The Swamps of Saigon
MCCABE, ROBERT KARR
'SINKING ALONG WITH DIEM' The Swamps of Saigon By Robert Karr McCabe Saigon "Vietnam," said the frazzled American, "might be a nice little country if it weren't for the Vietnamese." His...
...None can be named for fear of Diem's instant retaliation, but many sources in Vietnam seem to believe there are alternatives...
...Robert K. McCabe is Newsweek's correspondent in Southeast Asia...
...Since that time, though Buddhists did increase their efforts to work together, the split between the Mahayana and Hinayana groups has remained a troublesome point...
...Cynics might say this caused the present clear political involvement...
...The Times of Vietnam, generally accepted as Mme...
...This has long been the cry of the weak, disorganized politicians of the opposition...
...most are tarred either by collaboration with the French or the Hanoi regime...
...In practice, of course, the latter is simply not true...
...Buddhist spokesmen have lied outright to the press (as is all too usual elsewhere in Vietnam), and in typical Asian style suspect all news reporters on the scene of being either in the pay of the CIA or the Brothers Ngo...
...After eight weeks interviewing various members of the hierarchy, however, the most lasting impression is one combining equal parts of pettiness and slyness...
...They are, she said two weeks ago, "socalled holy men who have never considered the interests of the nation...
...Most drift along, expressing mild unhappiness about the uproar and parroting the old "Sink-Along-With-Diem" line: "Maybe he's not the greatest guy in the world," one told me cautiously, "but he's all we've got...
...There are thousands of secret policemen around every pagoda...
...And tomorrow, might we turn another one...
...We get copies of all their pronouncements...
...Americans, by putting Diem in power, assumed a responsibility to the Vietnamese people...
...Until mid-June, as a matter of policy, most American diplomats in Saigon were getting their information on the Buddhist movement from just two sources: Vietnamese government functionaries and American journalists...
...Mahayana is much more "religious" to Western eyes...
...His incredibly maladroit comment on the Buddhist problem last month sums up his work in Vietnam: "The trouble with this damn thing, if I may speak frankly, is that everybody focuses on a tiny aspect of it...
...Diem already has plenty of prison camps...
...And the Saigon government, by coping with the problem in a somewhat reasonable manner, might well have been able to score at least a few propaganda points, if not totally smooth things over...
...But there is equally little room for enthusiasm over the chances of an American-engineered coup surviving...
...I myself, I say this frankly after almost two and a half years, have never seen any evidence of religious persecution...
...The Buddhists, through their anti-regime activities, have provided a channel for protest on a truly national scale...
...Nolting just wasn't looking...
...official told me in mid-June...
...For the past several hundred years, Vietnamese Buddhism has been in a state of decline: Academics say that even today its doctrinal purity is suspect...
...The bonze has a point: There is no doubt that a large-scale popular uprising would face tremendous difficulties...
...No attempt was made to contact sect leaders: "The Buddhists have a pretty fair publicity organization," a high-ranking U.S...
...Diem is a puppet of Washington just as Ho Chi Minh is controlled by the Chinese and the Russians...
...At Saigon's Xa Loi Pagoda, bonze after bonze will solemnly swear that "all we want is acceptance of our five demands...
...The government of South Vietnam was created, and is supported, by the American government," he said, gesturing emphatically...
...It should be noted that these hamlets are not concentration camps, certain U.S...
...His despair was not entirely unjustified, and he was not speaking strictly of the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem...
...Then he shrugged...
...Mme...
...If recent events are any criteria, however, the Nhu line has won out...
...After stating that "Vietnam, for over 2,000 years a land of multiple religions, is an example of true religious peaceful coexistence," the editorial warned that "such loosely structured organizations as the Buddhist clergy are especially vulnerable to [Communist] exploitation...
...Nhu's mouthpiece, has maintained a steady flow of insinuation that the Buddhists are influenced by Viet Cong agents: "When a Communist in the cloth of a bonze is arrested, is it discrimination against Buddhists or is it protection of public security against subversion...
...But no one, not even the Buddhists themselves, knows where this channel leads...
...One of the least exclusive groups in American officialdom is the Corner-Turners Club: "We have turned the corner in Vietnam," said Admiral X, General Y and Secretary ? today...
...asked a recent editorial...
...The Buddhists themselves, however admirable their struggle may seem, offer no real prospects...
...Much of the responsibility for the reluctance of Vietnamese to take matters into their own hands must be borne by retiring Ambassador Frederick E. Nolting Jr...
...Asked if traditional Buddhist non-violence has not been a bit besmirched by such raucous incidents as self-immolation and riots, they disagree vigorously...
...3. Cessation of arrests and terror directed against Buddhists...
...There seems little question that the Buddhist movement was in fact non-political in its origins...
...In This Year of Our Lord 1963, President Diem's sister-in-law has zeroed in on the Buddhists...
...Kennedy is Catholic," a Saigon intellectual notes...
...It is obvious he arrived in Saigon with instructions to get along with Diem, but it seems equally clear that he has exceeded his orders...
...And the riots are all the fault of the government police...
...Nhu's intransigence, in fact, seems to be creating troubles within the once-monolithic Ngo family...
...Certainly the Buddhists have provided an enormous amount of provocation...
