A Wary Warmth

On the political front, the rift that divided South Viet Nam's generals and the U.S. embassy had healed considerably. There was, after all, a war to fight. Up to Gia Long Palace one afternoon last week went the whole crowd-soldiers, civilian ministers, diplomats--for a tea party. There, after all those hot words, stood military Commander in Chief General Nguyen Khanh in the circle of guests as U.S. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor walked into the room and began shaking hands all round. Would they speak? Certainly. With grins on their faces, they even had ten minutes of small talk.

The wary warmth followed a compromise under which the Vietnamese military vowed no more political intervention like that which outraged the U.S. embassy last month. For his part, Premier Tran Van Huong hinted that he would include three military officers in his Cabinet. So at last the U.S. agreed that plans for $70 million a year more in economic and military aid should go forward. With that, Khanh began showing up again at the weekly U.S.-Vietnamese planning session, which he had boycotted.

Fact is, Khanh later commented, he couldn't understand why he had been accused of being anti-U.S. just because of his spat with Taylor. "For 20 years," he complained, "it was said that Khanh was pro-American. Then in 48 hours Khanh becomes anti-American." To prove that he hadn't spurned Uncle Sam, Khanh reported that he was growing back his goatee, explaining, "When I wore this before, everyone knew I was pro-American. I shaved it off and wound up being called anti-American. It is obvious that I should grow it back."

But, of course, it will take more than tea and a goatee to save South Viet Nam. The Buddhists were as busy as ever, last week tried to paralyze the northern cities of Quangtri, Quangngai, Danang and Hue with hunger strikes and protest demonstrations. In Saigon, the Reds were being clever again. At week's end a Vietnamese policeman patrolling the U.S. Special Services swimming pool, used by hundreds of American servicemen, wives and children, looked hard at a flowerpot a few feet from the water, found concealed in it an explosive charge big enough, according to one American, "to blow the whole damned place to pieces."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.