05) A KY OPPONENT LIVES IN ‘EXILE’ IN WASHINGTON

By ROSE KUSHNER

11 March 1966

Dear General Thi:

I undertand that you are interested in securing medical attention in the United States. It occurs to me, therefore, that you might welcome an invitation from me, on behalf of the United States Department of Defense,

offering you the use of our medical facilities for a complete physical examination and checkup, as well as the administration of whatever treatment is found necessary. If this offer appeals to you, I wish

you would let me know and I will immediately make all the necessary arrangements.

With every good wish.

Very sincerely yours,

W.C. WESTMORELANDGeneral, United States ArmyWashington.

Vietnam’s Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky saw a ghost of luncheons past last month when he reached his seat in the dining room of the National Press Club. General Ky grasped the back of his chair, turned quickly and gave an order.

Immediately, his longtime aide, Dang Duc Khoi, rushed down to a table directly opposite the rostrum. He knelt beside the chair of another mustachioed Vietnamese - Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chanh Thi - to extend Ky’s invitation to join him at the head table.

Nguyen Chanh Thi declined.

Once a close friend of Ky, Thi was a comrade-in-coup during the revolt of June, 1965, when a military junta overturned th government of Gen. Nguyen Khanh. Less than nine months later, Ky was premier and Thi - the most popular general in Vietnam - was under house arrest in Saigon.

Most popular General

At the press club luncheon, while demonstrators of both the right and left chanted hatred outside, Genaral Ky sat in guarded isolation, surrounded by swarms of police and Secret Servicemen. Genaral Thi, on the other hand, wandered freely through the crowded dining room, stopping to chat with such old friends as the peppery "warlord" who commanded Vietnam’s I Corps until Ky had him arrested in Mach 1966.

Later, puffing an antique ivory pipe, General Thi described the events that led to his downfall. "My plan in June, 1965, was to replace the junta with an honset, elected civilian government as quickly as possible. At most," he said, "I expected that we generals would rule only six months."

Although this plan made Thi a favorite of the people, it did not raise enthusiasm in the breasts of the rest of Military Revolutionary Council (MRC) - as the junta was rechristened.

"By that time so much American money was pouring into Vietnam," Genaral Thi continued, "that no one wanted to relinquish control. There were too many opportunities to become rich. But the people were on the side of my plan for a civilian government, and they supported me."

Feeling threatened by Thi’s popular backing, Ky - whom the MRC had elected Premier - easily obtained the other generals’ consent to fire Thi.

"But he could not have succeeded without also having help from your embassy," Thi explained. "Ambassador Lodge and his assistant, Philip Habib, sent U.S. airplanes to bomb Da Nang when my people rose up to protest my dismissal."

Trim and dapper in his pre-exile custom silk suit, General Thi wore the red resette of the Legion d’Honneur on his left lapel. It was awareded him by France for heroism in combat with Communist Viet Minh.

"Finally," he went on, "the struggle became so intense that Ky and Lodge had to promise a constitution and elections in order to end the revolt."

" They wanted me away from Vietnam during the elections for th Constituent Assembly in September, 1966," he said. "If I did not go, they may have canceled the elections, or - even worse - continued to bomb my people."

Thi related how Gen. William C. Westmoreland arranged a "physical checkup and medical treatment" at the Walter Reed Army Hospital. Then, on August 29, 1966, General Thi, two of his four children and an aide left Saigon for Washington. A strike of commercial American airlines grounded the party in Honolulu and they were flown the rest of the way in the presidential Air Force One.

Americans in Vietnam knew General Thi as the tough chief of I Corps, a man of the people, simple as a peasant.

His honesty was poor preparation for the cost of living in Washington. Unlike many high-level exiles, General Thi has no bank account - Swiss or otherwise - to draw upon. The small income from his familly’s ancestral land goes to his two brothers and a sister, widowed during the devastating Tet offensive of 1968.

Therefore, General Thi has always been entirely dependent on his Army salary for an income. Since his ouster, he has continued to receive part of his general’s pay. This is frequently supplemented by friends.

He has enough to live in modest comfort in a one room efficiency apartment in an old, once elegant building on downtown Conecticut Avenue.

General Thi’s three sons and daughter, ages 15, 13, 12, and 11, live in a Presbyterian institution in Lynchburg, Va., where they attend public schools. The home, a working farm where many Vietnamese children have found refuge, costs little, for the youngsters are required to help in the fields or in the kitchen several hours each day.

Despite assistance from friends and the government allowance, General Thi has difficully making ends meet. Where once he had a personal cook and body servants, he cooks his own meals and does his own laundry. Newspapers and books are his only luxuries and dinner at a restaurant is a festive occasion.

