Vu Van Thai

The French are gone from Southeast Asia, but there's a lingering trace of Talleyrand in Vu Van Thai, South Vietnam's ambassador to the U.S. Just as Talleyrand spent the Terror safely secluded in the United States, so did Thai work as a U.N. staff member in Togo, during the seven coups and dozen reshuffles since the fall of Diem. Thai's return suggests that he has mastered Talleyrand's chameleon-like ability to shift positions and survive.

Although Ambassador Thai once advised Ho Chi Minh, he now represents Saigon in a war against the Communist; and although he was once a high level minister to Diem, he now belongs to a regime that helped eliminate Diem. This facility of making contrary things seem compatible extends even to his dress. During our interview in the Quincy House guest suite, the Ambassador wore a continental black suit with green socks, a blue tie, and oxblood shoes; yet he still looked natty. Nor did he find it contradictory to attribute the stability of the Ky regime to the cooperation of "people not afraid of the government anymore," while later claiming, "The instability of the government gives no incentive to people working to please the authorities."

It's not necessarily derogatory to say that Ambassador Thai talks out of both sides of his mouth. His job requires it, and Thai is good at his job. He can field a question about President Johnson's motivation, smile knowingly, and toss off a quip to satisfy his interrogator without telling him a thing. When pressed to answer an embarrassing question, he'll promise "to come back to that point later," but never get around to it.

It takes quite a pitchman and a lot of positive thinking to describe the recent Buddhist riots not as a threat of overthrow, but as a "test of Premier Ky's statesmanship;" or to view Ky's autocratic ousting of General Thi, as "the emergence of democratic leadership." Thi had to go, the Ambassador, asserted, "because he didn't represent the majority." The majority of the Vietnamese people? he was asked. "No, the majority of the military leaders."

Premier Ky will survive, Thai said, because he is "honest"--which from the way Thai stressed the word suggested that Ky is an exception. Yet And Thai hedges all his bets by expressing great admiration for the Catholic power behind Ky like Chief of State Thieu as well as Thieu's Buddhist arch-rival Tri Quang.

When the discussion turned to Administration policy, Ambassador Thai took a hard line that made Hubert Humphrey sound like an appeaser. Americans who support recognition of the Viet Cong in negotiations and "who have no direct living experience with Communism," Thai said "are causing a lot of headaches. I myself and every Vietnamese non-Communist who is seeking dignity a certain degree of freedom would never consider association with, the Viet Cong as a solution."

The topic was beginning to agitate the Ambassador and he leaned forward abruptly. A coalition government in Vietnam, he argued," would create far greater danger for world peace than the present restricted conflict." Historically would resume as it did after the 1962 neutralization of Laos, because "when you bring the Communists in, you have one party using coercion as a means of influencing the people and the other party has to resort to the same." He settled back again and lit a Pall Mall.

Thai was always quite genial and smiled incessantly. In particular, he enjoyed talking about the economic progress which South Vietnam has experienced despite the war. When asked to elaborate, he spoke of the significant build-up of urban light industries. Vietnam's three spinning mills have increased from 60,000 spindles in 1960 to 100,000 today. Thai also cited the development of paper factories, chemical and cement complexes, and a coal mine which has been started in the middle of a Communist-dominated area. These industries are examples of what Thai calls "more active participation of the people in economic development." Two of the three spinning mills are owned by businessmen of Chinese origin; the paper factories include American and Italian interests, while the chemical company is government owned.

In short, Thai envisages "the Hong Kong type of activities," based upon "exporting products of light industries," as the key to South Vietnam's economic future. Such a plan, of course, would benefit cities like Saigon and Danang to the detriment of the countryside. That's okay with Thai, who wants to "reduce the economy's dependence on agriculture and Viet Cong control." He said he did not believe that military victories would be meaningless if Saigon could not command allegiance in captured territory.

Ambassador Thai also denied James Reston's report of last summer that the peasantry consider their rulers in Saigon "as merely the successors of the French colonial regime, with the upperclass urban Vietnamese replacing the French." "That's not true any more," he said, while accepting a cigarette "Merci."