Word: thieu
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...their backs. He must allow the Saigon government to negotiate as an equal partner, but not permit it to exhaust U.S. public patience by foot dragging. In all this, an essential element is the reliability of the South Vietnamese government and the man who runs it, President Nguyen Van Thieu...
...finally count on a reasonably secure and stable government in Saigon. For that, and for the first tentative signs that it is preparing its people for the day when they will have to shoulder the burden of their war, the U.S. in large part can thank Thieu, the solitary, sometimes enigmatic but increasingly forceful President of South Viet Nam. In the 17 months he has held office, Thieu has constructed the strongest government in South Viet Nam since the days of Ngo Dinh Diem, whose overthrow he helped to plan. Amid the ceaseless intrigues of Saigon politics, he has persuaded...
...Beyond Thieu and his government, the situation depends on other factors: the military performance by both the U.S. and the South Vietnamese army, the pace of pacification, the strength and morale of the enemy. "Progress" in Viet Nam is a relative and fragile thing at best. But within limits, a prognosis of progress seems more valid than at any time since the U.S. arrived...
...business of running the government, Thieu has also had to start with the most basic object?survival. Among the top aims of the 1968 Tet offensive, after all, was the overthrow of the U.S. "puppet" government in Saigon. The Communists made no headway whatever in provoking civil disorder, and that aim was notably absent in the current offensive. But because of that presumed vulnerability, Thieu has spent more than a little effort in simply assuring the nation that he is alive and well in Saigon...
Moreover, the national government that Thieu inherited after his election was anything but national, and hardly a government at all. National politics has traditionally begun and ended within the confines of Saigon, showing little concern with roots in the countryside. Ministers and military administrators tended to run their departments in the same way?and were certainly not encouraged to venture far from home during the blurry succession of military-backed strongmen who held power before Thieu. As a result, there was simply no chain of command that Thieu could rely on. Instead, he found a government of intensely jealous fiefdoms...