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Packed Votes. The vote of Ho's 12 million northerners, packed by tyranny, outcounts the free but divided vote of the 10¶ million southerners. But Geneva also provided that the elections must be "free" and "by secret ballot." On July 20, if they feel strong enough to buck Ho Chi Minh, the U.S.-backed nationalists can make a case for postponing the elections, or put them off altogether unless they get ironclad assurance of 1) proper supervision at the polls and 2) the right of nationalists to campaign in the north and try to woo away some of Ho's votes.
Should such a policy prevail, the U.S. and South Viet Nam would be committing themselves to a policy of partition, two Viet Nams—a strong, aggressive Communist Viet Nam nourished by Moscow and Peking; a weak, divided but free Viet Nam that will need for some time the pledges and help of the U.S.
Haircuts & Chickens. It is one of the discomfiting truths of South Viet Nam that not all are sure they prefer the unfulfilled hopes of non-Communist rule to the confidently touted certainties of Red government. For Premier Ngo Dinh Diem there is a hard shell of resistance to crack. In one characteristic village of the south last week, some of the people demonstrated what the problem is.
"When the French bombed the villages and schools and drove us into the jungle, the Communists were our friends." The Communists were now replaced by young nationalist soldiers and officials of Premier Diem. How did the villagers like them? The young local barber answered: he was uncertain of them at first, but he was beginning to feel that they were good men and could be trusted. Were things any better since the Communists went away? Some things, the barber replied. "There is peace." And one can travel (the Communists had required a permit for travel even to the nearest market town), and there is medicine from the U.S., and good days for his trade.
The Communists, he went on, had made him cut a regular quota of heads of hair every day, regardless of whether the customers could pay. The nationalists allow him to charge a fair price, and for that he is pleased. But then, on the other hand, there is the price of chicken. Under the Communists, a chicken cost half as much as it does today. "One does not have occasion to buy a chicken very often."
As of now, said the barber, he would welcome the Communists back; they were his friends. But he is ready to see what the nationalists can do. Most of all, he said, the villagers want peace.
Thus goes the crucial struggle for men's devotion in South Viet Nam. With time and ingenuity, the side of freedom can hope to prevail. "If the people can be sure the Communists will not return," a village elder suggested, "then the people will turn against them. But how can we be sure?" The answer lies in great part beyond the beleaguered man in the Freedom Palace of Saigon. "The Vietnamese people have the will," said Ngo Dinh Diem's ambassador to Washington, "but only the U.S. has the might."