THE NEW 'DEMOCRACY' IN VIETNAM
YOUNG, SENATOR STEPHEN M.
the new Democracy' in Vietnam by SENATOR STEPHEN M. YOUNG Tn 1965, from September 28 to Oc-tober 19, I visited Southeast Asia on a mission for the Senate Committee on Armed Services. During that...
...According to Article twelve, section one: "The state respects freedom of thought, speech, press, and publishing as long as it does not harm personal honor, national security, or good morals...
...Yet, section three of Article twelve states: "Press regulations will be subscribed by law...
...A number of these "representatives" are themselves military men...
...If there remains any doubt as to the nature of the regime we are supporting in South Vietnam, recent developments should dispel them...
...Article nine guarantees religious freedom to all citizens "as long as it does not violate the national interest and is not harmful to public safety and order or contrary to good morals...
...I believed that even though I had known, because I had read the Geneva accords, that historically there never were any such countries as North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and that the Geneva agreements, which the United States approved but did not sign, specifically stated that the separation of Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam was not to be regarded as a boundary but as a temporary demarcation line...
...Our forefathers would have called him a Tory because he fought on the side of the colonial power...
...Nevertheless, I was taken in by the repeated statements of the Secretary of State about aggression from the North, until I talked at some length with General Westmoreland in Saigon...
...To illustrate this fact, when a genuine agrarian reform law was proposed earlier this year only three out of 117 members of the Assembly voted in favor of it...
...Following that, when I was in Thailand, I was informed by General Richard Stilwell, second in command of the American forces in Southeast Asia, that eighty per cent of the Vietcong fighting us in the Mekong Delta were born and reared in the Mekong Delta...
...As the result of a discriminatory election law, not only members of the National Liberation Front but also neutralists, so-called, and militant Buddhists were prohibited last fall from running for election to the Constituent Assembly...
...Who will decide what constitutes a danger to personal honor, national security, or good morals...
...The United States has furthered this travesty on democracy by giving it an appearance of respectability...
...This gives the government virtually STEPHEN M. YOUNG, U.S...
...He replied, "It is an insurrection...
...During that time, I visited every Air Force base in Vietnam and also spent a number of days in Thailand...
...Whom are we trying to fool by advertising the regime we are defending as "free" or "democratic...
...In World War I he served in field artillery...
...As for the new Constitution itself, the provisions which appear to guarantee basic human rights are granted with one hand and taken away with the other...
...For example, Article twelve, section two reads: "Censorship will be abolished except for motion pictures and plays...
...I said to him, "General, this, then, is a civil war in which we are involved...
...Senator from Ohio, is a much decorated veteran...
...Before I visited Vietnam, I had believed implicitly the statements of Secretary of State Dean Rusk that we were engaged in Vietnam because of Communist aggression from the North...
...I suggest we examine this proposed constitution more closely...
...Premier Ky, who was born in Hanoi, is definitely a Vietnamese "Tory," having fought on the side of the French during the war in Vietnam following World War II, when France sought to reestablish her lush Indochinese colonial empire...
...In the course of our conversation, General Westmoreland told me that the bulk of the Vietcong who were fighting us in the Mekong Delta, south and west of Saigon, were men who had been born and reared in the Mekong Delta...
...First of all, who are its authors...
...Whom can we convince that South Vietnam is on its way to becoming a representative democracy since the Constituent Assembly made public its constitution...
...The answer is, of course, the same rulers who until now have shown little or no respect for fundamental civil liberties...
...They can hardly be expected to put up a strong opposition to the Ky dictatorship...
...The fact is, the Constituent Assembly is composed primarily of representatives of the landowning and wealthy classes and close supporters of the military junta that now rules South Vietnam...
...Now, through his performance as Premier of South Vietnam—a position which he obtained not through elections but through a military coup engineered by ten generals, nine of whom were born in North Vietnam and had fought on the side of the French colohial oppressors against their own nationals seeking independence—he proves daily that his interests lie closer to those who have oppressed the Vietnamese people for centuries than to any real desires and needs of the people he rules...
...in World War II he was in combat service for thirty-seven months in North Africa and with the Fifth Army in Italy...
Vol. 31 • July 1967 • No. 7
