Word: thieu
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Saigon's streets were festooned with saffron and red flags and banners that declared VICTORY FOR SOUTH VIET NAM or, more convincingly, THE ENTIRE PEOPLE WELCOME THE CEASEFIRE. Yet there was no rejoicing, not even a sense of relief. Sunday, cease-fire or no, President Nguyen Van Thieu had decreed that all South Vietnamese civilians should go to their jobs as they would on a workday. The idea was to show that there was little to celebrate and that little had changed-a point Thieu made repeatedly in a combative TV address to the nation. "There is no peace...
...Hanoi small groups gathered in the streets-under banners commanding them to SACRIFICE ALL RATHER THAN SUBMIT-to hear the cease-fire news from the same loudspeakers that had honked warnings of U.S. air attacks less than a month before. In contrast to Thieu, North Viet Nam's leaders seemed ready-even eager-to admit that something had changed with the Paris agreement. At a presidential-palace reception, North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong, 64, had a smiling, two-word reply to a foreign diplomat who offered his congratulations: "At last...
Having failed to stave off a ceasefire, Thieu last week redoubled his efforts to win the subtler struggle that now faces him (see following story). The regime placed its considerable military machine on full alert and invented a series of new security measures -some of which seemed on the hysterical side. The use of firecrackers in this week's Tet celebrations was banned in order "to prevent the Communists from taking advantage of the explosions" to attack government installations. Under tough new decrees, anyone passing out Communist flags or leaflets will be arrested; Communist agitators will be shot...
...Despite Thieu's tough stand-or more likely because of it-Saigon was quiet. No students or demonstrating veterans have taken to the streets. Even Thich Huyen Quang, the head of the militant An Quang Buddhist faction, offered a somewhat ambiguous endorsement of the settlement. "We hope that both winners and losers will put down their weapons," he said...
Saigon shoppers laid in extra supplies of food-not because they feared civil chaos, but because of widespread expectations that Thieu might extend the 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew. A very few South Vietnamese suddenly decided that it was time to "visit relatives in Paris." But there was no exodus by Thieu's middle-and upper-class constituency, and no important defections from his regime. The coup rumors that floated through Saigon's cafes only a month or two ago had faded away, although, like the fighting war, they could resurface with a vengeance at any time...