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17: Return to Kien Hoa, Meet With My Communist Brother (1964–1965)
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17: return to kien hoa, meet with my communist brother (1964–1965) my return to Kien Hoa was happy and sad, joyous and disheartening: happy and joyous because the people welcomed me so warmly, and sad and disheartening because conditions had deteriorated considerably in little less than a year. I say that I received a warm welcome on my return, but there was one notable exception. At the time, Kien Hoa was in the Third Military Region, now commanded by General Lam Van Phat, none other than the former colonel of the Second Division at Danang. He was relieved of his command after our heated disagreement about withdrawing troops from the city and allowing Buddhist clergy and lay activists to leave the barbed-wire enclosures in which they had been confined. After being relieved from command of the Second Division, he was transferred to the General Staff, but had no specific duties. In fact, he helped lay the groundwork for and was one of the leaders of the November 1963 coup. After the coup, he was promoted to general and given command of the Third Military Region, which he commanded from offices in Saigon. I knew I must make a courtesy call on him but feared the meeting would be less than pleasant. I phoned his Saigon office anyway and spoke to his aide. We arranged an appointment for the next day. I arrived at the set time, only to find the general alone in his office, not an aide or secretary in sight. This was highly unusual, but I shrugged, knocked at his door, and entered his office, documents in hand. “Give me your papers,” he growled, without a greeting or asking me to sit. He glanced at them briefly, then telephoned General Nguyen Khanh,1 a military academy classmate of Phat and now head of the Military Council. “Such an appointment!” Phat almost shouted. “You should have consulted me. I am military commander of this region and you should have asked my opinion before appointing a province chief in this jurisdiction. No one asked me anything about it, and now I am confronted by Chau with orders covering his appointment. This is inconceivable.” The two argued for several minutes, then General Phat slammed down the phone. Next, he called General Khiem,2 reciting his same indignation and objections to my appointment. Evidently he got no joy from that conversation because he finally hung up, glared, and threw my orders across his desk to me. “Take your papers and go to your province. I don’t care.” I walked out, not feeling angry at him so much as wondering how I could work 215 return to kien hoa with him, given the rancor he obviously bore for me. It could be an impossible situation . How I would be received by people in the province also concerned me. Would the Buddhist leaders be turned against me because I supported President Diem and not the coup? Would the Catholics still trust me after some of my policies and actions in Danang, which they might consider anti-Catholic and pro-Buddhist? Did the failures of the province chiefs who followed me damage the confidence in and authority of anyone sent to govern the province? In any event, my fears proved groundless. A day after my confrontation with General Phat, I informed province headquarters when I would arrive3 and drove to My Tho province to catch a ferry to Kien Hoa. As I neared the ferry landing, I saw the province chief’s car, an escort, and my former aide, Lieutenant Le Chi Thien, waiting to greet me. Lieutenant Thien and I discussed the current situation in the province during the hour-long ferry ride. At one point he chuckled and told me what to expect when we arrived. “The province chief you are replacing asked us to keep your return quiet; he didn’t want the changeover to be a big public event. Somehow word of your return spread rapidly, however, and it seems everybody in the province capital knows you are coming back. And they are very happy about it. You know that there have been four different province chiefs since you left.”4 As we approached the ferry dock I saw that security was heavy, with many soldiers patrolling the area. I asked Lieutenant Thien about it. “Things are not the same as when you were here. There is more unrest and Viet Cong activity now, so security is tighter...