Life with the Communists

Just a month ago, the coastal city of Danang was the scene of astonishing chaos and misery, crammed with hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees and soldiers trying to shoot their way onto the planes and boats leaving for safe havens farther south. But according to a group of French journalists, who flew there from Hanoi, the city is now calm and orderly as its transformation under a Communist government begins.

Portraits of Ho Chi Minh abound, as do Viet Cong flags. The ten rules of behavior for soldiers (be polite to people, respect their property, among others) are posted everywhere. Moviehouses show revolutionary films exclusively. Schoolteachers are being "re-educated" to teach the new Marxist credo. ARVN officers who did not manage to escape are being held in custody, but enlisted men so far have only to carry an identity card issued by the P.R.G.

There have been no reliable reports of mass reprisals, though unconfirmed rumors of large-scale executions have come from other Communist-held areas. Buddhist flags are numerous, a sign that the Communists are trying to gain the cooperation of the powerful religious groups. The Communists have also promised to set up "popular councils" to run the affairs of the city. Though supervised by military committees, these councils will no doubt include neutralists willing to work within the framework of a Communist-dominated government.

So far, the major Communist effort has gone into restoring basic services like water and electricity and keeping food markets stocked. Thousands of refugees from the countryside have been transported back to their homes; thousands of others were returning to the city from as far away as Cam Ranh, 200 miles to the south. Clearly, for the time at least, the Communists will be more concerned with the awesome problems of managing the huge territories that fell so unexpectedly into their hands than with political change. They will have to feed the population before they can revolutionize it.

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