Vietnam: The Other Side is Responding
ELDE, JOSEPH W.
Vietnam: The Other Side js Responding by JOSEPH W. ELDER Touring the past year the Vietnam-ese we are fighting offered President Nixon a handle which, if grasped, might provide the means to end...
...At least three of the eleven cabinet members were from the recently formed VNANDPF Party: Nguyen Doa, vice-president...
...Furthermore, the establishment of the PRG means that the Communist world—including Hanoi—has accepted the existence of a separate 'Republic of South Vietnam.' More than twenty countries, including the Soviet Union and China, have formally recognized the PRG...
...And they have not budged an inch...
...When the Alliance Party was announced, a number of prominent South Vietnamese urban citizens dropped out of sight— only to surface later in sections of South Vietnam not controlled by Saigon...
...Both now and in the immediate future," Devillers added, "there is no question of North Vietnam annexing or incorporating South Vietnam...
...Whether or not they could run as candidates might be open to negotiation in Paris or anywhere else...
...However, both the Times correspondent in Paris and Le Monde had stated that none of the leading members of the PRG was known to be a Communist...
...Now Nguyen Duy Trinh focused on the differences between the two proposals...
...However, this response, which I helped convey to the President's foreign policy advisers twice, has been ignored by the Administration...
...But Thieu and Ky jail those candidates who disagree with them...
...The best way to do this would be to have general elections in all of South Vietnam...
...Why don't they negotiate more reasonably...
...His basic political affiliation is with the Democratic Party, of which he is general secretary...
...Urge the White House also to recognize the significance of the Provisional Revolutionary Government for holding those elections...
...An election was a key part of the 1954 Geneva Agreement designed to bring peace to Vietnam...
...And would all U.S...
...f The establishment of a broadly based coalition government in which all sides had confidence...
...Within a few days after my return to the United States, three of us from the Quaker committee met in Washington with a White House foreign policy aide...
...Who would supervise it...
...The provisional coalition government will organize general elections in order to elect a Constituent Assembly, work out a democratic constitution . . . and form a coalition government symbolizing national concord and the broad unity of all social segments...
...spokesmen contend that the war goes on because the other side will not respond to any of our peace proposals and will make none of its own...
...They could not be included because they represented a foreign power, the United States...
...The handle is the Provisional Revolutionary Government and the possibility of a broadly based election...
...But the elections would have to be faif, he insisted...
...Devillers went on to describe other men and women making up the eleven-member cabinet of the PRG...
...The aide opened the dialogue...
...While in Hanoi, I conferred with North Vietnam's foreign minister, Nguyen Duy Trinh...
...The newly formed Provisional Revolutionary Government was a coaliJOSEPH W. EIDER, professor of sociology and Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, is a member of the board of directors of the American Friends Service Committee...
...In 1967 the South Vietnamese Catholic Bishops' statement against the war reflected official Catholic opposition to the policies of Thieu and Ky...
...The PRG had also retained the NLF's foreign policy (and flag) and elevated the NLF's chief negotiator in Paris, Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, to the post of foreign minister...
...President Nixon says he is looking for 'some sign from the other side' in response to his eight points," declared Nguyen Duy Trinh...
...Please try to make this clear to your nation's leaders...
...Then he said, "Tell President Nixon's advisers that if the United States is seriously interested in holding elections in South Vietnam, it should recognize the importance of the Provisional Revolutionary Government in South Vietnam...
...The advisers listened like professors to a seminar report—critical, interested, searching for flaws...
...One of the Provisional Revolutionary Government's acts had been to endorse the NLF's ten-point proposal of May, 1969, for restoring peace in Vietnam...
...The first—the preferable one—involves free elections in South Vietnam and the establishment of a broadly based government...
...The foreign minister then went on to elaborate how the PRG was a logical extension of the broadening opposition in South Vietnam to the Thieu-Ky government...
...Nguyen Duy Trinh concluded: "Urge the White House to study the possibilities of a fair election in South Vietnam...
