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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1955)
. Getting France to Release Viet Nam Hold Presents Touchy International Problem. EDITOR'S NOTE: The Unit e Slates is gambling off the future of South Viet Nam. it iiftMiiBg a hand, directly or in direct!, in the way that stra tegic area is governed. Wha lies ahead? , What are the , chances of peeping commun is out? Hou, about Prgmier Diem? Presto' Crovor went to Saigon to sce answers to these 1 and othfr questions. By PRESTON CUOVER Ot The Associated Press SAIGON, South Viet Nam W The French have lost ou de. cisively in South Vict Nam but the task of getting out of power gracefully has been handled so ineptly on all sides that it has become a major international problem. Many French here recognize that they have lost out and soon er or later must turn over con trol fully to the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese want the French out. The Vietnamese want to run their own couatry. The Americans want the French out. Americans believe it will be easier to organize an anti-Communist ' defense when the French are gone. Those are simple statements, but there the simplicity of the problem ends. National ambitions and sensibilities and human am bitions and sensibilities enter at this point to make the story both dramatic and dangerous. Civil war is still a bare possi bility in this country. Perhaps more serious is the fact that the French and Americans have got into such a squabble over how to lead the country to independ ence during the next 12 months that they are risking the very independence they are trying to save. MISTY LAND Moreover, their squabbling en dangers their relationship in Eu rope. Here in this soft and misty land it all seems too unreal and unnecessary. The Saigon River flows past the window of the room where this is written. This section of the river is a quarter of a mile wide and is deep enough to handle big steamers. Its shores are lined with ship's from the West, but the river is crawling as well with smaller boats, some hauling sand and wood to be unloaded by walking conveyor belts of coolies, others engaged in that strange and in tricate commerce that involves rice, bamboo, coconuts, teak, fer mented fish, cloth and families. The families huddle on the decks while the boats carry them and their big and little bundles to some other place where may be it will be better. Up and down this river roam landing craft, troop transports. destroyer tenders, gun boats and mine layers. They represent the TACKLE SOUTH VIET NAM PROBLEMS Ngo Dinh Diem, left, premier o South Viet Nam, chats with village leaders at Qui Nhon during a visit to the town which changed hands several times during the Indochina war with the Communist-led Viet minh. Diem, victor in the military and political war now in the cleanup stage, appears well on the way to his goal of ousting the French from power in South Viet Nam. remnants of a battle lost because they could not turn and twist their massive weight and strik ing power fast enough to meet the swarms of smaller, more agile 'enemies that finally beat them. LIGHT TOUCH That happened to France in the rice-paddy war and political struggle she could not adjust her self to fight. Franca came first to this coun try with the light touch of self les missionaries. A few of thein landed on the south coast of Vict Nam called Cochin China. That was just after the American Rev olutionary War. Later a treaty was arranged be tween France and the Vietnam ese. The Vietnamese were colon ists themselves in those days, and had just finished a centuries-long sweep from the Tonkin delta of North Viet Nam southward into Cochin China. Viet Nam was having a civil war when the French treaty was arranged in 1787 but before the French got around to ratifying it, they were having a revolution themselves. Nevertheless, an en terprising French bishop in In dia rounded up forces, sailed them over to Indochina, and helped scat a troubled prince on the throne. With this help, the new king unified the country. Ho opened it to western civilization. The opening was temporary. A later Vietnamese king turned on the Catholic priests, slaught-l crcd a score of them, and chased others into the wilderness to die of disease and starvation. The revulsion against the West and its ways lasted until the Western tide of imperialism opened Japan and China also. In 1862 France forced the local prince to cede three southern provinces of Viet Nam.. By 1885 the French had gained control of all Viet Nam, North and South, the final act being a brief skirmish with the Chinese to make them give up ancient claims. Thus began the years of French influence in Indochina which have so colored their pres ent outlook. Indochina was one of the richest prizes any nation got in the big empire rush. It poured its wealth into France and the French put skill, enter prise and civilization into Indo china. The current language of the intellectual classes here is French. The French built rail roads, bridges, highways, and opened a vast network of canals which from the air looks like white ribbons lying straight and clean through the jungle. Frenchmen came here to live. They closed the market to other nations and sold their own goods here at high prices. It was real cmpinng. There was resistance but the French for long years could put it dawn. The first rude shock came when the Japanese turned on the West. Many Vietnamese sided with the Japanese. The French return in 1945 was the beginning of a sad affair. In vain the Vietnamese pleaded for' freedom "within, the French Union." '' . 1 The French did 'not seem to realize that the era of colonial ism had about ended in the Far East. Indonesia pulled loose from the Dutch. India and Burma were released by Britain. The Philippines, by an earlier agree ment, received independence from America. ' LARGE REASONS bull the French held on. There were reasons, and large ones. France was fighting to keep a place among the big pow ers after her defeat by Ger many. She needed the wealth of Indochina, wanted to preserve a foothold in Asia. The commercial angle still is important to France, but the world-power factor seems to in fluence her leaders most today. In Europe, the United States has paid out billions to help her in this struggle. But here, in recent months, the policy has changed radically and some of the local executors of American policy give little heed to such matters, One of the more bitter chapters was written at Geneva last year when the French, beaten in the field despite American aid, in effect gave up their rights in North Indochina. They promised the South also the right to vote its freedom. But it was not in the hearts of the French to let it go, and therein lies much of the source of the current troubles. 1059 Willamette Open Fridays til 9 Phone 4-1401 V 1 S t IIWIIIH I II I I 1 "IF ' -tint-Si sfKf 1 Roofing and Siding Installed 10 YEAR SERVICE WARRANTY NO MONEY DOWN ON FHA TERMS Customers who let Wards install their roofing and siding find the job is done right. At Wards you get careful installation service:skiHed consultants plan "every step of your home improvement project expert builders take care of the actual installation. 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