In Saigon last week, Premier Ngo Dinh Diem arrested a former Minister of the Interior on charges of extorting $120,000 from local Chinese businessmen. Diem scheduled a spectacular public trial, in which his prosecutors intend to show how the ex-Minister's policemen arrested wealthy Chinese and threatened to deport them "for helping the Viet Minh" unless the Chinese paid blackmail. Diem wants to use the trial to herald a big new campaign against corruption in demoralized South Viet Nam. There are faint signs that his austere new nationalism is beginning to catch an apathetic public's fancy. But Diem still has...
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