Word: communistes
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...having "executed too many people" and having "resorted to terror." The agrarian purge was not the only instance of the regime's bloody-mindedness. Immediately after independence was declared in 1945, Ho's officials, bent on eliminating all real or potential opposition, wiped out thousands of non-Communist nationalists, members of the middle class, and members of religious sects...
Compounding the economic problem is the fact that morale has fallen off sharply since the halt in American bombing. As long as U.S. warplanes filled the skies over the North, workers and peasants were inspired to grim extra effort. Now, according to non-Communist foreign visitors recently in Hanoi, many seem to have relaxed their drive. Last June the newspaper Hanoi Moi reported that of 538 specific construction-industry quotas only 328 had been achieved or surpassed. Other papers maintain a steady barrage of complaint against pilferage, slackness and absenteeism, and at the beginning of 1969 the government found itself...
That time is now past, and there is no doubt that its passing will adversely affect Communist morale. Ho was an impressive figure?the only truly national leader that Viet Nam has produced in modern times?and he will be missed.' In Hanoi, faces were somber and black bands of mourning appeared on thousands of sleeves. A crowd formed before Ba Dinh Congress Hall, where his body lies in state. The clandestine Viet Cong Radio, echoing Hanoi broadcasts, reported that the new wave of attacks in the South last week had been launched "to change sorrow into a revolutionary...
...Saigon, the reaction was ambivalent. There was "nothing important" in Ho's death, said President Nguyen Van Thieu. "What is important is whether the North Vietnamese will end their aggressive policies or will end the war." Communist defectors felt that Ho's death would cause deep morale problems among the Viet Cong, who admired Ho hugely. One defector noted that the guerrillas have long dreamed of seeing Ho riding triumphantly into Saigon, which then would be renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Nobody expects the V.C. to lay down their weapons because that dream has dissolved, but their righting spirit could...
...seems unwise to many experts outside the Administration. In Saigon, Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski, an adviser to former President Johnson, said that Ho's death had provided a "timely moment" for the U.S. and South Viet Nam to propose negotiations on a ceasefire. Brzezinski argued that the death of a Communist leader creates a period of "intense political conflict" during which there is an opportunity to focus attention of the successors on "initiatives from abroad." At the very least, he said, "it is always possible that some faction will argue that a positive response ought to be made." In Paris, Professor...