World: And Meanwhile What's Happening up North?

North Viet Nam has long served with impunity as a base for war and subversion against the rest of Southeast Asia. It is under Hanoi's direction that the Communist Viet Cong wage their guerrilla war in South Viet Nam, aided by men and matériel smuggled from the North down the famed Ho Chi Minh Trail, which is named for North Viet Nam's longtime Red ruler. But despite its aggressive stance, the Red North is beset by serious internal troubles. Last week, amid streamers and red lanterns, wispy-chinned President Ho Chi Minh himself strode into polling station No. 24 in his dismal capital of Hanoi. Officially described as "solid, nimble and in high spirits" despite his 74 years, Ho delivered a speech praising his "free and democratic" regime, then elaborately marked his ballot.

The election was to renew the rubber-stamp National Assembly—which, according to Hanoi, also represents South Viet Nam—and the vote was of course neither free nor democratic. The slate of candidates had been care fully chosen beforehand. But the West, which gets precious little news out of the tightly closed country north of the 17th Parallel, watched the election carefully. The real outcome might not be clear for months, but which candidates were picked, and the margins by which they were allowed to win, might provide clues to the power struggle obviously going on inside North Viet Nam.

Forced Choice. Sorely in need of Russian aid but living next door to Red China, Ho Chi Minh had long managed an agile course between Moscow and Peking. But last year, faced with lining up behind Moscow and signing the nuclear test-ban or following Peking in rejecting it, Ho reluctantly fell in with the Chinese—whereupon the Russians chopped off most of his aid. The decision made Ho's own pro-Chinese faction more aggressive.

The clash between Hanoi's Sinophiles and old-guard pro-Muscovites reached a showdown at a stormy session of the Lao Dong Central Committee last December. The Peking partisans evidently were in control of the meeting—Ho did not even speak. They put out a communiqué denouncing the "rightist ideologies that exist among a number of our cadres," meaning such pro-Moscow Ho Chi Minh followers as Premier Pham Van Dong. During Ho's 23 years at the head of Vietnamese Communism, he has weathered many storms and is such a father figure that he may never be toppled by anything short of death. But "Uncle Ho" is believed to have lost much control over his party and looks increasingly like a figurehead.

Eggshell Candidate. In last week's vote, Ho, standing for re-election to the Assembly, rolled up a Marxist-style 99.92% majority. Finishing close behind him were two top functionaries of North Viet Nam's Communist movement, known as Lao Dong, or Workers'Party: First Secretary Le Duan, who won 99.83% and Politburo Member Truong Chinh with 99.81%. Duan, 57, and Chinh, 55, are leaders of the party's pro-Peking wing, and their margins are a measure of the growing challenge by the Peking men to Uncle Ho.