Welcoming a Government

In any other week, the battle of Loc Ninh would have dominated the news out of Viet Nam. Last week, however, Loc Ninh had to compete for headlines with an event of far more potential importance to the outcome of the Vietnamese struggle than a dozen big battles: the inauguration of President Nguyen Van Thieu and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky as leaders of the Second Republic, Viet Nam's first elected government in six years. The most impressive fact about the inauguration was that the new government was able to hold two days of open festivities, ceremonies and parades without any significant interference from the Viet Cong beyond a few mortar shells that fell into the palace garden.

For the inaugural ceremony itself, Saigon's newly whitewashed National Assembly building dazzled in the tropical sunshine. Overhead, a giant blue balloon bobbed gently, and huge orange pennants, striped' in the red of the South Vietnamese flag, fluttered in the breeze. Some 25,000 troops lined the streets leading to the square in front of the Assembly, and in the reviewing stands waited the representatives of 22 nations, headed by Vice President Hubert Humphrey. As a 21-gun salute from a howitzer boomed across the capital, Thieu and Ky, clad in business suits, arrived in twin Mercedes 300s to be sworn in.

Tanks & Jets. Thieu, with Ky following a respectful two paces behind, first lit a symbolic flame of freedom in a large urn, then mounted the red-carpeted steps to recite the oath of office. When he was finished, pretty Vietnamese girls in ao-dais released hundreds of colored balloons into the air. In his brief, plain-spoken inaugural address, Thieu told the South Vietnamese that now "my preoccupations are your preoccupations; I shall rely on your eyes to see more clearly and your concern to gain a better knowledge." He again offered to hold direct talks with Hanoi to end the war, as he had promised during his campaign. But significantly absent this time was any mention of a bombing pause, perhaps reflecting Washington's growing lack of enthusiasm for one.

Thieu then led the government's retinue and his guests from abroad off to a reception in the Independence Palace. Afterward, he came back to the Assembly to address the nation's new Senate and House, offering them "mutual respect and sympathy" and inviting them to join him in broadening the base of South Vietnamese democracy. That night Thieu happily cut a six-foot-high red and yellow cake at a state banquet at the palace.

Next day, a military parade to celebrate the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem went off without a missed beat, its resplendent display watched by Saigonese who lined the streets around Unity Square. First came a crack Vietnamese drill team, and overhead a flyby of jets, transports and helicopters. Then a combined honor guard of Thais, South Koreans, Nationalist Chinese, Filipinos, New Zealanders, Australians and Americans marched past, followed by combat troops and a 56-piece Korean army band. Finally the heavy equipment rolled out, from clanking M41 tanks to giant earth movers.

Poet Premier. Getting back to business, President Thieu chose as Premier of his new government Saigon Lawyer Nguyen Van Loc, 45, a mild, apolitical lawyer who was educated in France and writes novels and poetry in his spare time. As Premier, Loc is constitutionally the third most powerful man in the country after Thieu and Ky, and will preside over meetings of the 22-man Cabinet that is now being formed. His selection as Premier was no surprise. He is a Southerner and thus a good balance to Thieu, a Central Vietnamese, and Ky, a Northerner. Moreover, he had managed the Thieu-Ky campaign and, as a protege of Ky's, was probably given the premiership as part of the bargain struck between the two rivals when Ky stepped down in favor of Thieu for the presidency.

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