South Viet Nam: The Religious Crisis

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Protest Strike. The situation came to a head last month in Hue (pop. 106,000), which happens to be the see of Diem's brother, Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc. Though Catholics were allowed to fly Vatican flags at a church celebration honoring Archbishop Thuc, three days later the government forbade the Buddhists to unfurl their religious flags for the 2,507th birthday of Gautama Buddha. When the Buddhists staged a protest march against the edict, government armored cars fired over the heads of the rioters. In the melee, nine people were killed. The Buddhists blamed the slaughter on Diem's troops; the government blamed the killings on Communist agitators.

The Hue disaster caused Buddhist demonstrations throughout the country. Buddhist delegations in Saigon demanded the removal of restrictions on their faith, equal job opportunities and indemnity for the families of the dead and wounded in Hue. Instead, the government arrested demonstrators, blamed the unrest on "liars, foreigners and the Viet Cong." When another Buddhist crowd gathered in Hue last week, troops dispersed it with crude tear-gas bombs that sent 67 people to the hospital with chemical burns.

U.S. officials in Saigon fear that the mounting religious strife can only benefit the Viet Cong by dividing the people and the predominantly Buddhist army just as the government forces are beginning to gain a military advantage over the Reds. Diem made some conciliatory gestures; but with the situation fast deteriorating, they might prove not to be enough. He ordered the removal of the barricades in Hue and in a nationwide radio broadcast admitted that some of his aides had not shown "sufficient understanding and sensitivity" in dealing with the crisis.