Word: diem
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...statistics add up to, according to the best estimates in Saigon, is that the South Vietnamese are holding their own-militarily. It remains to be seen how they will fare in South Viet Nam's second war-the political war waged by the U.S. against the Diem government...
What the U.S. Wants. Washington has some fairly specific demands: it wants President Ngo Dinh Diem to redeploy his forces according to U.S. military advice, wants him to change the strategic-hamlet program, which the U.S. believes is going too fast to be sound, and wants him to be less autocratic, particularly in regard to the Buddhists. To pressure Diem into doing these things, the U.S. has begun withholding certain kinds of aid. For one thing, Washington has suspended part of a $350,000 monthly subsidy to the elite, 2,000-member Special Forces, who raided Buddhist pagodas last August...
Next, the U.S. is making no more commitments at present under its $12 million-a-month program of paying for imported U.S. foodstuffs and manufactured goods, which the government sells to help balance its war budget. The result of that move is also in doubt, since Diem has $168 million in gold reserves which can keep him going for perhaps a year. However, some effects were beginning to show last week. As fear of future food shortages spread, hoarding set in and prices jumped. Sugar, textiles, and tires vanished from shelves, and the piaster, normally worth 73 to the dollar...
...Diem are settling down to a long contest of wills. The U.S. seems determined to keep up the pressure, but obviously might have to lift the ban on aid if and when the whole South Vietnamese economy is pushed too close to chaos. Diem well knows this U.S. dilemma and so far has shown no sign whatever of giving in to U.S. demands...
...Saigon her husband was doing much the same thing. Ngo Dinh Nhu, Diem's brother, top adviser and secret police chief, spoke to seven Western newsmen at the presidential palace, told them in a 2¼-hour interview that...