The Politicking Begins

Honor guards stood at attention and soldiers checked the lawns with mine detectors last week as the 117 newly elected delegates to the National Constituent Assembly solemnly strode into Saigon's freshly whitewashed onetime opera house. They were there to start the tedious task of building a nation out of the shards of war. Starched and spotless in his white dress uniform, Premier Nguyen Cao Ky solemnly listened to the strains of the Vietnamese national an them, then declared: "I wish you success and a constitution that will open an era democratic, progressive and prosperous for all the people." Nguyen Baluong, 65, the senior delegate and presiding officer for the Assembly's opening session, spoke for the delegates: "We must have a government that carries out the desires of the people, and such a government can only be formed when our nation has a firm constitution."

Youth v. Age. Writing that constitution will be the Assembly's duty for the next six months. Last week, as the delegates began organizing themselves into committees, the politicking had already begun. The younger representatives were lobbying vigorously for a share of the chairmanships that in the normal traditions of Vietnamese society would automatically go to their elders. The central Vietnamese, encouraged by General Vinh Loc, II Corps commander, were trying to put together a bloc to protect their interests against the north and the south. All told, some 60 to 70 political parties provided the setting of South Viet Nam's venture into nationhood as the Assembly set to work.

Wily, wealthy Tran Van Van, 58, a kind of Oriental John C. Calhoun, last week was working to weld the 44 southern delegates into a cohesive bloc. It will be hard work, for the southerners include military men and members of such disparate groups as the Cao Dai, the Hoa Hao, the Dai Viet party, and a new "Movement for the Renaissance of the South." Should Van succeed, he will have the largest regional grouping in the Assembly (northerners account for 27 seats, central Vietnamese for 28). Cutting across regional lines, Dr. Phan Quang Dan, 48, and his new "Rising Sun" party are trying to fuse worker and peasant sentiment in support of his American-backed land-reform and free-unionism platform. And South Viet Nam's ethnic minorities--Montagnards, Chinese, Cambodians--were attempting to forge an 18-seat coalition.

The Korean Model. The 20-member bloc of officers elected as delegates was being courted by such civilians as Publisher-Physician Dang Van Sung, 51, who hopes to drive a wedge between Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and his uniformed delegates. "They want to be civilians," said Sung of the military Assemblymen. "That's why they ran." In the headquarters of the ruling directorate of generals, five separate constitutional drafts were circulating; and the generals themselves were busy choosing sides for the presidential power struggle that lies ahead once a constitution is written. Ky and his chief of state Thieu were, in fact, pondering the step taken in similar circumstances three years ago by South Korea's General Chung Hee Park, who shed his military uniform to run as presidential candidate at the head of an ostensibly civilian party.

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