Reluctant Allies

Although South Viet Nam had braced itself for the inevitability of negotiations between the U.S. and North Viet Nam, last week's agreement to talk cast a pall of gloom over Saigon. The only official acknowledgment of the decision was a grudging communique issued by President Nguyen Van Thieu's Foreign Ministry, warning that the talks could be used by Hanoi "for propaganda purposes" and "to foster dissension between the Republic of Viet Nam's allies." Still, for nearly a month the South Vietnamese government has had a negotiations task force at work preparing Saigon's positions for possible talks. Foreign Minister Tran Van Do quickly called a meeting to discuss how South Viet Nam could field an unofficial team in Paris.

Noticeably Unhappy. The South Vietnamese will most likely send to Paris a five-man "mission of liaison" headed by Ambassador to the U.S. Bui Diem. Saigon broke off relations with France in 1965 after De Gaulle offered one piece of advice too many about the war, but it is represented in Paris by a consul general; he can provide the mission with a convenient base. If the talks seem to be getting somewhere, the number of South Vietnamese observers is likely to swell to some 20. Though they will not take part in the talks, they presumably will be briefed by the U.S. negotiators.

If the talks ever proceed to the point where the South Vietnamese are officially included, Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky will probably head the delegation. He would not be likely to make the negotiations any easier. Since the prospect of talks has loomed, Ky has become noticeably unhappy with the Americans. "Any foreigner who wants to withdraw from Viet Nam can withdraw today," he told university students in Dalat last week, obviously aiming at the U.S.

Sugar-Coating the Pill. The one possible outcome of the talks that the South Vietnamese government absolutely refuses to countenance is a coalition with the Communists. Truong Dinh Dzu, the presidential runner-up in last year's elections, was arrested last week for openly advocating coalition. Nonetheless, many members of the government have long maintained covert contacts with the Viet Cong and its political arm, the National Liberation Front, which is directed by Nguyen Huu Tho, a onetime Saigon lawyer who runs the front from a jungle redoubt. In many cases, the contacts are the residue of common cause in arms against the French more than a decade ago, or the result of family ties. There are signs that of late those contacts are being used with increasing frequency--just in case.

For their part, Tho's Communists are also making internal preparations for the talks and for a possible coalition. They are as aware as the government that compromise has always been the lifeblood of traditional Vietnamese politics. Preparing for compromise, they have set up a new front for their National Liberation Front: the Alliance of National Democratic and Peace Forces of Viet Nam. Since the South Vietnamese constitution bans Communist political parties, the Alliance is a showcase of socialist, pacifist and nationalist--but not openly Communist--South Vietnamese, including Thich Don Hau, the representative of the Buddhist church in Hue, who is one of its deputy chairmen. In recent weeks, its members have gone into hiding in the cities or quietly slipped away into the jungle to avoid arrest. The Alliance has proclaimed a platform that calls for the neutrality of North and South Viet Nam. Clearly, by sugar-coating the pill, the Communists hope to build the Alliance into a full-scale political entity that would be acceptable in a coalition government, as the Viet Cong and N.L.F. would not be.

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