The Price of Honesty

SOUTH VIET NAM

The morning was muggy in Saigon, and normally punctual Education Minister Dr. Le Minh Tri was late leaving his villa for the ministry. When a red light halted the minister's Toyota four blocks from the office, Tri, his chauffeur and his bodyguard were more intent on the signal than on the motorbike that drew up alongside them. None was quick enough when one of the bike's two riders tossed a paper bag into the car; as the bike sped away, a hand grenade in the bag exploded. The chauffeur died instantly in the car's flaming wreckage. The bodyguard, only shaken, managed to pull his minister from the flames. But Tri, 43, died half a day later, his stomach riddled by shrapnel, an eye gone, a leg broken and his head grievously battered.

Usually after such attacks, Saigon accuses the Viet Cong. This time both police and the government looked elsewhere. A minister of education, especially one in office not quite four months, is an odd target for terrorism. Moreover, examination of fragments showed that the grenade was a U.S. model rather than the Chinese type that the Viet Cong are likely to use. Police soon arrested a discharged South Vietnamese marine sergeant on the basis of what they described as incriminating evidence: a motorbike, notes on Tri's daily routine, and the Toyota's license (EG 0011) written in ink on his hand.

Premier Tran Van Huong, who had appointed Tri, one of his former pupils in Huong's schoolmaster days, cried when he heard the news. President Nguyen Van Thieu, Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky and U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker all attended the funeral, and Thieu honored Tri posthumously with the National Order, second class. Meanwhile the dead man's friends bitterly suggested a motive for someone more highly placed than a marine sergeant. Huong had tossed out the previous education minister after discovering that scholarships to universities abroad, which carry built-in exemptions from military duty, were being sold to rich men's sons instead of awarded on merit. Tri, an ear-nose-and-throat specialist and plastic surgeon who had been teaching at the National Medical School, accepted Huong's charge to clean up the scandal. He apparently was making progress. He had been threatened four times by telephone as well as in several unsigned letters.

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