Word: thieu
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...reporter has heard many such claims before. Indeed, soon it will be 20 years since Graham Greene introduced his Quiet American, convinced that "what the East needs is a Third Force." In Greene's book, the "third force" was a gangster distinguished from the first force (now it is Thieu in Saigon, then it was the French in Hanoi) chiefly by his lack of officially recognized political power...
...friends in the army--and he laughs, recounting how soldiers used to be sent to stuff ballot-boxes against him, but when the votes were counted it turned out they had voted for him. And he says that the army is starting to turn against the Thieu government. Even if Congress votes the 5,300 million emergency aid President Ford has requested--like all the non-official newspapers in Saigon. Duc says the United States should grant Thieu no aid of any kind, because "he will only use it to continue the war and keep himself in power"--Duc says...
...analysis of what is happening in Vietnam today depends less on negative reasoning, but it, too, stresses the influence of people committed to neither side in the war. National Liberation Front victories forced Thieu to sign the Paris peace agreement, Duc says. But because implementing the peace agreement's call for the release of political prisoners and the restoration of democratic rights would have meant his downfall. Thieu ignored the agreement. After an interregnum of six or eight months. North Vietnamese and NLF troops began to launch counter-attacks. "Democracy in South Vietnam is getting worse and worse," Duc continues...
There have been new governments in Saigon before, of course, but Duc insists this one will be different. When Thieu is overthrown, he says, "everyone will go on the streets and show their will for peace." The new government will have to implement the agreement. The PRG will stop attacking, because "they are not so stupid as not to know that with a government that will negotiate with them, they will lose the support of the whole population if they continue." Then it will be time for the United States to resume economic aid--military aid will no longer...
...nice vision--certainly a lot nicer than Vietnam's current reality, in which 200 soldiers die each day. With Thieu out of power, maybe it could even come true. Anyway, Ngo Cong Duc explained it patiently. Twice he told the woman from the Christian Science Monitor that the Third Force did not plan on taking power from Thieu, and shook hands with some of the reporters. As the other reporters left, he smiled politely: he verged on seeming embarrassed...