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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Oct. 17, 1963
Professor Terms Diem Critics Naive
By Tom Coffman
"Politically naive self-styled liberals" who are indignant about the policies of the Diem regime were criticized yesterday by a KU professor.
Grant Goodman, associate professor of history and East Asian area studies, spoke before the KU-Y Current Events Forum in the Kansas Union.
Last week, in the same forum, Klaus Pringsheim, instructor in East Asian area studies, presented the other side of the debate—an attack on the Diem government and U.S. policies in Viet Nam.
GOODMAN yesterday called for a "dispassionate" view of the Viet-namese situation in its historic prospective.
"To discover so suddenly that Mme. Nhu is not democratic and therefore must be given a public cold shoulder in this country smacks of international immaturity and the worst sort of scapegoatism." Goodman said.
He presented the following points as his view of the history of the Diem government and South Viet Nam:
- IN 1954 THE U.S., fearing a Communist take-over, engineered the return of Ngo Dinh Diem to South Viet Nam from Diem's self-exile in East Lansing, Michigan.
- Diem exhibited talent and skill in the years 1955-58 in consolidating the authority of the government and revitalizing a deciving economy
- Americans—both government officials and citizens—impressed by Diem's success in internal improvements, painted glowing pictures of Diem, going so far as to call him a "one man democracy."
- "IN REALITY Diem's successes were largely due to American aid." Goodman said, and Diem's use of efficient bureaucrats.
Diem restime has never been high.
- The internal popularity of the
Bien regime has never been high. • "Only in rare instances do the fates of governments depend on popularity contests," Goodman added.
- Vietnamese peasants are politically indifferent. The terms "democracy" and "communism" have no meaning to them.
The belief that the Viet Cong—Communist guerillas—gained amazing support among the peasants was labelled by Goodman as a "dangerously romantic American nation."
COMMUNIST Viet Cong strength has come from terrorism, the advantage of a guerilla band in a rough terrain, and several dissenting groups—the mountain dwellers, anti-Americans, and a few religious groups—including Buddhists—Goodman believes.
The British spent 12 years overcoming much smaller groups of guerillas in Malaya, Goodman said.
The U.S. must be determined to accept the length and cost of the jungle war, he believes. "Petulant outbursts by our President for possible political gain at home are no more commendable than the overblown egotism of Ngo Dinh Nhu," Goodman said.
GOODMAN SAID
HE THINKS that the "self-styled liberalis" are victims of oversimplified propaganda slogans such as "free world," "religious freedom," and "popular democracy."
He cautioned against considering the world scene in terms of morality versus immorality—"black versus white. Sadly, the predominant coloration of international affairs is now and has historically been a rather amoral grey."
U. S. policy makers are not immediately concerned with Diem's authoritarian characteristics, Goodman said, but rather with maintenance of public order and the attitude necessary for a fight against the Communists.
If the U.S. wants to keep South Viet Nam from falling to the Communists we have no choice but to continue to back Diem, Goodman concluded.
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