The Will of the West

(Part of on-going Vietnam Legacy Project as detailed in July 4 post.)

 

The Saigon Post, April 9, 1971

 

                 SAIGON NOTES

                      by

                          Daniel Cameron

 

     The Will of the West

 

Wheaties or Cheerios for breakfast, of course, is no guarantee of political stamina. Communist and fascisr propoganda against the West has always been emboldened by the theme or conviction that the capitalist democracies are monied forms of semi-anarchy without real staying power in the jungle of world politics. Lenin, Hitler and Ho Chi Minh have all been convinced that Western will is fickle or downright flabby in comparison to the iron will displayed by a Nazi Berlin, a Stalinist Moscow, a Red Hanoi or a fascist Tokyo.

 

US news media, especially the major television networks, generally disclaim any responsibility in molding American attitudes and wills. This, despite the fact that American families, whose TV screens serve generous helpings of selected carnage, violence, firefights and wounded soldiers and civilians with dinner every night, have actually seen much more of the war than the average resident of Saigon has seen. Their nerves have been played upon for hundreds of evenings this way. This electronic living room war is a new event in history, still awaiting its sociologists, psychoanalysts and other intellectual entrepreneurs.

 

And so, in the April 3 New York Times, Max Frankel in Washington reports a new kind of Indochina debate and "enlightens" us as follows:

 

"Whatever the past divisions between Hawks and Doves, or Conservatives and Liberals, it is clear from the polls and discussions in Congress, that more and more of the country is united in its desire to quit Indochina---sooner rather than later---and for a growing segment of the population, regardless of the consequences there.

 

"The daily reports of civilian as well as military casualties and the preoccupation at home with talk of war crime and high-level guilt are leading a number of legislators on all sides to conclude that the country can't stand much more such pressure."

 

That's just part of Frankel's piece. He plays artfully on the theme that the US is becoming a nervous wreck over Vietnam. Watch him closely. Observe how the literate, logical NY Timer throws his ponderous weight behind a policy that calls for the US Government to rectify its mistakes by acting like a depressed fishwife who shouts, "Max, I can't take it anymore. I ain't gonna take it anymore, I ain't, I ain't. You hear me, Max, you old bastard?"

 

                      INFORMED SOURCES SAY

 

Semi-intelligence sources are speaking again of a general increase in defection from VC ranks, especially by long-term cadre members who have had as much as 20 years experience in the underground. They say this development, which is most noticeable in the Delta, includes many political officers, committe members etc who entered the movement as young idealists and are leaving it in middle-aged disillusionment, Dwindling numbers in the ranks are leading the organization, at times, to make party secretaries out of 20-year olds. Which indicates that there are lots of executive and junior executive positions available for ambitious young men wo see Red in the future. Qualifications: better than average intelligence and willingness to do lots of night work.

 

These same sources add cautiously that the VC infrastructure, even when in shreds, has much tenacity and refuses to die altogether.

 

"Let's face it," one official said. "No other organization in the world can hold together like the Communists---except the Catholic Church."

 

                A WORD TO THE NUDE

 

One of the specialties of a certain hotel in downtown Saigon are signs which are painted on all the corridor walls. Some give information on how to safeguard your valuables. Others describe the do's and don'ts which a guest should observe. One sign by the stairway is very emphatic about the don'ts.

 

"Please don't wander about the building when your body without trousers and shirts or your body naked, partially clothes. Don't tease, embrace and kiss women and girls in public....

 

"These rude manners will lose the good morals, customs of the Vietnamese and the serious appearance of this building."

Thank You

 

               AROUND THE TOWN

 

An exhibition of watercolors by JOSE DE MONTREUIL, at the ALLIANCE FRANCAISE, 24 Gia Long Street. Lots of Vietnamese scenes with a European influence of primary colors, often done with brief vertical or horizontal dabs....Film ROMEO AND JULIET due soon at the REX....The new iron grill work in the corner window of the Givral cafe is one of the most elegant little sights in town.

 

PS. TIPS? DOPE? (The information kind) Write c/o The Saigon Post. For fast action, leave note on bulletin board, JUSPAO, 145 Nguyen Hue Street.

 

 

 

 

 

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