Buddhists 'Hope Lodge Will Fire President Diem'By MARGUERITE HIGGINS
Thursday Morning, August I5, 1963
SAIGON — The Xa loi pagodarises sharply from the other wise drab streets, its peaks and inverted arches seeming as exotic and mysterious as the sound of gongs and chanting emanating from the darkened interior. The large front gate was opened by brown robed monks looking gaunt, stooped, and authentically ascetic. Hut once inside, the exotic mood was somewhat disrupted by Ihe question in French: "Madame, would you like some postcards?" The questioner was a Buddhist layman running the pagoda souvenir shop, He had a special bargain lhat day which was a series of seven postcards showing . The most important steps of the sell - immolation the word "suicide" is taboo around pagodas by fire of the late Reverend Thich Quang Due, all for 70 pastres about a dollar.
There were more surprises in store at the Xa loi pagoda. This now world famous pagoda is the command post from which the Buddhist Associalion, one of a number of rival B u d d h i st groups, conducts ils anti-government agitation. In the courtyard of the pagoda nearly every monk seemed deeply absorbed in a mimeographed sheet that was being handed out by an apprentice monk, a boy in his early teens. A Vietnamese interpreter was instructed to make polite inquiry of the monk about what he was reading. It turned out that the monks were reading their press notices! The mimeographed sheets contained summaries of stories appearing in New York and Washington concerning the antigovernment demonstrations by these Buddhists. The mimeograph machines at the pagoda are also busy preparing communiques for the foreign press. The almost immediate appearance that first day inside the pagoda of an English - speaking press spokesman helped complete the public relations picture. And finally the impression that Madison Avenue had crossed the Pacific to Ihe Xa Loi was reinforded by the sight of a saffron - clad monk clambering to the pagoda's outer wall to harangue the crouds through a loudspeaker. The well-advertised quarrel between the Buddhist Associalion (other groups have kept aloof or disassociated themselves) and the government began over the right to fly Buddhist flags on hobdays
and demands for greater opportunity to acquire property.
Violence erupted before President Diem officially ceded on these and nearly all other points raised. He did so in a joint Diem-Buddhist agreement signed June 16. Then why the continuing demonstrations in Saigon and threats from the pagodas of more suicides? "We do not trust Diem's sincerity." said Thich H u y e n Quang, a Buddhist leader from the religious center of Hue. But he was unable to furnish concrete examples of a governmental breach of faith in its agreement Only a few days ago, the Buddhists again refused Diem's offer to let them join with the government — in the presence of foreign correspondents and international observers — to Investigate and remedy any claimed grievances. This refusal, the regime claims, shows that the Buddhists themselves feel that their grievances are too insubstantial to stand the light of inquiry.
In two days of talking with monks at the Xa loi and Giac Minh pagodas, the correspondent was repeatedly asked one question: "Will not world opinion force Ambassador Lodge to change his policy toward Diem?". At the same line the monks insisted that the "real place to see persecution" was in the countryside. The senior monk at the Giac Minh pagoda said that the Catholics not only held all the best jobs in the provinces, but that in one particularly bad area . Quang Ngai buddhists h a d been taken to jail and burned alive because they refused to let themselves he converted to Catholicism. Quang Ngai province is far north of Saigon and distant therefore from the frenetic rumors which not infrequently have taken in honorable diplomats as well as honorable Buddhists.
In any case, i n q u i r i e s in Quang Ngai about the "burning of Buddhists" or arrests of any kinds for r e l i g i o u s reasons brought astonished denials. The queries were put to the American sector advisor, the Buddhist sector commander. Buddhist leaders at the Quang Ngai pagoda, the peasants in a half-dozen villages.
The Buddhist sector commander -- Col. Lu Lan — was of the view that Buddhists probably held a majority of the posts in the province, including those at the village level. All of which goes to show that you cannot judge Viet Nam by what "they say" in Saigon. For no where in the countryside, which is constantly being circled by State Department reporter assigned to do only that is there religious persecution. As to Saigon there is bitterness left over from police brutality in putting an end to recent street demonstrations. But if the Catholics were to take to the streets in illegal demonstrations defiant of the government, they would risk the same fate.
In Quang Ngai it was left to a Buddhist layman who followed the Americans to a hotel to come out with the most candid version of what the Buddhists are after in this campaign of refusing to let old grievances die. "I understand from Saigon " said the Buddhist conspiratorially " that Mr. Lodge is going to get rid ot Diem as soon as he arrives. That is why they are keeping trouble alive — so that American opinion will stay aroused.
But in Quang Ngai there is no religious problem. Saigon wants us to make a fuss. But what would be the use? There are no reporters there to tell the world about it. " The Buddhist looked incerdulous when the Americans expressed doubt that Mr. Lodge's mission would include the hiring and firing of Vietnamese government personnel.—
(New York Herald Tribune Inc. )
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