Foreign Relations: Diplomacy by Television

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At Mme. Nhu's inspiration, the government-controlled Times of Viet Nam bannered the headline, CIA FINANCING PLANNED COUP D'ETAT, over a story accusing U.S. agents of spending up to $24 million in bribes to key military men, labor leaders and civil servants to overthrow the Diem government—or at least to depose Nhu and his lady. The U.S. State Department scornfully dismissed the charges as "something out of Ian Fleming."

In fact, only a few days before, Administration officials both in Washington and Saigon had been freely confiding to newsmen that the U.S., even if it did not actively support a coup d'etat, would certainly not mind seeing one. But the Administration apparently has changed its mind about the possible benefits of a coup, for reasons perhaps explained by Pundit Walter Lippmann: "A government of Vietnamese generals, installed by the U.S., would hardly be better or more popular than Diem, and might well be worse. And so, since we cannot reform the Diem government, since we cannot replace it, and since we cannot abandon it, we have to put up with it for the time being."

Lamentably Inadequate. President Kennedy's effort to force an international diplomatic issue over domestic, holiday television, was a lamentable failure. If it did anything, it increased tensions and animosities between two governments that must continue working together for their mutual security. Indeed, as of last week's end, about the only good thing that could be said about the Vietnamese crisis was that the Communist Viet Cong was itself so inept, and its Red Chinese backers were so tied down (see cover story) that they were as yet unable to take military advantage of the unseemly split between the Diem regime and the U.S.