Saigon Students Say Ky Regime Might Negotiate

A South Vietnamese student leader told a Harvard "teach-out" yesterday that if the students of Vietnam were to demand negotiations, the government would probably agree quickly.

Duong Thien Dong, president of the Saigon Medical Students Association, said that the present government exerts less control than did that of Ngo Dinh Diem, and that he thinks students "no longer trust in one personality." But he added the youthfulness of members of Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky's administration had attracted the respect of the student movement.

Bombing will be sanctioned by students as long as it is necessary to convince the Viet Cong that they cannot win the war, Dong said. He deplored the bombing of friendly villages, but said that "there are daily mistakes because there is daily terrorism."

Dong was one of five Vietnamese students who addressed the Teach Out which was sponsored by the United Ministry and the Harvard-Radcliffe Liberal Union on behalf of a coalition of groups interested in the Vietnamese war. About 100 people attended. None of the students disagreed with government policy regarding the war, or with the presence of U.S. troops in South Vietnam.