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VIETNAM NOTES by George Collinson The nature of the U.S. Government's role in Vietnam is continually exposed in the Western press, In a report dated 25/7/67 in the International Herald Tribune the following conclusions are reached: Observers (Government) can see no signs of enthusiasm for the forthcoming ‘Presidential’ elections in South Vietnam's provincial capitals, Rural areas are largely unaware of the coming vote, and those that are, seem likely to support ‘whoever is in power', because they think there is no choice anyway. The people also believe they are expected to vote for those in power. "None of the ten civilian candidates still in the race has indicated he will campaign actively to try to reach the people or will disagree with the government on any of the fundamental issues of Vietnam", So the Saigon 'government' is organising a presidential election of which most of the people are unaware, and those that are aware are somehow receiving ‘indications' as to whom they should vote for, The report continues, "Since the promulgation of the constitution April 1, the government (Saigon) won everytime it went to bat against the Constituent Assembly. Election laws were shaped according to the government's wishes, Those candidates known to be objectionable to the government were barred from standing. The power of the generals in the last month has been absolute", Now we know that the 'democratic future’ of Vietnam (U.S. style) is arranging an election in which the only candidates are those not opposed to the hyenas Thieu & Ky. As well as that, those people told anything about the election are given an ‘indication’ to make sure they vote for the right puppets. When Thieu & Ky are ‘elected'on September 3 the U.S. administration will, no doubt, start to tell us once again about the wonderful job they are doing in Vietnam, and howthmugh their efforts the people of South Vietnam now have elected representatives. We shall have to work hard to ensure that the Left in Britain is not thrown into confusion by this. Another report in the Herald Tribune of 26/7/67 (U.P.I.) says "Vietcong terrorists kidnapped five men and woman in a Saigon suburb today and executed them on a main highway in a grisly warning to anti-Communist Vietnamese". The report goes onto quote a government spokesman as saying that the terrorists were dressed in South Vietnamese Ranger uniforms, This is an obvious attempt to cover up the excesses of the puppet army, Even assuming that the N.L.F, forces would need to give such warnings, they are hardly likely to issue anti-Government warnings dressed in Government uniforms. The Americans aren't even good liars.