You will note that I have marked a passage on the second page where
Nhu is trying to thrust
responsibility for deciding whether the UN team2 should see Tri Quang on us. A cable has gone out to
the Embassy telling them that we want the reverse to happen.3
[Attachment]
Foreign Broadcast Information Service Text of Times of Vietnam Interview With Ngo Diem Nhu
Saigon, October 19,
1963.
Political Counsellor Ngo Dinh
Nhu said Thursday6 that the Vietnamese people have lost their confidence
in the U.S. Government. The Counsellor made the statement in an
interview with visiting foreign newsmen. He said he could not
understand why the United States has “initiated a process of
disintegration at a time when we are winning. People here are
wondering what the United States is doing. There is an atmosphere at
[of] distrust. People have lost confidence in the United
States.”
He said: “Whether it is under this government or under some other
government, the confidence between the Vietnamese people and the
American government has been lost.”
He said that arrested Buddhist leaders claimed “a half dozen” U.S.
intelligence agency agents and employees of American “civilian”
agencies in Vietnam had urged them to stage a coup d’etat and had
incited Buddhists to commit suicide. “Some of the bonzes (Buddhist
priests) in detention have freely revealed that some CIA agents encouraged them. Their
stories check so well that they cannot be untrue. The bonzes have
named a half dozen CIA agents plus
some other employees of American civilian government agencies here.
Some of these people are still here. Some have gone. Day and night
they urged the bonzes to stage a coup against the government, “the
Counsellor told newsmen.
He said he could not understand why these CIA agents got involved in the Buddhist affair since he
and the CIA officials had been
working marvelously together in what many have termed the “winning
program”—the strategic hamlet program—and that McCone himself had understood the
need and meaning of that program. “I do not know whether they had
received instructions from their higher-ups, but I must say that
until this Buddhist affair broke out, the CIA had played an important part in making this winning
program a success,” he said.
Asked why these CIA agents worked
against him, Counsellor Nhu
said: “I do not know. Maybe they had received orders to do it
against their will and judgment.” These agents were not from the
Army, he emphasized.
[Page 417]
He told the correspondents: “The trust which has existed between
Vietnam and America has ceased to exist now. This is true also of
relations between the United States and the whole of the
underdeveloped world. For us in Vietnam, it will be difficult to go
up the hill again (an apparent reference to the possibility of
improvement in U.S.-Vietnamese relations in the future). The
Vietnamese Government will need much wisdom to recover from what has
been done in the past few months. I do not see what U.S. policy is
at this stage.”
Counsellor Nhu referred to
these troubles as “this whole mess in Vietnam,” and said American
public opinion appeared to be trying to make “scapegoats” out of
himself and the CIA for it.
The Counsellor pointed out in the interview that an abrupt, sharp cut
in U.S. aid to Vietnam would have grave consequences in the economy
as well as in the military effort, especially if such a cut is
decided unilaterally. “To me, aid should be reduced progressively
and by agreement between the two governments. This is something to
be expected because American aid to us is something that cannot go
on forever,” he said.
Any sudden reduction of aid would place the Vietnamese Government in
such a position as to be forced to make deep and drastic changes,
stronger measures to more quickly bring about economic development,
curb privileges, and promote more social justice, he explained. Such
a drastic policy would involve changing everything, he added.
He said he did not understand why, since the U.S. AID normally releases funds in advance
without waiting for congressional approval, it now is waiting for
Congress to approve such funds. “There are two main effects so far,”
the Counsellor said. “The first one is to compel the Vietnamese
Government to use its reserves of foreign currencies and the second
is to bring about black market and its consequences. That leads to a
poisoning of the situation and no doubt brings its adverse effects
to the war effort … . “7
Now if for one reason or another this aid is reduced, we shall have
to do what the Communists have done. The Counsellor also referred to
the solution of Algeria, which has been nationalizing major
industries. Nhu said he
personally believed the system of U.S. aid here should be changed to
a lend-lease type whereby the Vietnamese Government would repay the
United States for military equipment and other necessities. “It (the
lend-lease type program) would preserve our dignity and make us more
conscious of our obligation.”
He added: “The other advantage would be that the United States would
not be morally involved in the situation.” He also said the U.S.
withdrawal from Laos had frightened nationalist opponents of the
[Page 418]
Vietnamese and convinced
them to cooperate with the government in fighting the Communists. “I
do not think U.S. policy is to withdraw from Vietnam as from Laos,
but I detect a wavering,” the Counsellor said.
Asked whether the Vietnamese Government would object to the U.N.
fact-finding mission talking privately with the “bonzes” being held
at the U.S. Embassy, the Counsellor replied that, first of all, that
would be the responsibility of the U.S. Embassy. “The responsibility
rests with the United States, this responsibility we don’t want the
United States to throw on us. We want the American government to
take the full responsibility in this case, he said.8
Asked if the Vietnamese Government would present evidence of CIA involvement in the Buddhist affair
to the U.N. fact-finding team, the Counsellor said that the
government will do everything it can to avoid washing dirty linen
between America and Vietnam in public, unless the American
Government decides to kill us through the intermediary role of this
U.N. commission.”
(Editor’s Note: Accounts of this interview have not yet been
monitored from Saigon radio nor have any appeared in the vernacular
press or the Vietnam press bulletin.)