...The ambassador was unhappy with the "intransigent" position the NLF and Hanoi were taking...
...These are the sorts of things our diplomats and their diplomats should be discussing in quiet corners in Paris, or in small committees in Geneva, or any place else where bargaining can be done away from the glare of publicity and the need for all sides to strike postures...
...The State Department validated his passport for both trips, and the U.S...
...If so, the price we are paying to support Thieu and Ky is—and will continue to be—too high...
...For years Devillers has maintained that the NLF is fundamentally an indigenous southern force driven into being by the oppression of Premier Ngo Dinh Diem and subsequent Saigon rulers...
...Treasury granted AFSC a permit to purchase open-heart surgical equipment for North Vietnamese civilians...
...Their statement was especially significant since the Catholic population in South Vietnam has traditionally been so strongly anti-Communist...
...Thieu and Ky are the only viable political force the United States has been able to build in South Vietnam...
...Ibih Aleo of the Movement for the Autonomy of the Nationalities in the High Plateaux...
...The Vietnamese at the Hanoi press conference I attended had been visibly excited, as were representatives of much of the non-Western world who were present...
...Within the present context of South Vietnam, the PRG is a moderate—even conciliatory—group with which your side could work to end the war," Devillers told me...
...Devillers then went on to outline his own suggestions on how to end the war in Vietnam...
...Thieu and Ky could not run a fair election...
...I first visited Hanoi for one week last June on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to discuss Quaker assistance to civilians in North Vietnam...
...The New York Times correspondent in Hong Kong had thought he identified one member of the cabinet who had People's Revolutionary Party (Communist) connections—Tran Nam Trung, minister of defense...
...On at least two occasions, he pointed out, the Hanoi government had reversed its position...
...During our conversation, I mentioned that I was part of an AFSC committee scheduled to meet with President Nixon's foreign policy advisers in July...
...Are there particular points," I asked, "you would like me to stress on your behalf during the meeting...
...The White House cannot truthfully continue to say it is waiting for the other side to respond...
...Almost all were middle-of-the-roaders...
...I described to him the State Department's negative reactions in Hong Kong and Saigon and the noncommittal reaction in Washington to his request that the PRG be taken seriously...
...In it he repeated Lyndon Johnson's justifications for the war in Vietnam—justifications that have since been repudiated by many of their original architects...
...Back in Washington, in July, our Quaker committee met with President Nixon's foreign policy advisers...
...They have become increasingly influential in the South Vietnamese delegation...
...Vietnam: The Other Side js Responding by JOSEPH W. ELDER Touring the past year the Vietnam-ese we are fighting offered President Nixon a handle which, if grasped, might provide the means to end the war...
...My work for the American Friends Service Committee took me to Hanoi again in October, 1969, to deliver open-heart surgical supplies for civilians...
...But neiThieu-Ky Brand of Freedom The most recent evidence of the harsh and oppressive character of the Thieu-Ky dictatorship, whose preservation is a central goal of Nixon Administration policy, was reported from Saigon by The New York Times as 1969 ended...
...In the domestic arena, the PRG announced it was "prepared to enter into consultations with political forces representing various social sections and political tendencies in South Vietnam that stand for peace, independence, and neutrality . . . with a view to setting up a provisional coalition government...
...At one point he was even opposed to having any Northern troops come into the South...
...I described my conversation with the foreign minister in Hanoi, stressing his concern that the United States take seriously the establishment of the Provisional Revolutionary Government in South Vietnam...
...Ironically, Luu Huu Phuoc, minister of information and culture, is the composer of South Vietnam's national anthem...
...ther was it the swift rejection by the State Department officials I conferred with in Hong Kong and Saigon...
...The NLF was formally established December 20, 1960, as a coalition party that came to include non-Communist parties such as the Democratic Party, the Radical Socialist Party, the Patriotic and Democratic Journalists' Association, the Patriotic Buddhist Believers' Association, and the Cao Dai religious sect as well as the Communist People's Revolutionary Party...
