Ten Days of Action

Most brand-new Western governments these days talk bravely of a dramatic "first 100 days." In South Viet Nam, where few regimes hope to stay in power that long, new Premier Nguyen Cao Ky decided to divide his trial period by ten. In his supersonic first week, Fighter Pilot Ky (rhymes with wheel) got more done than any other Vietnamese leader has accomplished in the 20 months since Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated. In rapid succession, the Saigon government:

> Proclaimed martial law throughout the country, banning demonstrations against the regime and enabling it to make more effective use of the nation's human and natural resources.

> Severed diplomatic relations with France, IndoChina's colonial master for a century, charging that "De Gaulle has always, indirectly or directly, assisted our enemies."

> Announced impending price controls on five overpriced staples (rice, salt, sugar, flour and condensed milk) and threatened profiteers with execution.

> Suspended publication of 20 Vietnamese-language newspapers for at least a month, thus dousing the nation's biggest hotbed of irresponsible religious and regional factionalism.

> Met criticism of Saigon's venal, indolent bureaucracy by halving government salaries (Ky's $13,200 included), eliminating officials' fringe benefits, such as housing allowances, and decreeing that any public employee caught stealing more than 1,000 piasters ($15) would face a firing squad.

To show that he meant business, Ky announced that one civil servant would be executed shortly for embezzling $255,000. He also had a convicted Viet Cong terrorist shot in a Saigon marketplace, ordered all four army corps commanders to do likewise. Stirring unhappy memories of highhanded Mme. Nhu, the government slapped an 11 p.m. curfew on the capital in order to mute the blatant contrast be tween Saigon's hedonistic existence and the grim, grey life of the Communist-ridden countryside.

Shake & Shock. Plainly, some of Ky's moves were more gestures than policies. Paris reacted to the cutting of diplomatic ties with characteristic hauteur, but showed no signs of withdrawing its cultural and economic missions in Saigon. De Gaulle's only reported comment was to inquire loftily: "Qui est Ky?" It will take more than a few executions to cure the corruption that plagues Saigon and most other Asian capitals. Moreover, price controls on rice and other consumer goods do not get to the root of the problem: scarcities caused by Viet Cong control of roads between farming areas and cities.

Nonetheless, Ky's first ten days succeeded in their announced purpose to "shake and shock the country out of its lethargy." Where earlier governments tried to rule by consensus, Buddhist Ky is applying casuistry and a very un-Vietnamese puritanism. Impetuous and inexperienced as he is, Ky sounds far more believable in his demands for austerity than his predecessors did. Moreover, he has an air of no-nonsense realism that has been sadly lacking in South Viet Nam. To Saigon newsmen's howls of outrage over his newspaper shutdown, Ky replied with icy calm: "Communists don't shout, they shoot. If I don't yield to the Communists, I certainly will not yield to shouters."

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