The War Is Waiting

South Viet Nam's generals staged their coup--and the U.S. cheered it--on the theory that they could wage the war against the Communist Viet Cong guerrillas more successfully than Diem. They will have to prove it soon.

Bombs & Ambush. In Saigon, Red terrorists, many of whom infiltrated the capital under cover of the Buddhist demonstrations months ago, have been exploding bombs and throwing hand grenades sporadically since the coup. One night last week, a homemade bomb hidden under a table shattered a sidewalk cafe on tree-shaded Tu Do Street, wounding five U.S. soldiers. So far the ruling generals have not been able to police the streets as efficiently as Civilian Diem. One possible reason: the removal of some of Diem's tough Special Forces from the capital.

In the war, too, the Communists stepped up the offensive tempo, staging 1,021 "incidents," the highest weekly total on record. Their attacks cost the government 925 dead and wounded--again, the highest toll of any week of the war. Communist casualties were estimated at 740, and the guerrillas captured 450 weapons while losing only 140. The worst government setback since the coup occurred in a swampy stretch of the Mekong Delta 100 miles southwest of Saigon, where a band of Viet Cong ambushed an entire government company with mortars and machine guns. Of 130 men, 55 were killed and 34 wounded, six listed as missing. The Viet Cong escaped with 71 American weapons. In coastal Phy Yen province, on the other hand, government troops surprised a group of guerrillas preparing to attack a hamlet, killed 23 of them.

Obviously, the Communists were trying to get the jump on the country's new military leader, Lieut. General Duong Van ("Big") Minh, before he could get his own campaign organized. Minh and his fellow generals have assigned aggressive new officers to combat commands, but their forces have not regained the momentum against the Viet Cong.

Arrival & Departure. For the moment, Chief of State Minh was busy with the problems of a chaotic country. A Buddhist but eager to demonstrate his religious neutrality, he ceremonially greeted Saigon's Roman Catholic Archbishop Nguyen Van Binh on his return from Rome, also dispatched a helicopter to bring home Le Thanh Tat, chief of the eccentric Cao Dai politico-religious sect, who had been exiled in Cambodia.* The air carried an unmistakable tang of political fever. Repeatedly Big Minh assured visitors of his hope to hold elections "if possible" in six to twelve months. But the U.S. is in no hurry for him to do so; the country is so politically disorganized, Washington fears, that it will take longer than that to guarantee an orderly turnover to civilian rule. As for Big Minh, he seems reluctant to build himself up as permanent head of state. "Don't call me Excellency," he gruffed, grinning to a journalist who had so addressed him. "I am a general, and I will remain a general."

The U.S. meanwhile went ahead with plans to withdraw at least several hundred U.S. servicemen from South Viet Nam beginning next month. To survey the whole Viet Nam situation, a formidable array of U.S. officialdom jets into Honolulu this week, including Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, foreign aid Director David E. Bell, Presidential Adviser McGeorge Bundy and Brother William Bundy. On hand from Saigon will be Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and General Paul Harkins--who for a while seemed on the verge of becoming the object of a Saigon-style vendetta as the last remaining member of the "old order."

According to reports relayed by New York Times Correspondent David Halberstam, the ruling generals would like to see Harkins replaced (he is due to retire next year, but it has been generally assumed that his tour would be extended) because he had consistently defended the conduct of the war under Diem. In fact, Lodge himself had viewed the potential effect of the Buddhist crisis on the war effort with far more alarm than Harkins. Faced with the rumors of his impending replacement, Harkins firmly stuck to his opinion that the war had not been going badly under Diem, suggested that things would not change from now on. Next year, he said, will be decisive, and "naturally I would like to see this job through to the end." In Washington President Kennedy seemed to agree. Said he: "There may be some who would like to see General Harkins go, but I plan to keep him there."

*The Cao Dai hierarchy is said to be elected by Ouija board, and their saints include (among others) French Novelist Victor Hugo. Once Cao Dai operated a private army of 20,000 but was crushed by Diem. Many Cao Daists refused to cooperate against the Red guerrillas and some advocate a neutral Viet Nam, but last week Tat urged support for Big Minh.

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