Beware: Wet Paint

Almost overnight, the symbol was everywhere to be seen. On the doors and porch posts of houses, huts and hovels from the Delta to the highlands, millions of neatly painted South Vietnamese flags suddenly appeared, in gorgeous hues of canary yellow and crimson.

Saigon officials and U.S. advisers insisted that they had no part in the flag painting. But the phenomenon began after President Nguyen Van Thieu announced a stepped-up pacification program following President Nixon's suggestion in October of a standstill ceasefire. In such a cease-fire (known locally as a "leopardskin" arrangement), blotches of Viet Cong-held territory would be interspersed with strongpoints controlled by the Saigon government. Word soon reached Saigon's functionaries that any village that was to be regarded as government-controlled should be marked with flags--which reminded some observers of the origin of Passover, when the ancient Jews smeared their doors with blood to keep away the angel of death. Often using paint procured by American district advisers with U.S. funds earmarked for "high-impact projects," pacification cadres and Popular Force soldiers began painting the most hotly contested villages first. In many cases, armed guards had to be sent in to get the flags painted.

U.S. intelligence officials insist that the Communist guerrillas are so disturbed by Thieu's attempt to paint all of South Viet Nam into his corner that they have launched a campaign to deface the ubiquitous flags. Even so, the whole effort struck some as absurd. The Vietnamese satirical magazine Mosquito, for example, has recommended that to help the government distinguish between Communists and loyalists, "each citizen should have his head shaved like a monk and then have the national flag painted on it."

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