The Noncoup

All of the U.S.'s hopes for an honorable settlement of the war in Viet Nam rest on a stable, representative South Vietnamese government, able to carry an increasing burden of the fighting and, within reason, hold its own politically once peace comes a chilling hours last week, those hopes seemed about to be dashed to bits. Rumors of a military coup against the elected government of President Nguyen Van Thieu swept through Sai gon and the Vietnamese armed forces were ordered on full alert. All the night marish instability of 1960-65, with all its coups and coup attempts, seemed about to begin again. While the rumors eventually proved false, the scare was all too real.

Compromise Figure. A possible cause for the bad case of jitters in Saigon was the return of Major General Duong Van ("Big") Minh after four years in exile. Ousted in 1964 because of alleged "neutralist" tendencies, Minh was brought back by President Thieu as part of a national reconciliation effort (TIME, Sept. 27). That did not sit well with some South Vietnamese hawks, who worry about a U.S. sellout and who fear popular Big Minh as an ideal figure for eventual compromise with the Communists. Vietnamese Deputies and Senators began receiving un signed letters that branded Minh a tool of the Communists. Catholic extremists planned street demonstrations, and the Buddhists were quick to plan counterdemonstrations. There were other rumblings as well; some people were unhappy about the reappearance of former Diemist officials in the government.

Thieu reacted--perhaps overreacted by ordering the armed forces on general alert. Patrols and checkpoints were beefed up, Tan Son Nhut airbase was closed, and Cabinet ministers were told to keep themselves protected.

Confusion Compounded. At once, the capital's rumor mills, always idling, started to whirr in high gear with the message that there had been a coup and that key officers had been arrested. Riot police carrying wicker shields and tear gas began to cruise around the city, on guard for demonstrations; there were none. The confusion was compounded when a high-ranking government official leaked word that a coup attempt had been thwarted. Other officials denied there had been such an attempt, and President Thieu felt it necessary to go on nationwide radio and television to announce that there had been neither coup nor arrests. The alert was a routine precaution against Communist moves, he said. His report had some holes: there was no evidence of unusual Communist activity around Saigon, and about 20 people were indeed called in for interrogation.

Had Thieu nipped a real coup in the bud? Or had he perhaps raised the specter of a coup to weed out men potentially dangerous to his regime? The U.S. mission dismissed the crisis as "a case of rumor feeding upon rumor." But the Americans in Saigon were troubled by the events, or nonevents, of the week. All summer, U.S. officials have been reporting home that the Vietnamese army and political climate have been improving. To make those reports stick, they have told the Vietnamese in no uncertain terms that one more coup will be the coup de grace as far as U.S. public support for the war is concerned.

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