...Local military successes, however impressive the casualty reports, are meaningless in a broader context...
...The war in Vietnam is, and has always been, a struggle for popular allegiance...
...In the early '30s, when the General Buddhist Association of Vietnam (GBAV) was founded, vague attempts were made to restore the importance of the area's Buddhism...
...Self-sacrifice has been practiced in the past to protest religious injustice," a priest declared...
...And any government pushed into office by would-be American Machiavellis would run headlong into exactly the problems faced by the current tenants...
...In essence, Hinayana is an earlier and simpler school, which stresses individual salvation...
...To the journalists who have haunted Saigon since early May, one of the single most disturbing factors in the situation is the reluctance—or the inability—of the Vietnamese to take matters into their own hands...
...These five demands are: 1. Withdrawal of the government ban on display of the Buddhist flag...
...During the several years of his residence here, he has seen the political situation crumble almost daily...
...Vietnam's problem today is greater than simply ridding itself of the Diems...
...The Diem regime is growing older, more rigid, more fearful of change...
...But the damage had been done, both in Saigon and in Washington...
...One of the first things a reporter learns about Vietnam, however, is that events do not proceed in a sensible fashion...
...There is little hope that the several groups of Vietnamese exiles will produce acceptable candidates...
...5. Compensation for families of those killed and wounded in the Hue riots, as well as punishment of the officials responsible...
...It stresses compassion—helping others to reach Nirvana as well as one's self...
...The connection is obvious...
...And the younger Vietnamese, following the pattern laid down in postwar China, are forsaking the republic for either the Viet Cong or the furtive opposition parties...
...The former dominates the GBAV...
...Adding to the mood of despair in Saigon is the unpleasant fact that the Kennedy Administration has come up with no fresh ideas on Vietnam...
...It is widely felt in Saigon that President Diem is somewhat more flexible on the Buddhist issue than the Nhus or Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, and that the otherwiseunexplained minor waverings in the government's line are due to this situation...
...Among the viable alternatives to Diem today are at least one highranking soldier, a well-known intellectual and perhaps one or two politicians...
...If Diem is allowed to betray his pledges, the U.S...
...Diem et famille have now forfeited whatever claim they had on mass esteem...
...Meanwhile, in Saigon, embassy officials are leaderless...
...It now has been taken up by the military dissidents . . . and by the Buddhists as well...
...How can we do anything alone...
...Washington's continuing support for Diem, in the face of every political reality in the book, has sullied the American image in Vietnam...
...Diem has relented on the flag ban, ordered commissions to investigate points 2 and 5, and stated that points 3 and 4 are met by provision of the Constitution...
...After the Reverend Thich Quang Due immolated himself, the American Embassy finally began to take the Buddhists seriously, and the flow of information has improved markedly...
...will be accused of abandoning the Vietnamese...
...Ngo Dinh Nhu, who seems to find someone new to hate every year...
...4. Freedom to preach and practice Buddhism for both bonzes and laymen...
...Buddhist spokesmen vow theirmovement remains non-political, though there are signs the younger bonzes have more than sutras on their minds...
...Vietnamese outside the government no longer seem to trust Americans...
...In theory, Buddhist leaders profess to remain religious types rather than politicians...
...government will be held responsible...
...The delay in the arrival of new Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge may well be because Washington still has not made up its mind on an alternative policy...
...And Washington's official policy has evidently been frozen on the basis of the rosy reports sent back to the State Department under the Nolting tenure...
...Little came of these efforts until the early 1950s, after the International Congress of Buddhists in Colombo, Ceylon...
...Saigon Buddhists, by the way, prefer the term Theravada to Hinayana...
...Though Nolling is a career Foreign Service officer, and thus by definition a diplomat, he has not had much success of a diplomatic nature...
...On this last point, there seems room for doubt...
...This problem can only be solved by the United States, because Diem will do nothing...
...Late in June, for instance, one of the Buddhist Big Five explained the pagoda position to me...
...IN this case, blame must be laid squarely at the dainty little feet of aging—but still attractive—Mme...
...Even the most determinedly optimistic Americans in Saigon see little hope for genuine victory in Vietnam under present conditions...
...So is Diem...
...After pausing to readjust the hem of his robe, he continued: "If the Vietnamese government betrays the agreements it has made with us, the U.S...
...In this context, a comment by an American diplomat in Seoul is illuminating...
...2. Special status for Buddhism parallel to that accorded Catholicism...
...Until these five demands are completely met, the Buddhists will continue their protests...
...Neither were other American officials...
...liberals' opinions to the contrary...
...He rejected a suggestion that Vietnamese themselves might be able to oust Diem...
...The effects of the strategic hamlet program, beneficial at first and bearing promise of better things, have been totally nullified by the anti-Buddhist campaign...
...You Americans must help us," the chorus goes, "Diem is too powerful for us alone...
...its base is in Hue, where all the trouble began last May 8. The differences seem to rest more on personality than on theory, however, and in any case are not understood by 99 per cent of Vietnam's lay Buddhists...
...There's always an alternative...
...Asked his opinion, he said, "That's phony...
...It would be well to keep this salient fact in mind in judging the present problem...
...The President has American-armed troops to back him," he said...
Vol. 46 • August 1963 • No. 17
