NORTH VIET NAM: A Poor Place to Visit

As a 21-gun salute boomed out over Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport, Communist North Viet Nam's frail, wisp-bearded President Ho Chi Minh shuffled up the ramp into an Indonesian Airlines Convair, emerged with his guest of honor, Indonesia's President Sukarno. Burbled Ho, in the halting English he had learned years ago as a cook's helper in London's Carlton Hotel: "The Vietnamese people feel as if they were clasping in their arms 88 million heroic Indonesian people." Replied Sukarno, also in English: "I promise you, in the name of the Indonesian people, to support your struggle."

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