NYTimes CIA 12 Mar 73

See this :file 6 Mar 70 et seq. NYTimes MAR 1 2 1913

THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, MARCH 12,1971 Saigon May Release Thieu Foe to Vietcong sider his request' - - By CHARLES MOHR effective pacification program Mit Mr. Chau's arrest. An informed source said time. at Special to that, technically, if. Mr. Chau adopted for the first Mr. Chau wentintwhiciing SAIGON, South , remained in , he The plan, a synthesis of many Mr. Vann's quarters in the city March 11—The case of Trail, would have to serve out the minds, reflected in large part of Can Tho. Mr. Vann devel- Ngoc Chau, whose imprison- seven remaining years of his ideas first developed or refined• joped an elaborate plan to fly ment by the Saigon Government sentence. But then he indicated by Mr. Chau, including an him to safety in by in 1970 caught world attention, that President Thieu might emphasis on identifying and helicopter, a step that would now turns on the question of• favorably consider setting Mr. meeting grieyances of the surely have meant Mr. Vann's whether he will be turned over Chau free. peasants. dismissal. Finally, Mr. Chau- to the Vietcong or set free. "We are very open about Mr. Chau became the national after great soul-searching—per- Mr. Chau, 48 years old, a ma- this," the source said. director of the pacification mitted himself to be arrested. jor architect of the anti-Com- Although Mr. Chau was con- cadre and head of the training Bunker Supported n munist pacification program victed of illegal contacts with school. Along with the Pacifica- Vann wanted thethe United United tion Minister, Lieut. Gen. and a valued friend of American' Communists, bitter political -States mission to use all its advisers during the war, had' feuds were at the root of his Nguyen Duc Thang, he was the influence to save Mr. Chau. But fought against the Vietcong for troubles. His case marked the most influental Vietnamese in Ambassador , two decades before his im- beginning of a severe erosion of the struggle to win control of deeply committed to President prisonment. • civil liberties, constitutional rural Vietnam. Thieu, forbade any intervention. In 1970, he was sentenced to procedure and democratic gov- Right Kind of Vietnamese • A sense of shame Tan deeply 10 years. in prison for having ernment. The case was also a through a part of the American considerable drama. To the American "snake-eat- made "treasonable" contacts ing night fighters," he was the community here. with his- brother, who was a Served With Vietminh right kind of Vietnamese- • A military court convicted spy for . Born in Hue, Mr. Chau , dedicated, effective, flexible Mr. • Chau of illegal contacts The South Vietnamese au- fought for a time with the and honest. with his brother and sentenced thorities recently expressed an Vietminh against French rule ' Mr. Chau ran for the lower him to 10 years in prison. intention to "release" Mr. Chau but left them in 1949, charging house of parliament in 1967 and . Angry scenes, approaching to his old adversaries as part that they were being dominated won by one of the largest mar- riots, took place in the Assem- of the exchange of prisoners of and misdirected by the Commu- gins of any candidate. And he bly, which had begun to decline war now under way. But late nists. ran in the province that he in power relative to the Presi- last week, an official spokes- He entered the South Viet- had ruled as province chief, dent. The Supreme Court ruled man indicated that this plan namese Army, rising to the something many of the nation's that Mr. Chau's conviction was might be reconsidered. rank of lieutenant colonel. administrators would have unconstitutional, and later an- Amnesty Considered President made found a futile, possibly humili- nulled his sentence. him chief of Kien Hoa Province, ating, project. An informed South Vietnam- which, with more than half a Although he was .,originally ese source said it was even million people, is the largest not unfriendly to President possible that Mr. Chau, a for Thieu, Mr. Chau gradually be- mer soldier, official and mem- province in the . After serving briefly as gan to arouse deep anger and ber of the National Assembly, appreension in the Presiden- might be given amnesty and set Mayor of , Mr. Chau free. tial Palace. again assumed control of ad- For one thing, Mr. Chau ac- But whatever his ultimate ministration in Kieri Hoa after cused one of President Thieu's ite, the Chau case has resulted President Diem was assassi- closest supporters of paying in one of .the most tumultuous, nated in November, 1963. large Tribes to subvert the As- bitter and divisive political According to Americans who sembly. After the controversies of the administra- devoted themselves to the of 1968 he recommended diplo- tion of President Nguyen Van same difficult subject, Mr. matic contacts with North Viet- Thieu. Chau was an innovative and nam aimed at a settlement of The caused imaginative thinker 'on revolu- case has also tionary, or political, warfare the war. However, he specifi- emotional argument between ' cally opposed a coalition gov- American officials who had and . This ernment with the Vietcong. tried to help Mr. Chau and made him unusual because few Meanwhile, Mr. Chau's older those who supported President South Vietnamese officials dis- brother, Tran Ngoc Hien, had Thieu's efforts to jail him. played much real interest or come from North Vietnam to talent for the basics of guer- The affair seemed to be rilla war. work as an underground intel- heading toward a tragic climax ligence agent. When the broth- in recent days, when the South Vann Was Close Friend er was finally arested in Vietnamese Government an- Mr. Chau was a' close friend 1969, the Government learned The New York Times nounced that Mr. Chau's name of the late , the that he and Mr. Chau had been Tran Ngoc Chau was on a list of more than respected American civilian ad- in contact. 5,000 civilian prisoners to be viser. Another good friend was Mr. Chau admitted that he "exchanged" with the Vietcong Edward G. Lansdale, another had met his brother eight times in line with the Vietnam cease- legendary Asia hand, who with ut said he had kept the United fire agreement. a team of old associates and States mission informed of these "It's grotesque," said one of new recruits such as aDniel eetings and had been encour- Mr. Chau's American friends. Ellsberg, came to South Viet- aged to continue them. Mr. "He's not a Communist and the nam in 1965 to help get an Vann confirmed this. final straw would be to turn President Thieu attempted to him over to the other side." strip Mr. Chau of his parliamen- The Government's official tary immunity by obtaining a spokesman, Pham Duong Hien, three-fourths vote of the As- however, said in answer to a question Fridayi sembly's members, as stipulated , that if Mr. in the Constitution. Failing this, Chau asked not to be sent to the Government used other the Vietcong, "we would con- parliamentary methods. to per-