INDOCHINA
(See Cover)
Men with long megaphones prowled the streets of Hanoi, their exhortations echoing behind shuttered windows. "Dear compatriots," they droned, "your joy is indescribable!"
In Hanoi, the Viet Minh's red and yellow-starred flags hung from stores and warehouses, from shacks and villas, from cycle-taxis that darted along uncrowded boulevards. Portraits of Malenkov, Mao and Ho stared out from the stalls of the peddlers. At main intersections there were bamboo arches of triumph, decked with papier-mâché peace doves and slogans that proclaimed "INDEPENDENCE" or "PEACE" or "PRESIDENT HO FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS." No exception, no dissent was permitted in Hanoi's show of joy; nobody forgot to display his enthusiasm, or was too lazy to bother.
In Hanoi, capital of the new Red land of North Viet Nam, there were no more beggars, no shoeshine boys. President Ho Chi Minh recently inaugurated a "movement for good morals," so there were no more prostitutes, no nightclubs. Each day at 3 p.m. the people chanted patriotic folk songs and conducted group discussions. Each evening they danced in the streets beneath the gaze of impassive Viet Minh soldiers; the dance started at 8, never earlier, ended at 10, never later. Twice weekly at Hanoi's National Theater, before an audience of men in shapeless tunics and women officials in pigtails, the Viet Minh army "Culture Corps" recited a tone poem, to the wailing of reedy instruments. "Wipe away your tears," they intoned. "The enemy is gone. In the North, in the South we are the same family and nothing can divide us."
Wisdom & Discipline. In Hanoi, for 70 years a French colonial city, the people were glad to see the French go. Some of the people were also glad to see the Viet Minh come, and the rest were at least resigned to it. But underneath there was uncertainty and fear, a sudden throb of violence. There would be no more "squeeze" (graft for politicians)—but a shopkeeper was told one morning that he must pay 100% tax upon his inventory. There would be no more banditry—a robber was executed at the scene of his crime, and left to lie there in warning.
In Hanoi there was a sense of waiting for orders. Endlessly the men with the megaphones propagated the Eight Political Wisdoms of President Ho ("The clergy must fulfill their duties as citizens"), the Five Disciplines of President Ho ("Newspapers must support the peace policy"), and the Ten Disciplines of the Viet Minh army ("Troops are forbidden to be dissolute"). One day the men with the megaphones instructed the Hanoiese to set their clocks back one hour, to conform to Peking time.
"They Watch What You Do." This is the oblivion that is settling down upon the 12 million people of Northern Viet Nam, whose fate reflects the tragedy and helplessness of Asia. Born and raised under a French colonial rule that has much to answer for, subjected to 15 almost consecutive years of war, they are now condemned to the compulsory joy of the Communist empire.