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In the country's current, festering religious crisis, as she sees it, the Buddhists are certainly not underdogs but "provocateurs in monks' robes." She has consistently opposed the U.S. counsel of moderation and Diem's own halfhearted efforts to temporize. Her recommendation for dealing with Buddhist demonstrators: "Beat them three times harder." When the Buddhist monk, Quang Due, burned himself to death in protest against the regime six weeks ago, Mme. Nhu was unimpressed. The Buddhists "barbecued one of their monks, whom they intoxicated," she savagely told a CBS reporter last week. "And even that burning was not done with self-sufficient means, because they used imported gasoline."
In Washington, the South Vietnamese embassy formally repudiated Mme. Nhu's statement as representing only her views and not that of the government. The disclaimer was particularly intriguing, because the ambassador, Tran Van Chuong, is Mme. Nhu's father, who violently disapproves of her —and only partly because the government expropriated his vast property seven years ago. She in turn disapproves of him, once called him a coward.
The Brothers Four. The U.S. is deeply committed to hold South Viet Nam against the Chinese-backed Viet Cong guerrillas, because—according to the old "falling domino theory"—Laos and Cambodia would be outflanked, Thailand caught in a vise, and the Malay Peninsula severely threatened if South Viet Nam were to fall. The U.S. is pouring $1,000,000 a day into the country and has sent 14,000 tough, savvy military "advisers" to sharpen the government's war effort against the Red guerrillas. Amid the frustrating military ups and downs, the overriding questions are two: Can the war be won with President Diem and his relatives in control? Can it be won without them?
Part of South Viet Nam's closely knit Mandarin aristocracy, the President's family commands little popular support but firmly dominates the country's political and economic structure. For all its faults, it also represents an order of sorts in a place that has been on the brink of chaos for decades. The remarkable quartet of Diem's brothers:
∙ Ngo Dinh Thuc, 66, the eldest, is Roman Catholic Archbishop of Hue (pronounced Whey), controls large amounts of property in the name of the church, and has placed several favorites in Diem's Cabinet. Diem repeatedly tried to get Thuc transferred to the vacant See of Saigon, but the Vatican, which is distressed by the extent to which Diem's repressive measures have tarnished the image of Catholicism in South Viet Nam, vetoed the suggestion. It has also ignored all hints that Archbishop Thuc might become a cardinal. Thuc is the only one of the brothers whom Mme. Nhu does not criticize, and he often arbitrates family disputes.