Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-04

reports 10 the man responsible Tor
the street, who reports to the man
responsible for the ward, who re-
ports to the man responsible for the
quarter, who reports to the man
responsible for the city. Thus in
formation filters up and orders
filter down.
Cell Meetings
The people who are the mem
bers. willing or otherwise. OF the
myriad little urban cells are sum-
moned to regular meetings per-
haps once a week for Communist
instruction. If an unwilling mem
Der doesn't attend. he receives q
visit from the cell leader. who
points out the error of his ways
and Of his thinking. The leader
may force the unhappy absentee to
sit and listen to a four-hour dia-
tribe, and may repeat the treat
ment the next day and the next
until the non-conformist decides
the easy way out is to attend the
meetings. If persistent persuasion
fails, the non-conformist may be
carted of to an indoctrination
camp for sterher treatment.
Foreign observers state that the
governments political control over
people in rural areas is not as tight,
although Wet Mimi agents have
infiltrated the villages and report
eddy know the background of every
villager. The movement of people
between the city and the country is
controlled.
In Hanoi and Haiphong the au-
thorities are conducting a census
obviously to uncover people whom
the party may not have tagged
Signs in the streets say that
Every patriotic Vietnamese will
register with the census" leaving
dissidents with the invidous choice
Of coming forth to. be counted and
swept into the party machine, or
of convicting themselves Of being
unpatriotic citizens.
Wet Mini Hierarchy
Titular head Of this complex cell
lular structure in North Vietnam
is Ho Chi Mimi. He is billed as
president Of the Democratic Re-
public Of Vietnam and national
leader Of the Vietnamese people.
Working head Of the party Is
Truong Chinh. secretary general Of
the Lao Dong. Many Western OBJ
servers disagree over whether he is
the second or the third most i'm
portant man in the DRVN hier-
archy. but would put him third,
after Pham Van Dong, the Foreign
Minister who recently took over the
Prime Ministership from Ho Chi
Mini.
Number four could be either Ton
DUO Thang, chairman of the Faith
erland Front and of the standing
committee of the National AS
sembly, or the new Deputy Prime
Minister, Gen. Vo Nguyen Clap,
Minister of Defense, commander
In chief and creator of the Wet
Mimi Army.
Behind them comes Phan Ke
Toai. who was made a Deputy
Prime Minister last month, along
with Clap. Toai is Minister of
Home Affairs, and repeatedly con-
trolls the secret police.
Strong Peoples Army
Behind them and behind the Lao
Dong Is the strongly disciplined.
well-trained and thoroughly indoc-
trinated Peoples Army of Wet
man," estimated at 250,000 men,
including IL or Is operational di-
visions.
On September 2 Hanoi turned
out en- masse with villagers from
the surrounding countryside in q
parade of 10000 people to march
by Ho Chi Mimi, other Communist
bigwigs and foreign diplomats.
There were comparatively few spec
tators, because almost everyone who
could walk was in the parade, cheer
ing Uncle Ho and shouting Commu-
mist slogans at the indicated times.
An officer friend, one of the Ar
mistice Commission people. met one
of the marchers some days later,
under conditions which permitted
frank conversation. Sure he'd been
in there cheering for Ho Chi Mini,
he said. So had his wife. They'd
been ordered to. But, he added,
30 per cent Of the people in the
parade would move to South Wet
nam II they could.
Maybe his estimate is much too
high. But at least 1t indicates that
many Of the little people. down deep
inside. haven't bought the Commu-
mist bill Of goods.