NGO DINH DIEM AND THE SECTS I T is impossible to
understand the conflict which has broken out in Southern Viet Nam between the Prime Minister, M. Ngo Dinh Diem, and what are called `the sects' without taking some account of the historical background to the dispute. The Hoa-Hao, Cao Dai and Binh Xuyen sects are communities which have their own private armies of much the same type as the traditional 'warlord' army, which con- trol certain areas of Viet Nam and which, throughout the war, have offered their services to the highest bidder. For some time now they have been supporters of the anti-Viet- minh forces, since, in spite of their Nationalist attitude immediately following the Japanese occupation, Ho Chi-minh found them too unreliable to trust. Their armies may number anything up to fifty thousand men, and their affiliations range from ministers officially ,representing the Hoa-Hao and the Cao Dai in the Ngo Dinh Diem government to the gambling hells which represent the financial strength of the Binh Xuyen. In short, what M. Diem has to deal with is a network of vested interests controlled by a few fairly unscrupulous military politicians (Ba Cut, one Hoa-Hao commander during the war, sold his services to the French on four different occasions). Their quarrel with the present government of Southern Viet Nam seems purely concerned with questions of power or, more bluntly, of loot. The battalion of seasoned Nung troops (the descendants of the old Tonkingese pirates) which M. Diem is importing to support him in the struggle may or may not turn the scale, but it is difficult to avoid the conclu§ion that these palace revolutions will strengthen Ho Chi-minh's hand in the coming elections in Southern Viet Nam. Moreover there are some signs that the French administration is pinning more hopes to an understanding with the Viet-minh than to the tottering government of Saigon. But the Americans. for their part, are still backing M. Diem.
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