Political Buddhism

...The repeated Chinese invasions, and the struggle to repulse them, were the source of the first, the greatest, perhaps the only common Vietnamese cause...

...The highly justifiable anti-Khanh demonstrations in the fall of 1964 helped to solidify Tri Quang's position...

...On the other hand, the political Buddhists are more ready than most South Vietnamese groups to place limits on the American role...

...Whether he, or anyone, can guide Vietnam to stability while there are still Vietnamese to be governed is the most vital question of the day...

...This fundamental perception was one of the most important reasons for the rapid increase in Tri Quang's influence...

...Tri Quang has already become one of the most powerful individuals in South Vietnam...

...It would be a mistake to pretend that the political Buddhists have created a full-scale political program...

...These included infirmaries, day nurseries, adult literacy classes, orphanages, and other facilities...

...Many, like Tri Quang himself, come from Central Vietnam, the old French administrative region that runs from Nhatrang in the south across the 17th parallel to Vinh in the north...

...But it seems clear that Tri Quang's ultimate ambition is to create a theocratic state permitted by the world powers to carry on in its own way as long as no other state is threatened...

...Tri Quang's admiration of Burma is not accidental...

...Tri Quang has repeatedly stated that he recognizes Communism's threat to Buddhism...

...Hue, the pivotal city of the area, was also the seat of the Vietnamese imperial throne, and the region has long been a center of anti-colonial, anti-foreign feeling...

...It was necessary, therefore, to broaden the appeal of political Buddhism, while at the same time solidifying its strength in the central area...

...Indeed, appealing to the intellectuals and students was very easy...

...Despite these efforts, Tri Quang's movement at first was limited to the cities of Central Vietnam...

...The village structure of South Vietnam, and the jealousies that often exist even between contiguous settlements, make it difficult to unite the peasants...

...Amid all the expressions of concern over the future of Vietnamese democracy should the Buddhists ever assume power, there appears to be general agreement that they constitute the most significant single political force in their country but little concrete knowledge of the origins, purposes and functions of the movement...

...Secondly, they feel that the American involvement in South Vietnam must end as soon as peace is established by a stable, popular government...

...Often they were established at or near pagodas controlled by the Unified Buddhist Church, strengthening the connection between politics, public welfare, and the faith...

...Proceeding from a fundamental appreciation of the nature of power in South Vietnam, he has attempted to weld together into a single purpose the only two sentiments that can still stir a tired people: devotion to the Vietnamese Buddhist way of life and a strong distaste for outsiders...

...The French and Japanese conquests that followed merely broadened the context of this peculiar xenophobic nationalism...

...Their focus is clearly Vietnamese, and foreign history and languages, while taught, are much less important than in the state schools...

...And despite the opinion of some, no evidence has yet been produced to show that he ever knowingly accepted Communist support...

...First, they argue that the United States must not interfere in Vietnam's internal affairs by supporting or denouncing factions...

...Then the political Buddhists consciously decided that, for the time being, the peasant majority in the nation was politically insignificant...

...Following their disillusionment with General Duong Van Minh's haphazard efforts at reform, they began systematically to develop a mass base in the cities...

...PERSPECTIVES Political Buddhism By John R. Garrett For the moment, at least, Premier Nguyen Cao Ky appears to have brought the latest Buddhist uprisings in South Vietnam under control, though there can be no certainty this will still be true by the time these words reach the reader...

...By and large, the degree of unity the Vietnamese people possess has been created out of the efforts of others to destroy them utterly...

...For these reasons, the Buddhists concluded that the landless, mobile, structureless people of the cities were a much better target for their propaganda...

...Tri Quang and his supporters were the first significant social force since the Catholics under Diem to recognize that their eventual role would depend upon their ability to politicize themselves and the Buddhist populace...

...To win the loyalty of the poor, direct social services were created in important domains largely ignored by both private and public assistance...

...This is the region of the militant leader's greatest strength...