...Meanwhile, thousands of Americans and Vietnamese have died, while U.S...
...Truong Dinh Dzu, who ran second, as a peace candidate, in the 1967 presidential elections, has been imprisoned as have scores of writers, publishers, university professors, lawyers, and doctors, hundreds of Buddhist monks, and thousands of ordinary citizens whose only "crime" might have been incurring the displeasure of Thieu or Ky or their local officials...
...In light of the response, did the foreign minister have any further points he would like me to stress...
...The elections they called for would be run by a temporary coalition government...
...He represented the AFSC on trips to Vietnam in June and October, 1969...
...And they are being killed at the same rate this year...
...The month before, in May, 1969, both the NLF's ten-point proposal and President Nixon's eight-point proposal had called for elections in South Vietnam as a way of ending the war...
...Said The Times: "The students were accused of singing anti-war songs and convening a meeting without permission...
...In the end, he promised to convey the substance of our conversation to the White House...
...It would cooperate with any segment of the Saigon government—except Thieu and Ky...
...For a second time I met Foreign Minister Nguyen Duy Trinh...
...I pointed out that the PRG had said Thieu and Ky could not supervise the elections...
...Other members of the Advisory Council included Superior Bonze Thich Don Hau, leader of the militant Buddhists in Hue...
...It was prepared to consult with other South Vietnamese political forces standing for "peace, independence, and neutrality" in establishing the temporary coalition government to organize the general elections...
...In Saigon, eleven days later, I told Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker of the foreign minister's statement...
...The foreign minister paused a moment...
...The conference had been convened jointly by the NLF and the VNANDPF (the Vietnam Alliance of National, Democratic, and Peace Forces, an urban-based anti-Thieu-Ky party formed during the 1968 Tet offensive...
...The PRG itself is opposed to immediate reunification...
...Is he afraid that if elections are held in South Vietnam, Thieu and Ky will be repudiated by the electorate, thereby ending "the only viable political force the United States has been able to build in South Vietnam...
...Consulate...
...Early in the war it had announced it would not talk until the United States agreed to unilateral troop withdrawals...
...and Professor (Mme) Nguyen Dinh Chi of the Saigon-Cholon Revolutionary Committee...
...forces need to be out of Vietnam before the elections...
...Nguyen Duy Trinh repeated almost exactly what he had said four months earlier...
...Foreign Minister Nguyen Duy Trinh of North Vietnam expanded his initial comment for my benefit...
...It is a significant next step toward an election, reconciliation among the South Vietnamese people, and an end to the war...
...The second approach—less preferable but "better than no approach at all"-—is the "Vietnamization" of the war and the gradual withdrawal of major segments of American troops...
...I mentioned that the foreign minister felt the PRG was a conciliatory step toward the middle—a step which, if matched by the United States, would speed election day in South Vietnam...
...They must be hurting...
...I stressed how ironical it was that although the creation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government was a response, Washington had failed to recognize its significance...
...Finally it modified its position still further and agreed to talk even with only a conditional halt to the bombing...
...Once the elections had been held, the temporary government would dissolve, and the duly elected government would take over...
...The PRG had already announced it was not that temporary coalition government...
...He noted that apparently President Nixon was looking for a way to end the war without hurting America's prestige...
...The three of us on the Quaker committee observed that "Vietnamization" of the war was an unacceptable policy—morally and militarily...
...But the other side has responded, as I had a chance to observe first hand on two visits to Hanoi...
...He said nothing more about the PRG...
...They have lost half a million dead during the war—half of those killed last year...
...President Nixon presented no plan for ending the war in Vietnam through elections...
...He is not for a hasty reunion of South and North Vietnam...
...tion of the NLF Party, the VNANDPF Party, the Vietnam People's Revolutionary Party (Communist), the Democratic Party (a nationalist party dating back to the 1930s), and representatives from trade unions and youth, professional, national minorities, armed forces, religious, women's, and other groups...
...It is hard to believe that the Chief Executive does not realize the PRG really is willing to hold elections in South Vietnam...
