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The Thieus have two children: 14year-old Anh is in a convent school in Dalat; six-year-old Loc lives at home in the family's modest military quarters near Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airport. There Thieu, who likes flowers, dabbles some evenings with a trowel, or walks through the compound with an air rifle, shooting birds that are cooked and served to dinner guests. His real love is weekend fishing with cracked crab bait in the Saigon River or in the South China Sea.
By Vietnamese standards, Thieu is considered remarkably free of corruption, but there is little doubt that he has occasionally accepted the shadowy perquisites that go with high office throughout most of Asia. On his lieutenant general's salary of $509 a month (the President's salary has not yet been fixed), he has reportedly managed to accumulate considerable acreage, and can afford to send Mme. Thieu to Paris now and then for a shopping spree.
As President, Thieu now gives every sign that this time he intends to be No. 1 in fact as well as in title. Whether Ky can gracefully accept Thieu's dominance remains to be seen, and a balky Vice President could well prove the most difficult problem that the President will have to face. Ky wanted the top job himself and openly campaigned for it while Thieu went around quietly gathering support among the other generals and officers. It was only after an emotional two-day showdown meeting of the ruling military group that Thieu forced Ky to stand aside. Ky's public explanation of what happened is that "I stepped down to protect my country when I saw friction develop between Thieu and me and I thought it would do great damage to the military and the Vietnamese people."
Last week the friction between the two was still evident. At a lavish election-eve reception, for which invitations had been issued in both Thieu and Ky's names, Ky pointedly did not appear. NBC had arranged for both men to appear on its Meet the Press program this week, but when it came time for the taping, Thieu told NBC that he would not appear with Ky. Thieu's press officer coolly explained why: since most of the questions would deal with "policy matters, if General Ky sits through the program, there would be no questions directed at him." Thieu appeared alone.
Checks & Balances. Whether by accident or design, the powers of Ky's vice-presidential post under the nation's new constitution are virtually nil. Unlike his counterpart in the U.S., Ky is not even assured of becoming President if something happens to Thieu before his four-year term is up. Only if the President dies in his last year does the Vice President take over. If the President dies before that, the Vice President merely takes over for three months to organize the election of a new President and Vice President.