, was tragedy, and irony, is that murdered in July, 1965, after the overthrow of Diem and he had overthrown General Nhu solved nothing and that Khanh but failed In an at- South. Vietnam's future re- tempt to seize power and mains as much in doubt today then failed again in a sub- as it was in 1963. whether the sequent coup effort. Thao's war continues or the sputter- wife and children are living ing negotiations in Paris get today in Fort Worth, Tex., anywhere. If tam had made where she teaches English. a deal with the Communists behind Diem's back, the war It is not easy to place the might have been avoided, but murders of Diem and Nhu, in my opinion I think Nhu which according to the origi- would not have succeeded and nal coup plans were not sup- the war would have taken posed to take place, in proper place, coup or no coup. perspective to the current though, as I have indicated Diemist revival. The con- earlier, we might not have sciences of those who killed taken part in it to the extent the brothers have obviously of our ill-conceived over-com- plagued them. Most Vietnam- mitment after 1965. In any ese I have talked with, even event, a decade later, the those who look back longing- determination of the North ly to the Diem period and still Vietnamese to dominate the speak well of Diem—if not south, at least politically, re- of Nhu—find the revival talk mains exactly as it was at "macabre." Some, as noted the time of the coup, and their earlier, recognize the "nostal- poses, had lost his ability to chances of achieving that gia" but emphasize that "we cope with the situation, either aim, through conquest or ac- cannot afford to look back, politically or militarily. He commodation and coalition, we must look ahead—why was, in a subtle sense, the are certainly equal, as of stir the ashes of the dead?" victim of fratricide. By that today, to the chances of South time, too, the pent-up religious Vietnam surviving an its own. DURING a mass rally in as well as political hostility Could Diem have had a better Saigon at the time of the against the regime combined chance of holding the country Buddhist crisis of August to make the coup inevitable, together, had he lived and had September. 1963, Diem said and it would have taken place he, for instance. returned to "If I go forward, follow me. whether or not the Americans Vietnam after the coup, as If I go backward, kill me. If had approved of it and helped was the idea of some of the I am murdered, avenge me." promote it. One cannot say plotters? I do not think that The number of people who the Diem of 1963 could have miss and revere Diem may be done so under any circum- growing, but there are few stances, for he was by then who want to avenge him, not a beaten, disillusioned man. withstanding the fact that the The current Diemist revival, series of coups and counter- however, represents both a coups and the less-than-suc- desperate longing for peace cessful American-inspired ef- and a feeling of bitterness and forts to establish democracy sorrow that everything that in Vietnam since Diem was has happened in the Vietnam murdered have scarcely con- war since Diem's overthow, tributed to the nation's stabil- including America's destruc- ity. Some Vietnamese and tive engagement in the war, Americans feel that if Diem has all been in vain. • had survived, and a way could lighabilitution. In Saigon last November, Diemishi gather before a portrait of their lost leader at the first such memorial permitted by the piesent regime. Had Diem not been overthrown, some South Vietnamese and American observers now ask privately, could things have been any worse? 7, e Eerie Soliloquy

Because my own recol- likely to provoke a disserta- lection of Diem remains so tion of an hour or more. much the same 10 years And as he talked, encom- later, I should like to quote passing his own past with a paragraph from my 1965 that of history, his dark eyes book, "The Lost Revolu- shone, but they seemed to tion," describing my meet- be looking through his ing with him in 1962: listener, through the walls of "He was a shod, broadly his palace, through every- built man with a round face thing, and one experienced and a shock of black hair, an almost eerie sense of who walked and moved listening to a soliloquy jerkily, as if on strings. He delivered in another time always dressed in white and and place by a character in looked as if he were made an allegorical play. What out of ivory. His self- emerged out of the torrent absorption became appar- of words was strangely in- ent as soon as he started to complete and unsatisfactory speak, identifying himself —perhaps because it was, and his cause with the na- tion. He indulged in few more than anything else, an amenities of greeting, and expiation and an apologia, since he was a compulsive an angry and often im- talker, with whom it was im- passioned plea for under- possible to have an inter- standing and sympathy, but view—one had an audience; a plea delivered without in fact, one was an audi- human warmth or empathy." ence—a single question was —R. S.

TH