The Armed Forces Council in Saigon announced today the appointment of Dr. Phan Huy Quát as Premier and Phan Khắc Sửu as Chief of State. Dr. Quát, a soft-spoken 56-year-old physician, said that several minor Cabinet posts would be filled this morning but that key ministerial appointments had been approved by military leaders who make up the Armed Forces Council. Mr. Sửu, who becomes Chief of State, has been acting in that titular post since the council ousted the Government of Premier Trần Văn Hương in a coup d’état January 27 and established a caretaker administration. Mr. Sửu was also Chief of State in the Hương regime. The statement issued by the council plainly indicated that Lieutenant General Nguyễn Khánh, the military commander in chief, who staged the January coup, and other generals intended to retain a strong political influence.
The statement said that the armed forces would withdraw from politics after the new government was formed and a military-civilian council was set up to act as an interim legislature. However, it added that the Armed Forces Council would continue to “act as mediator; until the government is popularly elected.” It also said that the new administration would be dedicated to an intensification of the war against the Việt Cộng and preservation of civil liberties within the country. Formation of a government will give South Vietnam its first regular administration since the coup and the ninth government since President Ngô Đình Diệm was overthrown November 1, 1963.
On the military scene, the unusual lull in Việt Cộng activity since the last bombing attack on North Vietnam Thursday appears to have ended. A United States military spokesman reported a resumption of small-scale Việt Cộng incidents. Within the 24 hours ended at 7 AM yesterday the spokesman said, there had been 15 Việt Cộng incidents compared to the average of 12. Of the 27 incidents in the last 48 hours, he said, 17 were reported to have been acts of terrorism, six of sabotage, three military attacks and one ambush.
In Saigon it was noted that the two political leaders who had been in close touch with Maxwell D. Taylor, the United States Ambassador, were not in the new Cabinet. The two are Nguyễn Xuân Oánh, the Premier of the caretaker government, and Dr. Nguyễn Lưu Viên, the First Deputy Premier in the caretaker administration and in the Huong Government. Dr. Viên declined the premiership when the military leaders refused to give him a free hand in the selection of a Cabinet and assurance that he would be able to administer without undue interference from pressure groups. Ambassador Taylor, who conferred yesterday with General Khanh and Acting Premier Oánh, has been urging a quick solution to the political crisis that would take advantage of the psychological lift provided by the bombing raids on North Vietnam.
The raids were carried out last week by the United States and South Vietnamese Air Forces in retaliation for Việt Cộng attacks on American military installations and Vietnamese civilians. Military leaders took advantage of anti-Government demonstrations staged by Buddhist secular organizations to force out Mr. Hương last month. The Hương Government had been supported by the United States in its efforts to obtain responsible civilian administration for the country.
The political influence of the militant Buddhist faction, led by two monks, Thích Trí Quang and Thích Tâm Châu, was felt behind the scenes in assembling the latest Government. Dr. Quát is a Buddhist, but not a member of the militant faction. The Buddhist secular organization is represented more by Trần Quang Tuấn, who will become Minister of Social Welfare. The organized Catholics, who oppose strong military and Buddhist influences, have declined to participate in the Government. However, two ministers, Major General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, who continues as Minister of the Armed Forces and Deputy Premier, and Lu Van Vi, who has been designated Justice Minister, are Catholics. Dr. Trần Văn Đỗ, a close friend of Dr. Quát and like him a physician, has been designated as Foreign Minister. Dr. Đỗ was Foreign Minister In 1954 and headed the South Vietnamese delegation to the Geneva conference that ended the French-Indochina War and divided the country at the 17th Parallel.
South Vietnamese troops smashed anti-government demonstrations in two northern towns yesterday, killing 15 civilians in one of them. The Việt Cộng may have inspired both outbursts. Government troops opened fire on a mob of about 2,000 as it attempted to storm the district chief’s house at Thăng Bình, 20 miles south of the United States-Vietnamese air base at Đà Nẵng. The demonstrators were demanding an end of air and artillery warfare in their towns and villages. In addition to the 15 dead, an unknown number of civilians were wounded, a Vietnamese military spokesman said.
