South Viet Nam's Fifth No

ALONGSIDE the broad, American-built expressway between Saigon and Bien Hoa, President Nguyen Van Thieu's eager campaign workers have already hung banners emblazoned with Thieu's "Four Nos" slogan--no neutrality, no coalition government, no concession of any South Vietnamese territory to the Communists, no Communist activity anywhere in South Viet Nam. Thieu might as well have added a Fifth No: no opposition in the presidential campaigns.

With only five weeks remaining until South Viet Nam's October election, there was still no end in sight to the political snafu that has become at once a bitter joke in cynical Saigon and a source of deep embarrassment to Washington. So long as Thieu held the lines of governmental power and could steer the results in his favor, neither retired General Duong Van ("Big") Minh nor South Viet Nam's feisty Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky would consent to run as opposition candidates. That left Thieu the sole contender, knocking the underpinnings from the U.S. contention that it remains in South Viet Nam at the request of a freely and democratically elected government. As one measure of Washington's concern, U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker spoke almost daily with Richard Nixon last week on a direct telephone line between the embassy in Saigon and San Clemente.

Artful Proposal. In Saigon, the elements of farce in the situation were underlined with tragedy. There was talk of a coup, and the guard around the presidential palace was reinforced. Saigon gossips began adding up the forces loyal to Vice President Ky, which are thought to include some marine, airborne and armor battalions, plus six prop-driven Skyraiders at Tan Son Nhut airbase. The U.S. command placed all American installations on alert, mainly to keep G.I.s off the streets of cities where short-lived but ugly anti-American riots had broken out last week.

As elections for the lower house of the National Assembly approached, antigovernment candidates found the going rough (see box, page 24); police beat up and arrested one opposition politician, Tran Tuan Nham, who made the mistake of using a picture of Nixon with a Hitler mustache as a campaign poster. And for the second time in two weeks a crippled veteran set himself ablaze in Danang to protest Thieu's election tactics. Saigon's Disabled Veterans Association grimly announced that it had 40 more volunteers ready to follow his fiery example.

What to do? Ky announced his refusal to run early last week, but not in time to get his name taken off the ballot. That meant that Thieu could claim that the election was a contest after all, and late last week he announced that the campaign would proceed as scheduled. He did not even comment on Ky's interesting proposal that they both resign, turn the government and electoral machinery over to the president of the Senate, Nguyen Van Huyen, and then contest a delayed election early next year. Ky's suggestion, which was taken straight from Article 56 of South Viet Nam's U.S.-inspired constitution, found considerable favor in Washington. The delayed election would have extended the campaign well past mid-November, when Nixon is scheduled to announce the next installment of his troop-withdrawal plan. But it did offer a way out of the present morass. "We'd have to rework the scenario," said one Washington official. "But then the scenario we have worked out has been shot to hell anyway."

Plainly, Ky's artful proposal was designed to put Thieu on the spot with the U.S. Just as plainly, Thieu felt less obliged than ever to heed Washington's advice, or any other. He convened twelve of his leading military and political advisers and found that only three of them thought that he should continue to run in an uncontested election. The minority was apparently enough for South Viet Nam's President, who was evidently determined to go ahead with the race in any case.

In that acrimonious atmosphere, all sorts of stories gathered currency, including an unsavory one that was categorically denied both in Washington and at the U.S. embassy in Saigon. The chief aides of both Ky and Minh told nearly identical stories that Ambassador Bunker had offered the two noncandidates a sackful of "campaign assistance" if they would only agree to run. Minh's people said Bunker's offer amounted to $3,000,000; Ky's men said that Bunker offered the Vice President $5,000,000. It is possible, of course, that the story was hoked up by Minh and Ky to embarrass Thieu and the U.S. Government further. But their aides repeatedly insisted that the money had been offered, and few in Saigon were ready to dismiss the story out of hand.

Isolated Positions. While the political squabbles stirred up Saigon, Communist artillerymen, defying counterattacks by waves of B-52s, placed isolated South Vietnamese positions just below the Demilitarized Zone under tremendous pressure. Throughout the country, enemy sappers and mortar teams launched scattered attacks on a slew of targets, including the huge U.S. base at Cam Ranh Bay, where an ammunition dump was set ablaze and spewed forth explosives for twelve dangerous hours. Still, the U.S. command reported only ten American combat deaths--the lowest weekly total since August 1965.

That was still too many if the net result of U.S. policy is to be an electoral farce in Saigon. Unless Thieu changes his mind and accepts Ky's proposal, or something like it, he may regret his intransigence. A disillusioned Congress, returning from its recess next week, could slash away at the $565 million in economic aid that the Administration wants to give Saigon in the coming fiscal year. It might also go for something like Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield's proposal that all U.S. troops be legislated out of South Viet Nam if the election is not cleared up within 90 days. In that case, Thieu would stand to lose much more than he would by facing Ky and Minh in a completely free and fair election.

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