The point is that the leaders of the Saigon government know (even though they don't say so) that their own situation is very explosive; but they also know that since the United States government is afraid of a communist take-over, it will continue to help them, regardless of the internal decay. Thus whether by publicly putting up a show-window front or by silently committing to exhibit the realities of weakness and decay--either way--the present South Vietnamese leaders think they can manipulate the united States into maintaining the flow of military and financial support.

Meanwhile the other side cannot very well sit there and let the United States and the South Vietnamese governments do what ever hey want. The recent attacks, therefore, do not mean that the Viet Cong are making their last efforts to influence the peace talks. What it means is that since President Thieu defines peace as the death of all the communists and also of the "peace pretenders," and since his effort is backed directly or indirectly by the presence of a large foreign force with all this war-making gadgetry, the war must go on.

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, the question now is whether the Unites States wants to have peace in Vietnam or not. And let me remind those who think that peace can come with the continued American support of the present South Vietnamese government, that this support has already made many who would otherwise have been friendly, if no to say helpful to the United States, bitterly anti-American. Recently, professor Ly Chanh Trung of the University of Saigon, an ardent Catholic intellectual, was impelled to say the following words in a speech entitled "Why Do I Want Peace" delivered before the Saigon Student Union:

Being a Vietnamese I can no longer stand the sight of foreigners arrogantly destroy my country thought the use of the most modern and most terrible means, and through the use of the slogan "In protecting the freedom" of the South Vietnamese population, a kind of freedom that the South Vietnamese population has had to throw up and vomit continuously during the last ten years or so without being able to swallow successfully.

In the December issue of An Lac, a Saigon magazine, another professor, Mr. Nguyen Binh Tuyen, risked imprisonment to write the following:

What need do we have here for the multi-racial Allied forces? Not only do they not help the Vietnamese nation in any way, but also in their raping of women and young girls, in their killing of innocent people . . . they have indirectly and effectively propagandized for the communists.

In a country where words of sincerity can result in either imprisonment or death, only those who do not have anything to lose or those who are foolish enough, dare top speak out their minds. Many others feel they must express their views more forcefully.

Ladies and gentleman, I sincerely hope that we can bring to an end all this so that today's enemies might become tomorrow's friends