Cut Aid to Thieu, Support the PRG

AFTER A DECADE of brutal warfare and ever-increasing corruption and police repression under a dictatorial government, a faint ray of hope is finally arising for the people of South Vietnam. The protest movement that emerged openly in early September has grown to significant proportions and is threatening to topple Nguyen Van Thieu's regime.

Tens of thousands of citizens have demonstrated in Saigon streets and in major cities and towns throughout Vietnam during the past two months. And despite the threat of violence and jail sentences by Thieu's police force, the number of protesters has increased markedly in recent weeks. Demands for Thieu's resignation have come from 32 members of the South Vietnamese National Assembly, the leader of the country's largest labor union, and at least two popular opposition movements--the Popular Movement of Struggle Against Corruption for National Salvation and the Reestablishment of Peace--and a swelling Catholic anti-corruption movement.

With the continued withdrawal of American hardware and capital from South Vietnam, Thieu's economy is in a complete shambles. In addition, Thieu's military is badly demoralized and is losing on the battlefield. It is now apparent that the so called Republic of South Vietnam can no longer continue its pointless military campaign. Thieu has been forced to make several concessions to those who voice opposition to his war policy, including the ouster of several unpopular cabinet members and three of his top military commanders.

But the strongest opposition to the Saigon government is coming as a result of a Catholic anti-corruption campaign that began quietly over a year ago. Thieu continues to send his tanks and police in to break up demonstrations against his regime, but he has also made several concessions to the Catholic leaders, who had previously supported him. He has fired the information minister, his cousin Hoang Duc Nha, and dismissed at least 375 army officers for suspected corruption.

Still Thieu is not without protective resources. He has built up an enormous police network to deal with political dissenters and their numbers have not prevented him from jailing them. There are reportedly over 100,000 political prisoners locked up in Vietnam. And while the United States Congress grows more and more reluctant to appropriate funds for South Vietnam, the Ford administration has increased its efforts to get international aid for Saigon. In an attempt to channel money from the World Bank, U.S. representatives met with representatives of 15 other member nations two weeks ago in Paris. Although Japan was the sole supporter of the American proposals, the administration seems intent upon getting increased international aid for Saigon.

Thieu is in very serious trouble and opposition leaders promised this week that their demonstrations will continue to grow in frequency and scope. It now appears that nothing short of a renewed infusion of direct and indirect American aid to the Saigon government can save Thieu. While this might seem an unthinkable proposition for an America still scarred from its previous involvement in Vietnam, recent actions of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50 indicate otherwise. In fact, the Ford administration has already gone to great lengths in Congress to increase aid to Thieu and even threatened renewed troop involvement if necessary "to protect American interests."

For nearly a decade the United States has bombed the countryside of Vietnam back into the stone age. Now it owes the people of Vietnam far more than it appropriates to Thieu. But the funds which the U.S. spends to prop up Thieu's illegitimate government in South Vietnam should be rechanneled to the legitimate government: the Provisional Revolutionary Government. Only when U.S. funds are utilized to rebuild the countryside of Vietnam and to bring a united people the opportunity for free democratic elections, should the American public allow its government to continue spending millions of dollars in Vietnam.

If Thieu is ousted and the people of both North and South Vietnam are allowed at long last to choose their government, they will have a chance to achieve domestic peace, and freedom that many in the younger generation have never known. Until that time, the struggle in Vietnam will continue. Even if this struggle is remote from the people of the United States, we must not allow our government to increase or even continue its present aid to a regime that, by its very nature, demands war conditions and a police state to maintain an illegitimate and unpopular dictatorship.

The removal of Thieu's government would not necessarily be the solution to the severe economic and social problems facing Vietnam and would not ensure the unification of the country. Some of Thieu's would-be successors and a large portion of those now calling for his resignation are as anti-communist and anti-democratic as Thieu himself. But this man has for too many years perpetuated a war against the will of the general population in deference to fat-cat South Vietnamese businessmen and military officers. He has collaborated with the United States in bombing his own country in an attempt to annihilate his political opponents. His removal is a necessary first step on the road to liberation for Vietnam. Undoubtedly the U.S. government and its South Vietnam ambassador Graham C. Martin will have a large hand in any power struggle that follows the downfall of Thieu. While there is little hope that Martin, a fanatic anti-communist, would go to great lengths to promote free elections because of the "danger" of a communist electoral victory, the Ford administration and all its agents should at least adopt a hands-off policy in any democratic political struggles in Vietnam.