...Combined with education and social services, xenophobia, presently reflected in anti-American and anti-Chinese feeling, is one of the main elements which Tri Quang hopes to use as a foundation for an all-embracing national movement...

...The Dai Viet party's attempt to mobilize the peasants in the years since the revolution has dissipated its energies and resulted in a rapid loss of power...

...To make this link explicit, political rallies were regularly held for the faithful at the shrines themselves...

...And all of America's horses and all of its men cannot resolve it-not, at least, until they learn how properly to ask it...

...Beginning by strengthening the Buddhist primary and secondary schools, particularly in Tri Quang's home area of Central Vietnam, the movement as a whole went on to develop a complete educational system by creating the Buddhist Van Hanh University in Saigon in 1964...

...Thich Tarn Chau's southern conservatives, who had counterbalanced Tri Quang by their influence in the south, were approached...

...To attract them, the Buddhists had only to point to the failure of each succeeding government to take action against corruption and nepotism, or to replace a number of Catholic civil servants who seemed sometimes to be carrying out Diemist programs without Diem...

...He reasoned that governments would be made, broken, and influenced only by pressures applied around them in Saigon, Hue, and a few other major cities...

...But these projects for the poor were less important than the attempt to develop a program of universal Buddhist education, designed to provide Vietnam with a national educational system suited to itsand the movement's-needs...

...These assured Tri Quang of substantial support from the ethnic Cambodians and other groups...

...Public education exists in South Vietnam, but at best it is only an imitation of the French system upon which it is modelled...

...The Buddhist intellectuals and students who had hoped for real change after Diem's fall were also approached, courted, and won...

...Many had already taken part in the spontaneous protests that led to the November 1 revolution...

...What does seem certain to one who has recently returned from Vietnam, however, is that for most Americans Thich Tri Quang and his followers remain a complete enigma...

...With the completion of these quiet soundings, the political Buddhists discovered that the collection of religious and nationalist ideas that motivated them had somewhat broader appeal than they had previously imagined...

...There is little awareness, for example, that the monks, students and radical Buddhist intellectuals who have coalesced around Thich Tri Quang are not typical Vietnamese...

...John R. Garrett was director of the Vietnamese-American Association in Nhatrang, South Vietnam...

...Others include a sweeping land reform, the redistribution of wealth, tight controls on foreign investment, and, quite probably, strict international neutrality...

...That, in fact, they are urbanized, and most have received some European-style education...

...Ultimately, Tri Quang and his followers hope to be able to replace the present public system with state-supported Buddhist education...

...So did the anti-Duong protests before, and so have the various demonstrations against the Ky government since...

...Thus the political Buddhists began developing an overall program designed to attract the taxi drivers, porters, and old women of the cities, as well as the frustrated, powerless intellectuals...

...This effort began with the demonstrations of the summer of 1963...

...And even a united peasantry would be unlikely to be concerned about national issues...

...He knows that in North Vietnam the faith has been eviscerated by the state...

...Meanwhile, the Bo De schools continue to teach their students that Vietnamese Buddhism and the Vietnamese nation are inseparable, and attempt to meet the public demand that education be made available to the poor...

...Tri Quang and his followers have used this feeling as a wedge to protect their country, as they see it, from the twin threats of Western and Communist domination...

...To achieve this goal, Thich Tri Quang has depended more on intuition than on theoretical programs...

...The various Vietnamese governments also aided the political Buddhists through continued repression, corruption, and inefficiency...

...After a temporary modus vivendi had been reached between Tarn Chau and Tri Quang, contacts were established with other elements of the Vietnamese Buddhist community...

...Unlike the public system, the Buddhist schools teach the religious and social values of both Buddhism and the Vietnamese tradition...

...The apparent contradiction between this attitude and recent Buddhist appeals to the United States for support against Ky is explained by the contention that Ky's regime is a product of prior American interference...

...The movement also found support among the leaders of various Confucian study groups and among the Montagnards, who by the end of 1964 were ready to endorse anyone who promised them a degree of autonomy...

...at the higher levels it is effectively limited to the children of the urban rich...