End of the Glow

One criticism brought against President Ngo Dinh Diem was that he kept some of his best officers in noncombat jobs for political reasons. One promise made by Diem's successors was to appoint aggressive new commanders and give them a free hand. Last week the first such new commander found him self sacked and ordered to a desk exile that even Diem had not thought of--military attache in Formosa.

Five days after the coup, Colonel Pham Van Dong, 44, was placed in command of the 7th Division, responsible for two provinces south of Saigon. In his first twelve days on the job, Dong launched seven major operations, but then the Viet Cong regained the initiative. When one village near the capital was severely shelled and several people were killed, the villagers complained bitterly. Even though such attacks are standard, the generals in Saigon fired Dong, to the disappointment of U.S. advisers. But why transfer him 1,400 miles away? According to one version, Dong had been too friendly with the ruling junta's ambitious No. 3 man, Major General Ton That Dinh, whom some of his colleagues consider potentially troublesome.

Room at the Top. As the revolutionary glow that followed Diem's overthrow fades, South Viet Nam's generals seem to be watching each other ever more alertly. They now often wrangle over policy in marathon debates that last until 5 a.m. Bureaucracy also takes its toll of leadership. Brigadier General Le Van Kim, a top strategist, is occupied by administrative chores; last week one of his staff's chief projects was requisitioning three typewriters. Near by, General Dinh flopped back in his chair, groused that the pile of paper on his desk grows higher each day.

U.S. officials maintain that the generals are quietly accomplishing much beneath the surface; considered an important achievement is the junta's start at winning over the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai sects, many of whose members had collaborated with the Viet Cong. But the junta chairman, Lieut. General Duong Van ("Big") Minh, seems reluctant to wield power, and the outsized, 22-member military Revolutionary Council has taken few outwardly bold steps. Reported TIME Correspondent Murray Gart: "None of this proves that the generals cannot do the job of running South Viet Nam. It is too soon to tell. But for the moment, there is a power vacuum at the top in a country at war."

In Saigon, there were new suicides by fire, the first since the coup--and virtually ignored in comparison to the relentlessly publicized Buddhist suicides under Diem. A 17-year-old girl, Bach Tri Nga, drenched herself with gasoline and touched a match to her skirts before the local residences of the International Control Commission, set up in 1954 to oversee Viet Nam's partition. A 22-year-old unemployed pedicab driver cremated himself half a block from the U.S. Ambassador's residence, and a young telephone operator followed suit (he left a note saying he had been rejected by his father). The charred skeleton of a fourth victim, an older man, was found near a suburban graveyard. Authorities insisted that the men acted out of personal despondency but conceded that the girl may have had pro-Communist motives--a farewell note repeated the neutralist line against "Vietnamese fighting Vietnamese."

All the Way Home. The fighting itself continued intensely and inconclusively. Sixty miles northwest of the capital, the Viet Cong poured a terrifying 150 rounds of mortar and recoillessrifle fire into the lonely outpost of Bauco, then overran two of its three blockhouses. Of the 60 defenders, 18 died, 21 were wounded and 21 captured. Also found sprawled dead within the post: 16 women and children. The government chased the attackers in an operation involving 3,000 men, but the guerrillas vanished. Five more Americans apparently lost their lives --a sergeant shot in an ambush and four airmen aboard an RB-26 that crashed into the Mekong River.

The U.S., nevertheless, went ahead with plans to bring home 1,000 troops from Viet Nam by New Year's--chiefly noncombat technicians, many of whose duties are being assumed by Vietnamese. At Saigon airport last week, the initial 294 U.S.-bound servicemen, many happily bearing lipstick smears from Saigon sweeties, clambered aboard four C-135 jets. Present to see the first men off were U.S. General Paul D. Harkins and South Viet Nam's Defense Minister Lieut. General Tran Van Don. Said Don of the departing Americans: "They have shared our hardships and sorrows, and nothing can repay them for the sacrifices they have made."

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