Hunger & Desperation

SOUTH VIET NAM

On a rainy afternoon, South Viet Nam's top three monks made separate arrivals at Saigon Buddhist headquarters--Thich Tri Quang in a blue Renault taxi, Thich Tarn Chan in a Mercedes, Thich Tinh Khiet in a Peugeot 404. In a dressing room they changed from street habits to their yellow robes. Then, amid clashing gongs and curling incense, the trio stood before a neon-lighted Buddha, chanting: "We pledge to fulfill our religious duties, to sacrifice ourselves for the defense of religion, to pray for the people and the nation to live in peace."

The bonzes thus began a 48-hour fast in their campaign to bring down Premier Tran Van Huong and install a government that would be the Buddhists' puppet. Retiring to bare cells, they squatted in contemplation, taking only orange juice for sustenance. Crowds gathered but the fast failed to fell Huong, and there were reports that low-level talks had begun, aimed at a face-saving compromise.

As the week wore on, however, Buddhist frustration appeared to turn toward dangerous desperation. After his own fast, Tarn Chau, the sect's political coordinator, led 500 monks and nuns in another 24-hour hunger strike; before beginning it, a group of the bonzes prudently tucked into a hearty breakfast outside their pagoda. Then a Buddhist communique claimed that Tri Quang, leader of northern and central Buddhists, was continuing his original fast into a sixth day. Quang is said to like fasting, on grounds that it "clears the head."

Any reasonably clear head should have seen that the Buddhists were gravely hurting the war against the Reds, who pressed their attacks in the coastal provinces, having seized and held much of the Anlao Valley, despite the government's five-battalion drive to dislodge them. But for the moment, the most crucial war was still being fought between the government and the Buddhists. At week's end, the South Vietnamese army reasserted its political power, dissolved the High National Council, a kind of legislative assembly that has been partly under Buddhist influence. Rumors continued that the Buddhists would again resort to fire; the word was out that during their triple fast Quang, Chau and Khiet had drawn lots from a hat for the honor of self-immolation by fire, and that the 80-year-old Khiet had won.

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