A Letter to Doubters

Criticism from his countrymen is something South Viet Nam's Premier Nguyen Cao Ky can answer or ignore --as the mood moves him. But crit icism from the U.S. is always a bitter pill. Last week Ky refused to swallow it. "If by the standards of a country with long experience in democracy, our elections still present serious shortcomings," he wrote to his detractors in the U.S. Congress, "I am the first Vietnamese to deplore that situation. But I can say without any doubt in my conscience that my government does not deserve any lesson in honesty and patriotism from any quarter."

Ky's letter, addressed to the Senate through Vice President Humphrey and to the House of Representatives through Speaker John McCormack, was his special-delivery rebuttal to charges that South Viet Nam's presidential elections, which are scheduled for next week, have been rigged. As further proof of his good faith, Ky invited President Johnson to send some observers to South Viet Nam to witness the election process at firsthand. More than willing, Johnson announced at midweek that 20 Americans had been invited to go. The group includes six Senators and Governors, plus an assortment of mayors, labor and civil rights leaders, businessmen and clergymen. The harshest critic of Johnson's policies in Viet Nam--Arkansas' Senator J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--politely declined the invitation.

Purge & Peace Proposal. Ky's critics in South Viet Nam did not even make a pass at politeness. As the country's ten civilian candidates for president went into their last week of campaigning, they concentrated their attacks on the heavily favored military ticket, headed by Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu and Ky.

Ky disdained even to answer the charges. Instead, he made a "nonpolitical " trip into the Mekong Delta, where he predicted that his ticket would win more votes than all ten civilian candidates combined. Thieu did his part by calling a press conference in Saigon and announcing plans for a purge of all corrupt and incompetent army officers, "from generals down to second lieutenants." Thieu also followed the lead of his civilian opponents and promised that, if elected, he would make a peace bid to Hanoi. If he were to receive some sign of a favorable response, he said, he would propose a one-week bombing pause over the North.

At week's end Thieu finally made his first appearance alongside his ten civilian rivals. Commenting on his earlier peace proposals, Thieu told a cheering crowd of 2,500 in My Tho, south of Saigon, that "I cannot believe the Communists will accept peace easily." As if in proof, a terrorist mine only twelve miles from the rally destroyed a bus and killed 22 passengers.

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