"I am the world’s best chef on preparing eggs," he joked. "I have learned to make omelettes perhaps 100 different ways - onions, mushrooms, peppers, garlic...I never tier of omelettes."

General Thi has been divorced from his wife since 1960 when he led an abortive coup d’etat against the late President Ngo Dinh Diem. When it failed, he fled to Cambodia where he remained for three years.

She would not come with me, "General Thi explained. "Once I was angry and bitter, but now I undertand. I was much older than she, no one believed I would come back."

He described his young wife’s fury when other high-ranking officer’s wives or mistresses showed off their jewels, cars and fine houses. "She too wanted shopping trips to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Tokyo; she too wanted a villa on the beach and a big automobile. But no cololel or even general can afford such purchases from his wages alone - the money must come from corruption of some kind.

I would not do it, so I lost my wife."

Whenever possible, he rents or borrows a car and drives to Lynchburg to see his children, buy their clothing and listen to their problems. August and December are devoted exclusively to the children. These are the vacation months and the family of five squeezes together in the single room of General Thi’s apartment.

Although Vietnamese editorial writers continually urge President Nguyen Van Thieu to invite General Thi back, no official word has yet come from Independence Palace.

Lectures The Military And Students.

During the 1968 Tet offensive, General Thi cabled Thieu for permission to return to fihgt for his country. There was no reply.

Unable to fight on the battlefield, General Thi tries to help his coutry by speaking and writing. Frequently, he lectures to the State Department’t Foreign Service Institution, the Agency for International Development and at various war colleges and mititaty bases. To newsmen, General Thi is an encyclopedia of information about the past and present of Vietnam, and members of Congress often ask his advice.

"most of all," General Thi said, "I enjoy talking with students. I have visited many universities - Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Cornell and others - to explain to the young people the best way to help my people. This is the only way I can serve Vietnam here and now."

Dissapproves U.S Actions

Thoughtfully, he blew gray smoke rings and reminisced. "I could have been premier instead of Ky in 1965; the MRC elected me first. But I said, ‘No, I am a soldier not a politician, and I returned to be chief of I Corps.

But because I refused, I am in no way responsible for the way the war was carried out; I cannot be connected with search-and-destroy, B-52 raids, napalm, defoliation and My Lai massacres. To be fair, these were not Ky’s decision, or Thieu’s. These were U.S decision, although, of couse, they could have resigned in protest.

Mrs, Kushner has been to Vietnam and she maintains close connections with the South Vietnamese colony in Washington.

BÀI THƠ VÔ ĐỀ

Giáo sư Nguyễn Mạnh Quang

Kính tặng Trung Tướng Nguyễn Chánh Thi

Thần kinh (1) vào độ hăm ba (1923)

Duyên sông, nợ núi sanh ra anh hùng

Đời trai sương gió vẫy vùng

Độc tài, bạo ngược, ngang tàn hại dân

Sa cơ đành chịu lánh thân

Tướng Thi giờ phải bước chân lưu đày

Thời cơ đến bọn vô tài

Lòng anh hoài Việt bao ngần xót thương

Giáo sư Nguyễn Mạnh Quang

Tacoma 19/ 9/ 95

1. Thần Kinh: Huế
2. Xin dùng chữ "anh" để gọi chữ "anh hùng" và sự trẻ trung, hùng dũng lúc chàng "Thi" xuất thế.

L.T.S: Ở bất cứ chế độ xã hội nào dù là tự do, dân chủ, hay cộng sản, độc tài đều có chung một mẫu số: NHỮNG KẺ CÓ QUYỀN THẾ, HAM DANH VỌNG, TIỀN BẠC ĐỀU GHÉT SỰ THẬT, GHÉT NGƯỜI TRUNG, ƯA KẺ NỊNH BỢ BẤT TÀI. VÀ VÌ QUYỀN LỢI CỦA BẢN THÂN, HỌ SẲN SÀNG BÁN RẺ TỔ QUỐC, ĐỒNG ĐỘI, LƯƠNG TÂM VÀ DANH DỰ. TBĐC xin được đăng tải toàn bộ nguyên văn bài của ký giả Rose Kushner viết về Trung Tướng Nguyễn Chánh Thi để quý vị có dịp tìm hiểu thêm về lịch sử cuộc chiến tranh Việt Nam. Quý vị cũng có thể hiểu thêm những bí ẩn về cuộc đời của một Trung Tướng tiết tháo, trong sạch, yêu nước bị đày ra khỏi đất nước với 4 người con với hai bàn tay trắng.