...This election plan paralleled a Buddhist South Vietnamese plan I had discussed in Paris with Thich Nat Hanh of the United Buddhist Church...
...He has failed to see it...
...We have given him a sign...
...The other side has responded...
...Then it was my turn...
...The party drew from city dwellers and intellectuals disaffected by the Thieu-Ky government and fearful of further imprisonments or harassments...
...The best group to run such an election, he continued, would be a temporary coalition government composed of people acceptable to all factions...
...But so far he has apparently rejected—and possibly not even seriously explored—this opportunity for peace...
...When I had finished, one of them wrote for several moments on the yellow pad beside him, commenting that this was something they would have to look into...
...Hanoi and the NLF take any concession we give and never make any concessions in response...
...An election could help resolve the war in South Vietnam today...
...On November 3, President Nixon delivered a major address on Vietnam...
...That was in October...
...They've just shifted titles around and called themselves a government rather than a party...
...If anything, the Advisory Council's representative spectrum was even wider than that of the PRG cabinet...
...A de facto cease-fire along with the phased withdrawal of U.S...
...This we just cannot do...
...I'm not the one to ask," I replied...
...What about a ceasefire before the elections...
...Numerically, the Communists comprised only a fraction of the NLF membership...
...Do you think they'd let them run...
...Then it modified its position and announced it would not talk until the Americans stopped bombing unconditionally...
...What has happened to the elections President Nixon proposed in May...
...Within the next week, more than twenty nations had officially recognized the Provisional Revolutionary Government—including several non-Communist-bloc countries...
...It was not the enthusiastic response of Philippe Devillers...
...Retaining his position in the Democratic Party, Phat joined the NLF coalition when it was formed in 1960, and he has served on the NLF Central Committee...
...The foreign minister then turned to the NLF's ten points...
...Instead, he described his program for "Vietnamiz-ing" the war...
...Hanoi's formal acceptance of the PRG suggests it is not in any rush to reunite the two sections of Vietnam...
...Phat is a Saigon architect by profession...
...The PRG was the first step toward such a government...
...It has stated the reunification of Vietnam will be achieved step by step, by peaceful means, through agreement between the two zones...
...The aide raised a series of further questions—skeptical but probing...
...f Elections throughout South Vietnam supervised by the coalition government, with the simultaneous stepping down of Thieu and Ky and their replacement by the elected government...
...I don't know, but I imagine it could be discussed," I replied...
...Pham Ngoc Hung of the Patriotic Catholics of South Vietnam...
...But this requires cooperation from the other side...
...during the Japanese occupation in 1945, Trinh Dinh Thao had acted as minister of justice...
...I had first heard of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) when its formation was proclaimed only five days earlier at a Hanoi press conference...
...Morally, it made others do our killing...
...troops abandoned by unwilling Saigon armies—with the crisis demanding precipitous withdrawal or equally precipitous escalation...
...AFSC was already assisting civilians in both Saigon-controlled and NLF-controlled portions of South Vietnam...
...Americans should not underestimate how important this development is...
...asked the White House aide...
...The newspapers were charged with advocating neutralism . . ." The Times noted that press censorship was abolished, in theory, twenty months ago, but thirty-nine daily newspapers have been suspended for specific periods or closed down altogether since then...
...One of my Quaker colleagues was quick to correct the record...
...Facing a bank of lights and movie cameras, Nguyen Van Tien, the National Liberation Front (NLF) Party's representative to Hanoi, had announced that eighty-eight delegates and seventy-two guests, representing a range of anti-Thieu-Ky viewpoints, had met in a conference June 6-8 "somewhere in South Vietnam...
...Within this context, the newly established Provisional Revolutionary Government was a coalition of coalitions —with some Communist, but much more non-Communist, participation...
...President Nixon's eight points allow Thieu, Ky, and their armies to remain in control during the elections...
...It was the government preceding the temporary coalition government...
...I'm afraid we know how 'free' the elections would be if they were held according to the Nixon formula," grimaced Nguyen Duy Trinh...
