INDO-CHINA: Revolt Among Survivors

INDOCHINA

The shaky state of southern Viet Nam rocked perilously last week between two proud patriots struggling for power.

The struggle was between Premier Ngo Dinh Diem and the army’s Chief of Staff Nguyen Van Hinh. and it had deep roots. Premier Diem, for years a voluntary exile from his land while the French ran it, had lost face when Geneva partitioned Viet Nam over his protests, lost followers when partition left most of his Roman Catholic supporters in Communist hands, lost public confidence because of his reluctance to take men from southern Viet Nam (where he himself is little known) into his Cabinet. On the other side, he and the anti-French nationalists around him distrusted handsome young (39) General Hinh. who was educated in France, married a French girl, was a lieutenant colonel in the regular French air force before (in 1952) he got the Vietnamese high command.

Plot & Counterplot. General Hinh and his eager young army officers thought the times called for more vigorous measures in southern Viet Nam, on the model of Colonel Nasser’s in Egypt, to save the country from Communists. Last week, suspecting a “latent plot” to overthrow his government. Premier Diem abruptly relieved Hinh as chief of staff and ordered him to leave Saigon on the Air France plane next day for Paris on “six months’ leave.” Enclosed was a ticket. Defiantly, Hinh called the airline, told the clerk to cancel the reservation. To Diem he explained : “There is no one here to whom I could transfer my command.”

The two officers whom Premier Diem approached refused; they were loyal to Hinh. Next day Diem sent over two tickets for the Tuesday plane. Hinh barricaded his headquarters, posted tanks to protect its approaches. Diem hastily sent to his home town. Hue in central Annam, for 300 Roman Catholic partisans, had them airlifted to Saigon and had them mount guard on his palace.

Then Diem ordered Defense Secretary Le Ngoc Chan himself to relieve Hinh. General Hinh received the Defense Secretary politely, but pointed out that the Secretary was not an officer but a law clerk with no military knowledge. When Chan tried to give orders, staff officers blandly pretended not to hear him. A chastened Premier Diem summoned Hinh to plead with him. For answe, Hinh pulled a batch of telegrams from his pocket from more than 2,000 officers, declaring: “We protest against the unfair measures taken against you. We recognize you as our only leader.” Said Hinh: “Now, Mr. President, I cannot leave. I am morally a prisoner of my men.”

The Scramble. Mutiny, once started, is infectious. Like survivors in a leaky lifeboat, everyone suddenly wanted to share in the scramble for control. The Cao Dai, Hoa Hao and Binh Xuyen sects, who together control 40,000 soldiers, withdrew their support from Premier Diem, rallied to Hinh’s side and demanded representation in Diem’s government. At week’s end Diem was still in the palace guarded by his partisans; Hinh was at his headquarters, guarded by his tanks. Diem denounced Hinh as a rebel. Hinh answered: “All we have left is a choice between two solutions—buy 300,000 airplane tickets for the army or buy 15 airplane tickets for the Cabinet.”

In this absurd and perilous situation, the French decided that the moment was propitious to declare Viet Nam completely independent, and handed over their last control of the Vietnamese police and courts. The Communists were more industrious. In the neighboring kingdom of Laos, they assassinated Defense Minister Kou Voravong with a shot in the back, hurled hand grenades into the house of the Foreign Minister. Unless the Diem-Hinh fight was quickly settled, the Viet Minh would not have to bother with hand grenades in Viet Nam.

Freedom, with all its troubles, still exerts its magnetism. In the eight weeks since partition, some 250,000 Vietnamese have already chosen to leave their homes in the Communist north for free Viet Nam—a far higher number than anyone expected. Of these, the U.S. Navy has transported 110,000. Harold Stassen’s FOA is helping construct 125 emergency villages to house the new settlers.