Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part IV. A. 3.djvu/57

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive :::6.

Washington responded with alacrity to Diem's success, superficial though it was. Saigon was told to forget Dulles' earlier message about US willingness so see a change in government. Policy had not changed after all: the US supported Diem. The Saigon Embassy burned the first message.


 * 7.

Buoyed by his showing against Bay Vien, Diem ignored the summons from Bao Dai which appeared on April 28. The Emperor ordered Diem and General TyVy [sic] to Cannes, placed Binh Xuyen sympathizer General Vy in charge of the army end dispatched General Hinh to Saigon with personal instructions from Bao Dai. Diem refused to leave Saigon, refused to allow General Vy to assume command, refused to show General Hinh into the country.

On April 30 a new development surfaced. The National Revolutionary Congress of the Vietnamese people was announced. Backed by Cao Dai Generals Phuong and Thế, Hoa Hao General Ngo, other politicians, it claimed to represent almost all political parties in South Vietnam. The Congress declaration repudiated Bao Dai, dissolved the present government and called on Diem to form a new government and elect a national assembly to draft a constitution.

Diem was receptive to the program of the Revolutionary Congress, particularly since his brother Nhu had a hand in drafting it. He was probably not as receptive to some of the activist members of the congress, however, most of whom joined in a Revolutionary Committee. Generals Trinh Minh Thế and Phuong confided to Lansdale:

"The Revolutionary Committee had grown out of the Revolutionary Congress Front organization when Diem's brother Nhu had tried to organize some days earlier; they had followed (SMM's) advice and had joined with Nhu in the Front but were dissatisfied with some of the weak organizations they felt Nhu was depending on, so had organised something more dynamic to meet the threat of Vy and Bao Dai and called themselves the Revolutionary Committee. They vented Bao Dai dethroned and wanted the French to stop interfering in Vietnamese affairs."

Support, backhanded though it my have been, helped Diem politically in Vietnam and with the United States. Militarily he was never really threatened by Bao Dai or Generals Vy or Hinh (who was never able to deliver Bao Dai's special orders). The National Army was stronger than French and Americans thought and it refused to obey General Vy. The following episode, related to Lansdale by General Ty and Colonel Tran Van Don after their temporary arrest by Vy, illustrates this. General Vy bragged about being able to get anything he wanted from the French. Ty and Don asked him to prove Rh