...troops...
...The "other side" has offered a handle to President Nixon which he could use to end the war...
...The PRG is now ready to form an even larger coalition with any South Vietnamese who want peace, independence, and neutrality," the foreign minister told me...
...Because your country still accepts John Foster Dulles' image of world Communism," said Devillers, "it has failed to respond to the many non-Communist elements in the NLF and now the PRG...
...Lawyer Trinh Dinh Thao of the VNANDPF was vice-president...
...More than a score of newspapers have been silenced since May, 1968 (including the prominent English-language Saigon Daily News...
...Both governments are committed to reunification, but both are willing to work out the details over time...
...Now it is our turn...
...Militarily, it invited a catastrophe when some future attack, comparable to the 1968 Tet offensive, caught, say, 200,000 U.S...
...The dispatch reported that the Thieu-Ky regime had just arrested fifteen more student leaders at Saigon University and closed two additional newspapers in forty-eight hours "in an apparent crackdown on opposition elements...
...Since the establishment of the PRG, I have watched Phat's forces here in Paris...
...He and his aide also maintained that the PRG was the same set of people as the NLF, with a few changes in titles...
...In 1968, at the time of the Tet offensive, a new, broad-based party was formed: the Vietnam Alliance of National, Democratic, and Peace Forces...
...But 'Vietnamization' is the policy being forced on us," asserted the President's aide...
...Four days later, in Hong Kong, I reported my Hanoi discussion to two State Department officers in the U.S...
...Information Agency officer in Vietnam, estimates that in 1962 the Communist PRP formed only 35,000 of a total NLF membership of 300,000—less than one in eight...
...Their response was blunt: "The PRG is the same as the NLF...
...They included: f A clear statement of U.S...
...The aide replied, "But they're requiring us to abandon Thieu and Ky as preconditions for the elections...
...intentions to withdraw all its troops from Vietnam (withdrawal would not have to be precipitous, but the intent and a clearly outlined withdrawal timetable would be necessary...
...Take Huynh Tan Phat, the president of the Provisional Revolutionary Government...
...Huynh Cuong of the Khmer Nationals...
...Mme) Duong Quynh Hoa, minister of public health and social affairs...
...An election helped end the struggle between Algeria and France in 1962...
...and Professor Nguyen Van Kiet, minister of education and youth...
...Only in Paris did I find a positive response to Hanoi's message—from Philippe Devillers, one of France's leading Vietnam specialists (author of Histoire du Viet-Nam de 1940 a. 1952 and co-author with Jean Lacouture of La Fin d'une Guerre: Indochine 1954...
...he was a prominent South Vietnamese musician before he was driven underground by the Saigon government...
...The President called on "the moral courage and stamina" of Americans, so that they would not allow the "last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people to be suffocated by the forces of totalitarianism"—words that ring hollow when one has seen the "peace and freedom" that exist in South Vietnam today...
...The Council's president was lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho of the NLF...
...Douglas Pike, for six years a U.S...
...The establishment of the Provisional Revolutionary Government is the first step toward this solution," concluded Devillers...
...From the June 6-8 conference emerged what was proclaimed to be a new government in South Vietnam—-the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, headed by the prime minister of an eleven-member cabinet...
...Phat's economic strategy differs in important ways from that in North Vietnam...
...Twice Hanoi's foreign minister had chosen it and the elections it could implement as the point he wanted me to stress to the White House...
...Phat was forced underground in 1958," Devillers continued, "when President Ngo Dinh Diem began suppressing opposition parties...
...Devillers also described the thirteen-member Advisory Council established as a consultative body for the PRG...
...He includes more room for competition and market economics...
...Huynh Van Tri of the Hoa Hao Buddhists...
...Is he so concerned that Thieu and Ky remain in office that he has abandoned any thoughts of an election...
...President Nixon, he said, has two approaches in Vietnam...
...I concluded by saying I would probably see President Nixon's advisers again when I returned to the United States...
Vol. 34 • February 1970 • No. 2
