On tour through the rice belt south of the 17th parallel, Premier Ngo Dinh Diem last week got his second big ovation from his people. Rice growers thronged around him, beating gongs; soldiers competed to eat at his table; refugees chaired him around their hovels in informal marches of triumph. Diem took his reception spiritedly, with none of his celebrated reticence, enjoying crayfish that had been smuggled south to him from the Communist North, and a Confucian ballet performed by 32 silk-clad girls. Diem also impressed the villagers by his coolness when...
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