Sealing Off Saigon

On April 30, the day Saigon surrendered to the Communist forces, there were more than 100 foreign correspondents in the country, eight of them Americans. The Provisional Revolutionary Government allowed them to roam around Saigon and report freely on the unfolding revolution. But the situation rapidly turned sour as the journalists found it difficult to interview P.R.G. officials and to send cables to their home offices. On May 24, a group of 80 restive correspondents, most of them French or Japanese, left Saigon on a chartered flight, taking with them film and delayed dispatches. Last week the regime made another move against the foreign press corps. Authorities ordered three U.S. reporters--George Esper of A.P. and Paul Vogle and Charles Huntley of United Press International--along with Photographer Dieter Ludwig, a West German freelancer for TIME and CBS, and four Japanese correspondents to leave the country. Now only about 20 correspondents from abroad remain, including the last three Americans--A.P.'s Frances Starner, U.P.I.'s bureau manager, Alan Dawson, and Don Rodill, a freelancer writing for Long Island's Newsday.

Outworn Welcome. The P.R.G.'s decision to get rid of foreign newsmen appears to reflect a Communist belief that for the moment at least, less news or no news is good news. However, the P.R.G.'s public explanations have been vague. One polite official, Bui Huu Nhan, of the Committee for Foreign Affairs, told ten-year Saigon Veteran George Esper, "You have been here too long under the old regime. We want new people of our choice."

Esper guesses that the P.R.G. wants to avoid comparisons that might be made by old Indochina hands between the old autocracy and the new revolutionary government. In any event, Esper thinks the government wants a minimum of watching as it deals with "problems such as crime, trying to stabilize the city and get people back to work."

Photographer Ludwig thinks the policy clear-cut: "Basically the P.R.G. doesn't like non-Communist newsmen around--it's just not their style to have people looking over their shoulders. They are prepared to allow a number of Western newsmen for 'image' reasons." Whatever the objective, by week's end the new South Viet Nam--with its blinds closing--looked more and more like a sealed society.

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