A dusk-to-dawn curfew emptied the streets of the ancient Vietnamese capital of Hue, 400 miles north of Saigon. Riot police and armored personnel carriers patrolled the dark and deserted city. Roadblocks were set up on the outskirts, and barbed-wire barricades encircled the sacred Tudam Pagoda. These government security measures were not a precaution against an attack by Communist guerrillas; they were taken to quell demonstrations by Hue's Buddhist population against the regime of Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh
Diem. While all the world's attention was focused on South Viet Nam's bitter...