A Whole Year

To the vast chagrin and surprise of South Viet Nam's militant Buddhists, the government of Premier Nguyen Cao Ky last week wound up its first year in office in an anniversary waltz of energy and authority. For Ky and his generals to be around at all represented no mean accomplishment--the longest stretch of governmental stability since Diem fell in 1963.

Ky's tenure was hardly the fault of the bonzes, who for months have been trying every trick in the pagoda political manual to oust the government: massive protest demonstrations, immolations (last week a 16-year-old girl became the tenth suicide by fire in the monks' current campaign), blocking streets with household altars, burning U.S. Jeeps and other vehicles, and riots, riots everywhere. All have proved to no avail.

There were signs last week that it may eventually be the Buddhists who crack. Everything else having failed, Buddhist Ringleader Thich Tri Quang went on a hunger strike, by week's end had lapsed into a near coma that at least served the purpose of keeping him quiet. Thich Tam Chau, spokesman of the Buddhist hierarchy's moderate wing, publicly broke with Tri Quang and the militants. Tri Quang, said Tam Chau, has "no authority to promulgate any decisions" of the hierarchy, adding, "I am not for bringing Buddha into the streets." And in a swift, virtually bloodless move in Hue, 3,000 of Ky's troops took over the northern city, which the Buddhists and rebel Vietnamese soldiers have controlled for nearly four months.

At week's end Ky demonstrated another brand of toughness, which was welcomed by the U.S. Roaring inflation had threatened to rip the fabric of South Vietnamese society: food prices had risen 85% in 18 months, overall prices as much as 130%. Announcing a basic overhaul of the economy, Ky devalued the piastre by nearly half, loosened import restrictions to create more price-cutting competition, raised the salaries of military and government workers from 20% to 30%. They are the people who have been hardest hit by the inflation, and the people who matter most in the severe fighting of the war and instituting pacification reforms.

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