Invitation to an Exile

When Major General Duong Van Minh attempted to return to his native South Viet Nam in 1965, the tower at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airport refused to grant his plane landing clearance and he had to head back into exile in neighboring Thailand. It was a humiliating rebuff for burly "Big Minh,"* the man who ousted Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963 and who rose to chief of state before he was shelved and then banished in a subsequent coup. Last year Minh tried another route--by filing as a presidential candidate--only to have his application rejected by a military government that was well aware of his excellent chances of winning. Last week, after nearly four years in exile, the hero of the 1963 coup at last seemed homeward bound.

The invitation to return came from President Nguyen Van Thieu who, under pressure from some military associates, had long held out against a Minh comeback. Now, after months of political maneuvering during which he has managed to shoulder aside ambitious Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky and his supporters, Thieu has consolidated his position to the point where U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker recently described his government as "more stable than at any time since the early days of Diem." Thieu described Minh's return as part of a national reconciliation plan, said he would soon send emissaries to Bangkok to bring him home by Nov. 1, South Viet Nam's National Day and the fifth anniversary of the anti-Diem coup.

Uncertain Role. The move would end long years of anguish for Minh. A generous monthly pension of $1,800 has allowed him to live well in Bangkok, raising orchids, working on his memoirs (465 pages so far) and playing tennis at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.

But he clearly misses Viet Nam. "I am sad that I can do nothing to serve our country," he recently wrote to a Saigon friend.

Precisely what Minh will do if and when he returns remains uncertain. He could become a presidential adviser --though there is some question whether Minh would agree to serve under a man who was a relatively lowly army colonel when he was already a general.

As a Buddhist, a southerner and a close friend of Premier Tran Van Huong (a former student of ex-Teacher Huong, Minh still addresses him as "Master"), Minh would be an obvious asset in any national reconciliation effort.

Despite occasional speculation that Minh might be more acceptable to the Communists than any one of the present Saigon leaders, he makes it clear in an article in the current Foreign Affairs quarterly that they are not acceptable to him. To fight the Communists more effectively, he insists, Saigon must foster "rice-roots" participation and leadership. Minh describes the National Liberation Front as the "disloyal opposition wholly responsive to Hanoi. It is the true enemy in our midst." He adds pointedly: "As an organization, it cannot be dealt with by suasion or compromise, much less by coalition." That is pretty much what Thieu has been saying all along.

* So nicknamed by U.S. advisers because, at just under 6 ft., he towers over his countrymen. Back in 1963, the name also distinguished him from another general, Tran Van Minh, who was known as "Little Minh."

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