South Viet Nam: Thieu on Top

At the approach of the June 30 fil- ing deadline for presidential candidates in South Viet Nam, the rivalry be tween Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu and Premier Nguyen Cao Ky intensified. U.S. diplomats alerted Washington that trouble was imminent. Rumors of coup and counter-coup coursed through Saigon: Vietnamese marines loyal to Ky were said to be headed for the capital; 20 truckloads of pro-Thieu troops were reported en route to the city. Though the rumors proved false, the nation had good reason to be upset. A break between Ky and Thieu could have split the armed forces into rival camps, paralyzed the war effort and dealt a mortal blow to South Viet Nam's fragile experiment in constitutional government.

Suddenly, the dispute was resolved. Ky, once the heavy favorite to win the presidency in the September 3 elections, agreed to step aside. Moreover, he said he would take the second spot on a ticket headed by Thieu. Said a subdued Ky after his withdrawal: "We must all make sacrifices in order to realize unity."

Premature Politicking. Ky's abrupt comedown was precipitated by the mercurial Premier himself. Weeks before the official July 19 kickoff for presidential campaigning, Ky had begun electioneering. He appeared on radio and television, stumped the provinces and plastered posters everywhere. When U.S. officials protested his premature politicking, he ordered the posters removed—at least, he told a friend, "in the areas where Americans see them."

To make matters worse, Ky's police chief, Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, was accused of intimidating the Premier's opponents. Former Premier Tran Van Huong, the most popular civilian candidate for the presidency, refused to leave his seaside villa at Vung Tau because he feared that Loan's men would assassinate him. Increasingly, Ky's actions alarmed both South Viet Nam's top military officers and U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker. During a luncheon two weeks ago, Bunker gave the Premier a stern talking-to, warned him that he was undermining the fairness and legality of the coming elections.

Angry Confrontation. Early last week, when 21 South Vietnamese generals convened in Saigon, their immediate concern was exiled General Duong Van Minh, who wanted to return from Bangkok and campaign for the presidency. "Big Minh," who led the 1963 coup against Ngo Dinh Diem but was ousted as chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council only three months later, retains wide popular appeal. The generals quickly decided to keep him out of the country. Then they turned to an even graver problem—the feud between General Thieu (pronounced Choo), a phlegmatic, 44-year-old career soldier who is known as a shrewd ma- nipulator, and Air Vice-Marshal Ky, a flamboyant, 36-year-old pilot with a penchant for power.

Over beer and Cokes, the commanders of South Viet Nam's four Corps areas met at the quarters of Chief of Staff General Cao Van Vien. There they expressed their deep misgivings over the feud's effect on military unity. They decided to invite the two men to talk things over. In a heated and often an gry confrontation that ran on for nearly three days, the commanders urged Ky and Thieu to compose their differences or resign from office in favor of a caretaker government. Both refused.