Word: thieu
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...backfiring, with an impact that threatens major trouble for President Nixon's Vietnamization program. Unless Saigon can pay more of the bills-as well as do more of the fighting-South Viet Nam will never really be able to stand on its own. Last fall President Nguyen Van Thieu took some halting steps toward economic reform, imposing taxes as high as 280% on some 1,500 imported consumer items; Hondas, for example, doubled in price...
Last week Thieu and Minister of the Economy Pham Kim Ngoc suffered a major defeat in their austerity campaign. In late February, Ngoc eliminated the favored tax status of imported newsprint. His order was designed to 1) stimulate production of newsprint, one of the few industries in the South capable of immediate expansion; 2) reduce imports; and 3) prevent publishers from buying more newsprint than they need, then selling it at a 300% markup on the black market. Fighting back, the publishers began organizing a general strike. At the last minute, Thieu reinstated the publishers' privilege. Said one Cabinet...
According to one U.S. source, Thieu was well aware that Chau had been briefing the CIA on his meetings. Thus there is little likelihood that he really believed Chau was in league with the enemy. Evidently, what the South Vietnamese President really feared was Chau's potential strength as an opposition leader. In recent months, Thieu has relentlessly maneuvered to undercut Chau. He has publicly denounced the presence of "Communist elements" in the 137-member lower house; government-paid demonstrators have been sent storming into the Assembly to break windows and furniture. Finally, last month, Thieu rammed through...
...before the verdict was announced, Chau was arguing his case in the supposed sanctuary of the National Assembly, which was in recess. For 80 hours, he held forth in the old Opera House, entertaining newsmen with Vietnamese beer, fruit and copies of his biography, and maintaining a steady anti-Thieu patter. "Did you hear?" Chau jeered at one point. "President Nixon has sent a dossier to the Senate asking for the lifting of Senator [George] McGovern's parliamentary immunity because he was in contact with the Communists in Paris." What did Chau think of his sentence? Thieu, he replied...
Less Than Deft. The chief effect of the Chau fiasco was to show that Thieu is less than deft in handling opposition. In recent years, he has turned relatively ineffectual opponents like Truong Dinh Dzu, the runner-up in the 1967 presidential election, and Thich Thien Minh, a leading Buddhist, into near martyrs by arresting and imprisoning them. Now, as a U.S. official in Saigon notes, "he has changed Chau overnight from a political nonentity into an international figure." When Chau gets a new trial to appeal his conviction, probably this week, he can be expected to make the most...