VIETNAMESE SUMMARY SUPPLEMENT (INFORMATION AS OF 1100 EDT)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00429A001400070011-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2001
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: October 10, 1963
• Content Type: SUMMARY

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OCI No. 3019/63 10 October 1903
VIETNAMESE SUMMARY SUPPLEMENT
(Information as of 1100 EDT)
1. Madame Nhu is cutting back sharply on her
television engagements, explaining that she is too
busy and in danger of overexposure. Yesterday she
taped, for evening showing, a WOR-TV interview with
Joseph Newman and William Haddad of the Herald Trib-
une, but cancelled engagements to record weed"-end
siows for "Open Mind," (one hour, Eric Goldman, New
York Channel 4) and "Open End," (two hours, David
Susskind, syndicated;) and a date on the NBC "Today"
show for Friday morning. NBC promptly announced
that John Sharkey, NBC correspondent beaten by
Saigon police at the latest Buddhist suicide last
Saturday, would replace her on "Today" and would
also be a member of the panel she is to face on
"Meet the Press" Sunday. "Meet the Press" now is
the only scheduled network TV appearance of her
American visit.
2. Judging by past performances of "Meet the
Press," her appearance there may prove disastrous.
Film clips of her speech and question period before
an audience of 1,000 at the Overseas Press Club yes-
terday, used on network and local TV news programs,
showed that Madame Nhu is not fully sure of herself
in the English language, although the New York Times
called her English "hesitant but adequate. ~he
laughter which greeted her remarks on social customs
and other mores of South Vietnam suggested that she
may often convey an entirely different meaning from
what she intends to say. These films of Madame Nhu
in action make it obvious that extensive editing
has gone into some of the quotes used by the press.
3. In her WOR-TV interview she charged that
USIS, abetted by the AP, UPI, Voice of America, and
New York Times, is "real.iy working, helping fever-
is'Hly" a plot to overthrow the South Vietnamese
Government. She denied that the Diem regime is a
'dictatorship, citing five elections in the course
of nine years of war with the Communists. "We have
been," she commented, "more or less, even uncon-
sciously, victims of that too-effective Communist
propaganda network." She said plots against the
government would not succeed. She described the
suicides as "real Buddhists, sincere Buddhists" who
"trusted too much the people who incited them to
make those sacrifices."
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4. At the Overseas Press Club luncheon at the
Waldorf -Astoria, Madame Nhu said "I strongly believe
my country will be reunited in the -not-too=distant
future, because the North knows perfectly well that
they are being defeated." She suggested the US
knows less about: fighting subversive wars than
nuclear or conventional wars, and invited the West
to "See'us winning--win with us...in Vietnam.not
only are we founding (sic) that solution but wetare
experiencing it and we are proving that that solu-
tion works."
Asked what she would do if she were Presi-
dent of the United States, Madame Nhu replied the
first .ste~a would be "to inform the people (about
Communism) instead of being inclined to lull them
into a false sense of secur.ity." Returning to her
alleged reference to "little soldiers of fortune,"
she denied that she had ever "called your gallant
soldiers 'little soldiers,,"" and said'she used the
soldiers-of-fortune term as Churchill had used it
to mean "self -made heroes." She added that'the US
personnel killed in South Vietnam had certainly not
been mere "spectators" in the war.
She also (a) dented there is Buddhist per-
secution in South Vietnam, and (b) said her''f'ather
was fired as ambassador to Washington before he
resigned.
5. Her father, Tran Van Chuong, who has
shunned her and called her "power-hungry," is booked
for his own cross-country lecture tour with engage-
ments 19 Oct. at the University of Nebraska, 25 Oct.
at the University of Missouri, 29 Oct. at Boston
University, 30 Oct. at Connecticut Wesleyan, and
31 Oct. at Brandeis' University. Former President
Truman commented yesterday that Chuong is handling
his daughter very well, and that she'"has made a
fool of herself . "
6. At times yesterday, Madame Nhu may have
felt she never left home. Four photographers try-
ing to take her picture as she left the WOR-TV studio
claim they were punched by New York police, and about
200 assorted pickets greeted her as she reached the
Waldorf -Astoria. Left:.wv.inge.rs. representi~ag; the
"Youth Against War and Fascism" carried signs calling
her a "Pentagon Puppet." Other pickets represented
an interfaith religious group.
7. She is to have lunch today'with Ttme magazine writer:
and will speak 1 t r Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville:
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