PERSONS/ENTITIES: DIEM
DATES: 1963
CATEGORIES: DIEM
OCCURRENCE: "Most manifestations of political opposition," wrote Henderson, "were vigorously suppressed. Civil liberties remained an unfulfilled ideal. Elections were far from free and many of the devices used to stimulate popular support for the regime bore the familiar stamp of modern totalitarian practice. No doubt these moves could be justified, at least to some extent, in terms of the overwhelming problems confronting Diem during his first few years in office and also the inexperience of Free Viet Nam's people with the forms and substance of democracy, but...Diem had still to prove that his professed devotion to the democratic cause represented anything more than a facade to disguise increasingly plain reality of stern dictatorship." (164-165)
SOURCE: Our Viet Nam Nightmare, Higgins, Harper & Row, 1965
STAFF: Dawson, R.
DATE: July 2, 1975
FILE:
PERSONS/ENTITIES: NGO DINH CAN, MINISTER OF INTERIOR, CONEIN
DATES: 1963
CATEGORIES: DIEM
OCCURRENCE: CONEIN stated that: "On May 7, 1963,.....The MINISTER OF INTERIOR, myself & his entourage flew to Hue in central Vietnam. While in Hue, it was on my aircraft that I assigned to me for that day....while in Hue, they had a very large meeting of different military authorities and at that time I did not realize what was going on. They had met w the President's brother, NGO DINH CAN who was considered the war lord, in a way, and some decisions were made, of which I was not aware of (sic). We returned quite late the night. The though I wanted to stay, the MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR told me it would be imposs! It wanted to see the celebration of the birthday of Buddha. I wanted to see burnt boats w the candles lit going down the perfumed river, but it was not to be. The next day there wa an attack by the military forces on the Buddhists. At that time, the Buddhists as an anti was not a political force and therefore thought of being, and when the attack on the Bud came about, this was, in my estimation, one of the turning points in what was happening t-
SOURCE: Hearings, SSCI, June 20, 1975, Conein
STAFF: R. DAWSON