Vietnam reacts coolly to Thieu's death
HANOI - The leaders of Communist Vietnam, whose
predecessors defeated Nguyen Van Thieu's U.S.-backed South Vietnamese
government in 1975, reacted coolly Monday to his death in exile in the United
States.
As South Vietnam's president during the bloodiest years of the Vietnam War,
Thieu was the figurehead of its involvement in the conflict and earned the
enmity of his Communist foes.
``Everyone knows very clearly what Mr. Nguyen Van Thieu has done to the country and the nation,''
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said in a brief statement Monday.
``The Vietnamese people have a saying: `Death brings forgiveness.' Let the dead rest in peace,'' she
said.
Other officials would not comment on Thieu's death, which was reported briefly Monday in just one of
Vietnam's dozens of state-controlled newspapers.
Thieu, 78, died Saturday after collapsing at his home outside Boston.
He became South Vietnam's chief of state in 1965 and then president in 1967 as the United States
escalated its involvement in the war. He fled the country in April 1975 as Communist forces neared the
southern capital, Saigon, and his government and armed forces began disintegrating.
Never a very popular leader, he was unable to turn the tide against the Communist North despite the
assistance of 500,000 U.S. troops and massive amounts of military aid.
He left power in a last-ditch effort by the South to negotiate with the North for creation of a coalition
government. But by then key provincial capitals were falling speedily to invading Communist troops
and the North had no interest in a deal.
Thieu, who fled the country along with more than a million other Vietnamese, largely disappeared from
public view and lived quietly in exile, first in London, then in the Boston area.
Although he offered to help negotiate national reconciliation talks that would allow Vietnamese exiles to
return home, Vietnam's government showed little interest in dealing with him.
Its cool statement Monday contrasted with much warmer words following the death in August of
Thieu's successor, Duong Van Minh, who served as president for just three days as Communist troops
closed in on Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City.
``He contributed to lessening the losses of the war by declaring an unconditional surrender to the
liberation armed forces,'' the Foreign Ministry said of Minh. ``We would like to convey sincere
condolences to his family.''
The Associated Press - October 1st, 2001.
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