South Viet Nam: Chips on Khanh

SOUTH VIETNAM

The trio chucking children under the chin, gripping the hands of local leaders and waving gaily at the crowds made an improbable clutch of campaigners. There, grinning broadly and apparently enjoying it, was U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara in boots and suntans. Beside him stood U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, also smiling and waving. A good head below the tall visitors stood the man they were boosting, trim, goateed General Nguyen Khanh, the "strongman" whom the U.S. desperately wants to sell to his own people.

Shaken by two coups in...