Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-04-22

money and time are running
out-makes them especially dam
gerous now.
The potentially violent vigor
OF the sects comes primarily
from the Binh Xuyen, who are
still well heeled. but are under
pressure from Premier Diem.
Binh Xuyen power comes from
deal which it made with
Emperor Bao Dali.
The Binh Xuyen simply paid
Bao Dali for the privilege of
+ operating the Surete, a kind of
national police, and the local
police in major cities, including
Saigon Cholon. The price is
reputed to have been 400 million
ndo-Chinese piastres, worth at
the legal rate of exchange $1.l
million.
Operated Vice Dens
Binh Xuyen got its money
back easily. With police power,
they operated the gambling and
vice dens. They levied taxes"
on trucks carrying food or COM
mercial supplies into cities.
| Premier Diem has forced Binh
Xuyen to close the famed gam
bling casino at Cholon, but the
society still operates brothels
and opium palaces, collects the
trucking tax"-and thus was
able to impose a blockade on
food supplies coming into Saigon
Cholon city police. but the troops
with the famous green berets
still hold the Surete headquar-
ters-a fortress-like structure in
midtown Saigon-and defy the
national government to throw
them out.
A crisis came the night of
March 1890. Binh Xuyen ex-
ploded six mortar shells around
the palace where Premier Diem
lives. Shell fragments splat-
tered the palace walls or win
dowS.
simultaneously, Binh xuyen
troops in Cholon attacked the
city police headquarters which
they had so recently evacuated.
The National Army rushed in
battalion of troops. A Binh
Auyen machinegun in a drug
store ambushed them. An army
field gun shot up the drugstore
and silenced the machinegun.
Counter Attack Blocked
AS reports of the action
poured into the palace. Premier
Diem decided to act. This was
the overt move that he had ex-
pected from Binh Xuyen. His
police and army units had acted
well Now was the time, he de-
cided. to wipe out Binh Xuyen.
He planned a large-scale. show
down counter attack when day.
light arrived.
France interviewed. A spokes-
man for French Gen. Paul Ely
threatened court martial against
Wet Namese Army officers who
directed SUCH a counterattack.
Gen. Ely himself visited Premier
Diem at $3.50 am, and de-
manded that the fighting cease.
Gen. Ely proclaimed that
French troops were responsible
for order in all of central Sal
gon. including the area around
the Surete headquarters held by
the Binh Xuyen. The inference
was that French troops would
oppose any unit that started a
fight.
Premier Diem called of the
counter-attack. Gen. Collins
called on Premier Diem later and
urged a course of moderation.
Some American diplomats
thought the hour to wipe out
Blnh Kuyen had come. Because
OF French, Intervention. how
ever, the hour passed.
French Can Make Case
The French can make a case
Tor their stand. 1t is hard for a
democratic government to ad-
vocate settling any dispute by
force rather than political means.
Further, the French say they
mad a responsibility to protect
the lives of 5000 Frenchmen in
Saigon. They said war between
Binh Xuyen and the government
forces would have led to wetting
the streets of Saigon with the
blood not only of combattants
but OF the civilian population.
The French felt that, in fact.
the government could have won
such brawl in Saigon-Cholon.
But Binh Xuyen remnants in
evitably would have fed to the
country.
They might have been Joined
actively by Gao Dali and Hoa |
Hao troops. Then it would take |
months for the government to |
Win-if it ever could. You could |
expect the Communists to start !
helping the rebels. |
The sects nominally are anti
Communist, but in the Orient
anti-Communist bands often
have embraced the Communists
when the Reds were the only
source Of supply. Maybe the
sects would, too.
But If the Wet Nam is to be
saved as an independent coun-