Word: thieu
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...Saigon, the posters and painted slogans of the defunct Thieu regime had disappeared, swept away by a massive cleanup campaign. Other remnants of capitalism, like advertising posters and bright neon signs, were expected to go next. The cloud of exhaust smoke that customarily hovered over Saigon was gone, a result of the city's gasoline shortage. There were far more bicycles on the street than before, even though their price had quadrupled. Black pajamas, the customary clothing of the Viet Cong guerrillas, doubled in price...
Marton became interested enough in the politics behind the war to want to study. East Asian affairs in college when he returned. He says he found it "hard to watch the Communist takeover this spring. Although the U.S. was terribly wrong, and while Hanoi is miles ahead of the Thieu government in terms of seeing to the welfare of the people, ideologically. I just can't agree with Communism, and emotionally, the meaningless deaths of my friends killed there leave me very unhappy. I probably hoped that the Third Force would somehow come to power...
...more than a month after the airlift of orphaned and abandoned Vietnamese children that preceded the collapse of the Thieu regime, the adoptive American parents of these children have felt dogged by hostility. The Catholic Relief Services and the American Friends Service Committee--groups that might have been involved in the airlift in Vietnam--refused to have any part in it. The revolutionary government in South Vietnam, various antiwar groups in the United States and "Doonesbury" joined the list of those who condemn the adoption of war orphans and question the motives of their American families. These parents were accused...
...real tragedy to me is the people who are completely trapped. I was one of the most privileged. I didn't suffer with the others, and I felt bad because of it, like I was less Vietnamese than the others. Americans look at Thieu and Ky and believe the whole country is corrupt because they are. But there were people who really believed in democracy and freedom. For 30 years people in the South have been building up new values, learning to believe in democracy. Every family had sons killed in the war, and people built up hatred...
Woodside is not a media-star, and he fears that his reputation will overshadow and inhibit Vietnamese studies by discouraging challenges of his views. As the Thieu regime crumbled this April, he patiently answered dozens of phone calls from journalists who wanted his analysis, but he did nothing to exploit the flurry of attention. Instead, he has continued his studies of East Asian history, quietly and steadily, as oblivious to political timeliness as he was in 1963, when he "discovered" Vietnam...