U.S. v. the French

"Free Viet Nam is immortal! Righteous nationalism will triumph!" cried Premier Ngo Dinh Diem last week as his elated young troops cleared his enemies out of Saigon. In the streets of the city, "Da Dao Bao Dai" (Down with Bao Dai) was now the throbbing cry. As for Chief of State Bao Dai during this dark hour in his young nation's history, he continued to make his Valley Forge in sunny Cannes.

Over him and Diem there raged a battle that was bigger than both of them. It deeply involved the U.S. and the French.

The French Presence. What are the French up to? Since they lost the Indo-China war at Dienbienphu and Geneva, the French have been maneuvering desperately to save what they call "the French presence" in both halves of divided Viet Nam, which once gave them 10% of their foreign trade. In Communist North Viet Nam (pop. 12 million), a mission headed by Jean Sainteny has been haggling for trade concessions. Sainteny would also like to open new trade routes into Red China through the North Viet Nam port of Haiphong (which the French, under Geneva's terms, must evacuate next week). The French admit that the negotiations have so far proved "disappointingly unproductive." but they persevere; they are trying so hard for Communist good will that they recently sold the valuable Charbonnages du Tonkin coal mines to the Communists for the mere promise of 1,000,000 tons of coal-- to be mined and delivered later on. Sainteny is talking with the Communists about electrical and rail equipment, cloth, cars, drugs and food; he advocates an economic buildup for the new Communist state, in token of what he calls "a shining example of coexistence."

In Nationalist South Viet Nam (pop. 10 1/2 million), the French, through Bao Dai. still manipulate discredited sects in divide-and-rule techniques against Diem, hoping to undermine the Nationalists and maintain their colonial influence. "A personal failure . . . imposed from outside," the official French radio characterized Diem fortnight ago.

The French talk of "the loyal enforcement" of the Geneva treaty* as if they expect that the Communists will inevitably get the whole country in the all-Viet Nam elections of 1956 somewhat unspecifically provided for at Geneva. The Communists have dropped their anti-French propaganda ; instead the Communists are now vilifying Diem for "the brutal eviction of France," and for not obeying "his superior. Bao Dai."

The U.S. Presence. Presidential Envoy J. Lawton Collins, who has had more experience in soldiering than in statesmanship, reported home three weeks ago, that Diem was sure to fall, and the Vietnamese Army would not fight. But the army did fight and Diem did not fall. Back in Saigon last week, Joe Collins called an off-the-record press conference that did not stay off the record long. What South Viet Nam needs, said Collins, is a constitutional monarchy headed by Bao Dai, to provide "a thread of legality." "How are these poor people going to run a republic?" asked Collins. "We even have trouble doing it in the United States sometimes."

But these remarks, it turned out, did not really represent U.S. policy, which is to back Diem thoroughly, even should he insist on deposing Bao Dai. "The U.S. has great sympathy for a nationalist cause that is free and effective." read a State Department communique issued as John Foster Dulles took off for Paris and what diplomats like to call "a full and frank discussion" with the French.

* Which the Vietnamese did not sign.

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