Even by the standards of war-torn South Viet Nam, the internal rumblings in Saigon seemed like a poor way to prepare for this week's lunar New Year's holiday. Catholic leaders, aided by students and opposition politicians, denounced South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu as an "enemy of peace." Proclaimed their "indictment," which was reprinted in several Saigon newspapers: "It is impossible to obtain peace with Thieu, because he is a product of war, was nurtured on it and survived with it." The President's response was swift and predictable. The Saigon government confiscated nine newspapers and censored a tenth; five of the papers were closed down indefinitely, and 21 journalists and publishers were arrested on charges that they were "Communist agents."
Thieu's repressive measures could not have come at a worse time. The U.S. Congress, in the midst of debating an Administration request for an extra $300 million in military aid for Saigon, was sure to react unfavorably to Thieu's latest attack on the South Vietnamese press; even the anti-Thieu papers are decidedly nonCommunist. Beyond that, a number of longtime supporters of South Viet Nam's President, including Senator Henry Jackson, seem to have given up on Thieu. "The Thieu failure is a failure of a regime to bring together all the factions to fight the war," Jackson said last week. "He brings them together by locking them up." Recognizing the new realities, one U.S. diplomat in Saigon said: "The Vietnamese have an incredible knack for bad publicity."
Random Shelling. Bad publicity, however, is only one of Thieu's problems and probably not his gravest. More serious is the fact that the military balance has in recent months been changing unfavorably for Saigon. In Military
Region Three, which encompasses the eleven provinces surrounding Saigon, the South Vietnamese have suffered several serious setbacks, including the loss a month ago of the entire province of Phuoc Long on the Cambodian border. The same day the Communists captured Phuoc Long, they dislodged Saigon's forces from the strategic Nui Ba Den (Black Virgin Mountain), which overlooks the important provincial capital of Tay Ninh, where the South Vietnamese 25th Division is garrisoned. Communist forces have launched a random shelling of the city that has driven out some 30,000 of its 350,000 residents.
In Military Region Two, which encompasses the central part of South Viet Nam, the key cities of Pleiku and Kontum are fortress outposts in an area controlled by highly mobile North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units. In the rice-rich Mekong Delta south of Saigon, where more than one-third of South Viet Nam's population lives, Communist attacks have driven government troops out of many outposts. At the same time, a blocking maneuver aimed toward Route 4 by North Vietnamese troops threatens Saigon's vital connection with the Delta.