South Viet Nam: The Political Climate

It was antigovernment protest at its most verbose. In Danang, the English-language placards read: "Down With the American Conspiracy of Hindering the Summoning of a Constitutional Parliament. To Hinder the Summoning of Parliament Is to Intervent in the Viet Nam's Own Affairs." In Hue, the ancient Buddhist center 50 miles north west of Danang, 400 students took over the radio station for two days, broadcasting speeches and communiques denouncing the government of Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and punctuating the polemics with, of all things, John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever.

When ten irate students showed up at Danang's spanking-new...

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