Saigon Mob Kills Officer
June 18,1966

SAIGON— (AP)
Howling mob of about 150 persons killed a Vietnamese policeman with his own gun today in the sixth day of anti-government disorders in Saigon. A police source say the rioters then grabbed a second policeman, beat him and dragged him bleeding into the compound of the Buddhist institute. His fate was not known.

Riot troop moved in to take over the institute, the center of repeated agitation to overthrow the military government.
One source described the mob as "in one of the worst tempers yet". Barricades were thrown up by demonstrators across many streets and traffic clogged some intersections.


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THE WESTMORELAND'S REPORT

A special report to President Johnson from  United States Army general, William Childs Westmoreland

 The Allen-Scott Report
March 3rd , 1968

WASHINGTON -
In a special report to President Johnson, Westmoreland has urged support of Thieu's action as a necessary security measure because of Tri Quang's recent anti-government activities.

The President was informed Tri Quang provided the in-city bases from which the Viet Cong had hoped to turn their recent Saigon and Hue attacks into a general popular uprising.

Best evidence of the Communist alliance with Tri Quang, according to Westmoreland was the location of headquarters of the Viet Cong attack  on Saigon in An Quang pagoda, long famed as the seat of the militant Buddhist's operations.

South Vietnamese troops capturing the pagoda, in the heart of Saigon's crowded Chinese district, found all the equipment needed for a full scale Communist command post.

Prisoners taken in the fighting around the pagoda, Westmoreland revealed, described its function as the nerve center for the Saigon attack.

They confirmed, he stated, the command post was set up several weeks in advance of the offensive and while Tri Quang was in the pagoda.  Large amounts of Soviet - made weapons also were stored in a building behind the main temple before the attack
South Vietnamese officials said the command post, staffed by a Viet Cong organization with the code-name "d - 214,Hanoi unit " , was headed by a North Vietnamese major general, a friend of Tri Quang from the time both served with the Viet Minh against the French.

According to Westmoreland's report, the clandestine help from Tri Quang's followers in Hue is one reason why the Communists were able to hold out so long.

There, as in Saigon, the pagoda of Tri Quang's militant Buddhists was the central coordinating point of the Viet Cong attacks and their stubborn defense of the city. More than 100 U.S. Marines lost their lives in recapturing the walled city.


THE FIFTH COLUMN

Another U.S. intelligence estimate states Tri Quang helped plan the Buddhist role in the Communist attacks and then went into hiding after he saw the Viet Cong-North Vietnamese offensive was not strong enough to topple the Thieu government.

In preparation for the Tet assault, the report points out, Tri Quang and his militant Buddhists waged a prolonged drive for popular support.

Tri Quang, for instance, in December and January dispatched a team of speakers on a nationwide tour protesting government policy. The Viet Cong at the same time let it be known they planned an assault on major cities and promised to replace the Thieu government with a coalition including the militant Buddhists.

Once the new coalition was formed, according to one captured document, Tri Quang was to be sent to the United Nations to demand immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Vietnam. So far, President Johnson has kept hands off.

In discussing the arrest of Tri Quang with Congressional leaders recently, the President took the position it is strictly an internal matter for the South Vietnamese government to handle.

"One of President Kennedy's biggest mistakes in Vietnam,"    the President told the legislative leaders, "was to let U.S. officials get too deeply involved in Tri Quang's effort to overthrow the late President Diem. We are still paying for that blunder."

Tri Quang's supporters in Saigon now are trying a new approach. They are urging U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker to intervene on behalf of the militant Buddhist by discreetly advising the Thieu government of the possible damage to its image.





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Red Front Leaders Convicted in Saigon for the Tet Offensive Attack in South Vietnam

Friday, July 12, 1968


SAIGON (AP) —
 A South Vietnamese military court today condemned 10 prominent doctors, lawyers, educators and politicians to death in absentee for leading, and organization that advocates overthrow of the Saigon government, and formation of a coalition government,
including the Viet Cong.

After a 23-minute trial, the court also ordered the property of the defendants confiscated.
The defendants were convicted of treason for being leaders of the Alliance of National, Democratic and Peace Forces of Vietnam, labeled a Communist front by both the South Vietnamese government and the U.S. Embassy.
They disappeared from their homes shortly before formation of the alliance was announced in March by the Viet Cong's Liberation Radio


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Hatched Smear in South Vietnam

Washington-
January 23rd 1964,

Red word warfare experts hatched the smear that president Diem, a Catholic, was guilty of the grossest religious persecution of the Buddhists who constituted the majority of the population in South Viet Nam.

American newspapers,radio,and television were filled daily with blood curdling tales of how Diem and his brother Nhu persecuted Buddhists.
The sympathy of the American people was aroused by pictures of Buddhist monks incinerating themselves in the street in order to protest the cruelty of Diem's religious persecution.

Achieved Purpose These stories achieved their purpose. They fooled our State Department into giving the green light to Diem's enemies to overthrow his government and murder his family.

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Not unexpectedly, Madame Nhu is convinced that the United States is now paying in the blood of its own people for "the crime of conspiring in the overthrow of a legitimate government and a faithful ally."

She believes that events are bearing out her warnings, particularly those about the fact the Viet Cong have exploited certain extremists in the Buddhist movement to perpetrate political disorders.
"From the first," said Madame Nhu, "I pointed out that Buddhism is based on non violence, compassion, and a refusal to take the life of any living thing.
Obviously, therefore, socalled Buddhist monks that practised violence and encouraged suicides were not genuine representatives of that great religion."

Madame Nhu Keeps a Lonely Vigil

The following Is an interview with Frederick Eric Nolting, Jr., a former ambassador to Saigon. He joined the State Department in 1946 and was named by President Kennedy in 1961 to be Ambassador to South Vietnam. He was recalled to Washington In August, 1963, shortly before the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem, having been replaced by Henry Cabot Lodge.
In 1964 Nolting resigned from the Foreign Service to join the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York.

Nolting Claims Vietnam Plot is Shameful And Disastrous

SAIGON. 
Lieutenant GENERAL DO CAO TRI, cocky, aggressive and flamboyant, was confident  that South Vietnamese troops could take over from the Americans.
"We can do better and we can go deeper and we can go anywhere, not only in country but also outside of country, and even in the rainy season," Said Saigon top field Commander.  He was killed today in a helicopter crash.


THE -GN- CHANNEL