Foreign News: South of The 17th Parallel

From Saigon, TIME Correspondent Dwight Martin cabled:

A sodden rot of defeat, surrender and demoralization is eating its way through the fragile fabric of earnest little Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem's hard-trying but still disorganized South Viet Nam government. Diem's power probably does not extend as far as 30 kilometers from Saigon itself, say some knowledgeable foreign observers, and in many instances not that far. At Mytho, at Baclieu, at Vinhlong and numberless other towns and villages in the south, Viet Minh control is complete and recognized—the presence of nominal officials of the Vietnamese government notwithstanding.

"The Viet Minh are agitating with a...

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