Return of the Generals

It was progress of a sort. Most of the nine previous changes in Saigon's government were spawned by jealous generals and accompanied by the rumble of tanks. Last week, as the four-month-old civilian government of Premier Phan Huy Quat turned power back to the military, the only signs of crisis were the gleaming limousines of the generals and a slight increase in the number of marines patrolling Saigon's rain-wet streets. Even when the turnover was finally effected, little had changed on the surface; both Quat and his antagonist, Chief of State Phan Khac Suu, remained in office as "caretakers" for the generals.

Quat had been forced by a crippling Cabinet crisis to call the generals back into politics--and they returned only with the greatest of reluctance. For nearly three weeks, Catholic extremists and elements of the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao sects had demanded Quat's resignation, charging him with persecution of religious and national minorities, and conspiring with "French colonialists" to neutralize South Viet Nam. When Quat tried to reshuffle his Cabinet, Suu, who backed Quat's foes, vetoed the shifts. The Catholics took to the streets, and Quat feared that he might soon be faced with madness comparable to the Buddhist riots that led to Ngo Dinh Diem's downfall in 1963. At midweek he called on the country's 19 top generals to "mediate" the crisis.

After huddling secretly for two days, the generals called in Quat, Suu and the legislature for a marathon harangue. For three hours, under Suu's nominal chairmanship, nearly every important figure in South Viet Nam's political and military life argued, discussed, sulked, threatened and cajoled in an attempt to resolve the crisis. "If the Premier can't even name two ministers to his Cabinet," raged one of them, "he certainly can't hope to run the government." Quat could only concur. Angrily, the generals reminded the politicians of the heavy losses that their troops had sustained during the very weeks in which the government sat paralyzed by petty quarrels.

Finally, everyone agreed that winning the war was South Viet Nam's first priority, and that a military takeover stood the best chance of advancing that objective. Quat and Suu were formally ousted, then reappointed to head the government. The National Legislative Council was dissolved; now the two civilian chiefs were responsible directly to the military. At week's end, the generals were still busying themselves with the shape of the new regime. As one participant put it: "We are starting with a blank sheet of paper."

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