The World: The Curious Rehabilitation of Diem

Ten years after his murder in a bloody military coup, the memory of South Viet Nam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem last week stirred a curious nostalgia in Saigon. About 3,000 Diem supporters marched to the city’s Victorian cathedral to attend a memorial service, then moved on to a nearby cemetery where Diem lies buried under an inconspicuous concrete slab. Gongs tolled. Drums thumped. Buddhist monks intoned prayers. Two Catholic bands played the national anthem.

President Nguyen Van Thieu, who had backed Diem’s overthrow, helped defray the costs of the commemoration with a $1,000 contribution, presumably in hopes of using the incipient Diem cult to solidify non-Communist ranks within the country. He is in no danger of being overthrown as Diem was. But growing economic problems at home, along with the continuing threat of a North Vietnamese military offensive, mean Thieu needs all the help he can get.