Word: nams
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...speech before it was delivered. But partly as a result of subsequent reporting out of Washington, he discovered hidden nuances that disturbed him. In the somewhat Delphic address, Nixon had talked of establishing "procedures for political choice that give each significant group in South Viet Nam a real opportunity to participate in the political life of the nation." That could mean, among other things, Viet Cong participation in future elections and thereafter in a future government. Thieu has gone as far as that, although only on the difficult condition that the Viet Cong stop calling themselves Communists. In the speech...
...South Vietnamese, even a hint of coalition-at least in public -reeks of sell-out and disaster. Merely discussing it is against the law in South Viet Nam.* A number of South Vietnamese are in jail for suggesting no more than Nixon did. The Saigon regime fears that once the Communists were in the government, they would swallow up Thieu & Co. and eventually seize power. Asked in Seoul about the prospects for a coalition, Thieu said firmly: "I would like to give the shortest answer of this press conference. Just one word. Never. Are you satisfied...
...other hand, the Thieu regime is the strongest that South Viet Nam has had in the past six years. Even if the U.S. wanted to abandon Thieu-and there is no sign whatever that it does -it might not be able to do so for lack of a substitute. "If the Americans destroy Thieu," says one high-ranking foreign diplomat in Saigon, "the government of South Viet Nam will collapse utterly. This is the Communists' strategy." While Thieu cannot be expected to cave in on the coalition issue, it would obviously be impossible to achieve a settlement...
...Time. Actually, the President of South Viet Nam may not be quite so obdurate as he seems. Says TIME's Saigon bureau chief: "In private conversation, Thieu and Vice President Ky talk about eight months ahead of the way they talk in public. Thieu today expresses his appreciation of the political facts of life in the U.S. and of the necessity for serious negotiations with the Communists." Short of outright coalition, which the U.S. does not now advocate anyway, he might accept one of the other formulas that have been proposed. One solution, for example, might...
...Gray Area. President Nixon moved to counter such criticism, sending one of his top advisers to brief the press. There had been, said the adviser in a background session, no significant (meaning not more than 10%) increase in battalion-size operations. Continuing high U.S. casualty totals in Viet Nam were the result, rather, of continued Communist offensives. Though admitting that figures on U.S. military operations in Viet Nam have always been of an "illusionary nature," he nonetheless cited some. In a typical week, when 35 to 40 enemy attacks are launched, some 150 to 200 Americans are likely...