Another demonstration was put down without gunfire at Tam Kỳ, 20 miles farther south. The military commander of the region, Brigadier General Nguyễn Chánh Thi, visited both communities in an attempt to prevent further unrest. In the same northern region, a government battalion aided by armored troop carriers engaged a guerrilla band 20 miles northwest of Huế. Reliable reports said that the government troops had killed 35 Việt Cộng soldiers and captured 5. Government casualties were put at one dead and one wounded.
Hua Muong, a Laotian Government guerrilla base in Samneua Province, has fallen to a strong Communist force, military sources reported today. Government forces consisting mainly of Meo tribesmen have withdrawn to the hills surrounding Hua Muong, the sources said. The Communist forces were estimated by Laotian and Western military sources at four to six battalions (2,000 to 3,000 men), possibly including one North Vietnamese battalion. The Communists were reportedly backed by two 105mm artillery pieces as well as anti-aircraft weapons.
Hua Muong is 30 miles southwest of the town of Samneua, the headquarters of Prince Souphanouvong, the leader of the pro-Communist faction. It is of importance to the Government because supplies were flown to its airstrip for government troops. The government, set up in 1962 as a rightist-neutralist-leftist coalition, now involves only the rightists and neutralists. The Pathet Lao, the leftists, withdrew from participation in April, 1963, when fighting broke out among the forces supporting the three factions.
Western military sources believe the motive for the capture of Hua Muong may be a Communist plan to open an alternative supply route from North Vietnam to aid the Pathet Lao forces in northern Laos. The Communists now use Route 7, which is 45 miles south of Hua Muong, and which leads from Nonget on the Laos-North Vietnam border to the Plaine des Jarres, a strategic area. This route had been under repeated attack by the Royal Laotian Air Force and an important bridge was destroyed last month by a United States air strike.
Canada and India have informed North Vietnam their representatives on the “Peacekeeping” International Control Commission do not want to withdraw their field inspection teams. This could result in the end of the body’s last vestige of authority.
Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin returned to Moscow today from a 10-day visit to Communist China, North Vietnam and North Korea amid reports that major decisions would be made on Soviet policy on Southeast Asia and the United States. The decisions are expected to follow the Premier’s consultations with the other members of the leadership, notably Leonid I. Brezhnev, the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist party, who was at the airport to meet him. If he follows the usual practice, Mr. Kosygin will make a television report to the nation tomorrow or Wednesday. Pending this clarification of Soviet intentions, Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko was uncommunicative in discussing Vietnam with George Thomson, British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, according to diplomatic sources. He is said to have told the British visitor that the Soviet position was stated in a government declaration last Tuesday warning that “no one should doubt” Soviet willingness to help North Vietnam against foreign aggression.
Alexel N. Kosygin rushed into a conference with Communist Party secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev and top Russian officials immediately after his plane touched down in Moscow on his return from North Vietnam, North Korea, and Red China.
Marshal Chen Yi. Foreign Minister of Communist China, called tonight for “concrete action” against the United States. In a speech at the Soviet Embassy in Peking he said that peaceful coexistence with the United States was “out of the question.” Marshal Chen spoke at a reception given by the Soviet Ambassador, Stepan V. Chervonenko, to mark the 13th anniversary of the Soviet-Chinese Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance. Premier Chou En-lai and other Chinese officials were present. The speech was viewed in Hong Kong as a further effort by Peking to force Moscow into a stronger stand against the United States on the question of American air attacks against North Vietnam.
President Sukarno’s government seized the American Cultural Center in Jakarta after Communist-inspired demonstrators claimed the building as headquarters for a Vietnam-Indonesian youth front. The Indonesian Government took control of the United States Information Service library in Jakarta today after four hours of officially sponsored demonstrations protesting air strikes by the United States against North Vietnam. The library was the third belonging to the United States that Indonesia has seized since August. It is known officially as the American Cultural Center. The demonstrations, in which about 17.000 people took part. were noisy but peaceful. They were sponsored by the National Front, a government-directed organization that includes representatives of the armed forces, all political parties and social organizations. The demonstrators, a majority of them from Communist-controlled or dominated youth, student and labor organizations, sang anti-American songs and chanted anti-American slogans.
