Word: binh
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Convinced that Premier Diem, with his accent on austere morality, is going to be in power for a while, Saigon's powerful hoodlum sect, the Binh Xuyen, agreed meekly last week to abandon its golden empire of sin, at least for the time being. "We ourselves propose the suppression of gambling dens," proclaimed the Binh Xuyen's General Le Van Vien to an astonished populace. "If we did run gambling in the past, it was only because we wanted to give the newly born state of Viet Nam an indispensable complement of money in taxes for its budget...
...Saigon's disinfection, however, there remained one problem. Premier Diem decided not to close down the Binh Xuyen's big brothel business for the time being, at least not before some other suitable line of work could be found for its several hundred girls...
...their mustard-colored uniforms and jaunty green berets, the Binh Xuyen of Saigon are probably the most exotic mob of hoodlums in Asia. Four thousand strong, they are the shock troops of the Saigon police, an empire of their own within the South Viet Nam state...
Each day the Binh Xuyen (pronounced bin soo yen) pays the Vietnamese government about $10,000 in "taxes," and gets in return the monopoly control of Saigon's brothels, gambling casinos and opium dens (which are called "clinics of disintoxication"). The Binh Xuyen's enterprises are one of the main sources of revenue for Chief of State Bao Dai, who lives in luxury on the French Riviera. The Binh Xuyen is greatly feared in Saigon: its policemen recently beat a Vietnamese army contingent in pitched street fighting. The Binh Xuyen is also respected for its efficiency...
...Binh Xuyen's concession expires Jan. 15. South Viet Nam's austerely Nationalist Premier Ngo Dinh Diem, a Roman Catholic who is appalled by Saigon's immorality, is determined to clean up the city. But in doing so, Diem would have to sacrifice a steady source of government income and risk a show of strength with the armed hoodlums of the Binh Xuyen. It would be a hard decision, but word leaked out at week's end that Diem was steeling himself to take it: not to renew the Binh Xuyen's golden concession...