The Capital of Discontent

SOUTH VIET NAM The Capital of Discontent

Sleeping beside the River of Perfumes, the Imperial City of Hue in central Viet Nam seems to have no purpose beyond its past. Once, a century ago, the Nguyen princes ruled nearly all of Viet Nam from their proud palaces with their gardens and lagoons in Hue (pronounced whey). Today their palaces are crumbling, and Hue is a subdued and ceremonial city of 105,000 without a newspaper, scarcely a telephone, and little traffic beyond bicycles and canvas-topped cyclo taxis. The only industry is a lime plant employing 50 people. Lunch is a leisurely three-hour affair. A woman dropping her cooking pans can shatter the tree-shaded silence at midday for blocks around. The facade is deceiving. The site of Viet Nam's first university in 1918, Hue is the intellectual--and Buddhist--capital of the nation. It is also the capital of the nation's discontent, a place where politics is an obsession and proud factionalism the overarching fact of life. Under the French, the people of Hue mounted some sort of rebellious trouble at least once a year. More recently, the agitations that ultimately toppled Diem, then General Khanh, then Chief of State Phan Khac Suu, all began in Hue and rippled southward to Saigon like an infection. And for the last month, the waves of political unrest aimed at swamping Premier Nguyen Cao Ky have been rolling out of Hue in measured but ominously mounting intensity across Viet Nam.

Chauffeured Monks. Last week Hue provincial police staged a protest march against the recall of their chief to Saigon, after a weekend protest march of 20,000 civilians and even some uniformed soldiers demanding "Down with [Chief of State] Thieu and Ky" in 12-ft. banners. A two-day general strike was called for civil service employees --and like others in recent weeks, was happily honored by the citizens of Hue. Indeed, Hue and the five northernmost provinces of the 1 Corps, in which it is the principal city, are virtually under the control of militant Buddhist Leader Thich Tri Quang and the Hue students. Though Ky's government remained in control in Saigon, the Hue infection was all too evident.

On the public holiday commemorating Emperor Hung Vuong, who founded Viet Nam more than 3,000 years ago, Saigon's Buddhists asked the government for a license to celebrate the occasion in the city's central market. Ky and the generals agreed, provided that no more than 600 took part and that there was no antigovernment tone to it. Saigon Buddhist Leader Thich Tam Chau promised as much--or as little. But several thousand gathered at the market, led by five well-known agitators. They pinned up pictures of Ky and other generals on the stakes used for public executions, together with a sign that read: "This is the plaza of demagogy. Ky, Thieu and Co. must be executed." With that, the Buddhist monks slipped into their chauffeur-driven cars and sped away, while the agitators used megaphones to turn the assembly into an antigovernment, anti-American, anti-war parade through Saigon. Their banners, in English, were often antigrammatical as well. Samples: "Down with U.S. Obstructions," "Our Nation's Sovereignty Must Be Conserved," and "Down with the Americans' Attempt of Objecting to the Forming of a Vietnamese National Assembly."

In Quest of Power. What the Buddhists say they want is a constitution, an elected civilian government and a National Assembly. Ky has told them they can have all three--in good time. The extremist Buddhists led by Hue's Thich Tri Quang are unwilling to wait, even though ousting the generals now would cut off the Buddhists' best chance of getting a constitution. The bonzes are maneuvering to get the Assembly that will draw up the new constitution chosen from provincial and city councils--which Buddhists control. Ky has so far refused, and with good reason. A Buddhist-dominated Assembly would bring into the streets Viet Nam's four other major religious groups: the Catholics, the Hoa Hao, the Cao Dai and the Protestants. Saigon Buddhist Thich Tam Chau seems willing to compromise with the government on the Assembly, but so far the fiery Tri Quang has refused--and is using the demonstrations to improve his leverage.

Meanwhile the Communist agitators are using the Buddhists' mobs for all they are worth, and at week's end the demonstrations boiled up dangerously. Some 5,000 turned out in Hue as a warm-up for the "Week of Anger" Tri Quang scheduled in the city this week. Another 10,000 marched in Danang. Government offices were looted in Qhi Nhon, where 10,000, including 2,000 soldiers--among them several senior officers--demonstrated. In Saigon, Buddhist students brandishing bicycle chains and sticks took to the streets, overturning autos, throwing rocks and chanting "Yankees go home" in the most violent and ugly outburst of the crisis thus far.

When some 300 Buddhists refused to break up a sit-down protest around the national radio station, Saigon police at last cracked down, wielding clubs and wicker shields in their first show of force.

Da Nang was now in Communist hands, according to Premier Ky, who announced that the government soon will launch military operations there to regain control. Ky blamed Da Nang's mayor, a 37-year-old doctor, who has been in office since January. Warned Ky: "Either Da Nang's mayor is shot or the government will fall." Whether so dire a threat would quell the unrest, or simply fan it, a nervous Saigon--and an anxious Washington--waited to see.

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