The Third Brother

To some, Ngo Dinh Can seemed to be the ablest of the ill-fated Ngo brothers. Although he never held an official position in the Diem regime, he was the overlord of central Viet Nam. A rural Rasputin in high-collared mandarin robes who wenched and swindled lustily, he nevertheless ran his fief so effectively that it had less trouble from the Viet Cong than any other area. Can in vain advised his brothers, President Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu, to ease the measures against the Buddhists--not out of idealism but to avoid rocking the boat.

After last November's coup, in which Diem and Nhu were murdered,* Can sought asylum in the U.S. consulate at Hue, but was turned over to the military junta. Vietnamese newspapers splashed lurid accounts and dubious photographs alleging that Can ran a private dungeon and torture camp on his thousand-acre estate near Hue.

These charges were not brought up at all at his six-day trial last week in Saigon's yellow Palais de Justice, only 50 yards from the palace where his brother once ruled. Officially, Can was charged with murdering three Hue business rivals for profit, with illegal speculation and rake-offs on government contracts.

Appearing in court on a stretcher--he suffers from diabetes--Can, 53, denied all. Asked to substantiate his denials, he snapped: "Who would give evidence for me in the situation I am in?" It took a nine-man tribunal 90 minutes to condemn him to death by firing squad or the guillotine, which, introduced by the French, is still occasionally used in South Viet Nam.

* Three other Ngo brothers: Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc is in Rome; former Ambassador Ngo Dinh Luyen was last reported job hunting in London; Ngo Dinh Khoi was killed by the Communists a few years after World War II.

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