Word: minh
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...election became a farce largely because Thieu would brook no opposition. Also the principals, with the possible exception of General Duong Van Minh, who withdrew earlier, maneuvered coldly in pursuit of their private ambitions. Although self-seeking might well be considered a universal disease of politicians, the candidates' actions, judged by Washington logic, made little sense. "It was in their interest, even more than in ours, to have this election go off well," complained a frustrated U.S. diplomat. "We needed it, of course, to help justify our policies. But it is their country. They needed it even more." That...
...eyed sorcerer" or "the icebox." In their view, the American ambassador is shrewd, cool and manipulative, a match for the wiliest Vietnamese politician. He seems, in a word, inscrutable-so much so that a great many Vietnamese believe that Bunker, acting on Richard Nixon's behalf, eased Big Minh and Nguyen Cao Ky out of the presidential race. After all these years, they still do not understand the Yankee gentleman from Yale...
...sight to the political snafu that has become at once a bitter joke in cynical Saigon and a source of deep embarrassment to Washington. So long as Thieu held the lines of governmental power and could steer the results in his favor, neither retired General Duong Van ("Big") Minh nor South Viet Nam's feisty Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky would consent to run as opposition candidates. That left Thieu the sole contender, knocking the underpinnings from the U.S. contention that it remains in South Viet Nam at the request of a freely and democratically elected government...
DEMOCRACY may be new to South Viet Nam, but some Vietnamese already seem old hands at the more devious electoral arts. To back up complaints that the presidential race was rigged against him, erstwhile Candidate Duong Van ("Big") Minh and a number of disgruntled province chiefs gave U.S. officials several copies of a ten-page sheaf of instructions stamped "Top Secret." Thieu's government, they said, had sent the documents to the country's 44 provincial governments earlier this year. Whether the documents are authentic or not, they have already played a significant role in the election...
They also released government documents which, according to Minh's supporters, showed how the election was being rigged. The main item was a 17-page memo to province chiefs; among other things, it told how to fix ballot cards to enable Thieu partisans to vote twice and how to discourage Thieu opponents by finding "a scar"-Vietnamese parlance for a past crime or anything else that might make a man vulnerable to blackmail...