VIET NAM: Anniversary Two-Step to the Polls

It was, trumpeted North Viet Nam's official daily, Nhan Dan, "a festival of the completion of national reunification." In Hanoi and Saigon, as well as scores of other cities, towns and hamlets in between, streets and squares were festooned with banners and painted maps that showed North and South with all demarcation lines removed—and Hanoi prominently marked as the capital. Called out by Communist ward bosses—and, in Saigon, by the pealing bells of the city's churches—some 11 million Vietnamese trooped to the polls clutching pink voter-registration cards to elect the new,...

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