In Sofia, an angry mob of 300 students broke through a cordon of 100 police who were protecting the American legation to Bulgaria and wrecked the first floor of the building. Several hundred students — some of them Asians and Africans — stoned the United States Legation in Sofia, Bulgaria, today in a protest against United States airstrikes on North Vietnam. Numerous windows were smashed. A legation spokesman, interviewed by telephone from Vienna, said Bulgarian police arrived late, although the legation had notified the Foreign Ministry 40 minutes earlier that trouble was expected.
The United States is continuing talks with Hungary despite the damage done to the American Legation and to relations between their Governments by rioters in Budapest Saturday.
West Germany has bluntly declared that if East German Communist chief Walter Ulbricht visits the United Arab Republic, every cent of German aid to Egypt will be cut off. West Germany will cut off economic aid to the United Arab Republic if the projected visit of Walter Ulbricht, the East German leader, goes through, a Government spokesman declared today. The spokesman also said West Germany would “reappraise” its diplomatic relations with Cairo if the visit took place. The announcement signaled a harder line by Bonn in its dispute with Cairo over the invitation to the head of the East German regime. Previously the West German Government implied that its reaction to the invitation would be determined by the kind of reception Mr. Ulbricht received in Cairo. Under a decision reached in Bonn today, however, Mr. Ulbricht’s official presence in the United Arab Republic would be enough to terminate West German economic aid. Gerhard Schröder, the West German Foreign Minister, has notified Egypt’s Ambassador in Bonn of the decision to end economic aid if the Ulbricht visit goes through.
Walter Ulbricht, heaping scorn on West Germany for its unsuccessful efforts to have his invitation to Cairo withdrawn, told Bonn to stop “the futile meddling in the internal affairs of the United Arab Republic.”
Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol demanded today that West Germany honor its commitment to supply arms to Israel.
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson will visit West Germany from March 6 to 9.
Peking expressed approval today of President de Gaulle’s recent proposals for reform of the United Nations and for changes in the world monetary system.
Three prominent public officials of the Republic of the Congo — Joseph Pouabou (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Congo), Lazare Matsocota (Attorney General and chief prosecutor), and Massouémé Anselme (Director of the Congolese Information Agency) — were kidnapped from Brazzaville and murdered.
A new red and white maple leaf design was inaugurated as the flag of Canada, replacing the Union Flag and the Canadian Red Ensign. At noon, the new banner was raised first on the Peace Tower of the Parliament Building in Ottawa.
Demonstrating Brittany workers and farmers clashed with riot police in Brest as President Charles de Gaulle visited France’s nuclear submarine installations.
Premier Fidel Castro eased Carlos Rafael Rodriguez out of his job as boss of the Agrarian Reform Institute in what diplomats in Havana described as a continuing purge of old Communists.
Italian officials invoked the 1929 concordat with the Vatican to ban performances in Rome of the controversial German-authored play “The Deputy.”
TWW, the independent British television network covering south Wales and west England, inaugurated its new service, reviving the Teledu Cymru broadcasting that had halted a year earlier. Local programming, including Welsh music and some Welsh-language shows, was directed on four channels at St Hilary, near Cardiff (Channel 7), Preseli (Channel 8), Arfon (Channel 10) and Moel-y-Parc (near Wrexham) (Channel 11).
About 2,800 Blacks marched on the courthouses of three counties in Alabama’s Black Belt today to demand a speed-up in the registration of voters. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the demonstrations in Selma and the nearby towns of Marion and Camden, where the registration books were open for the last day this month. There was no violence and there were no arrests, but only a few names were added to the registration books. Dr. King said that demonstrations would continue, particularly in the small towns surrounding Selma, until restrictions that have kept Black registrations to a fraction of the potential were relaxed. The largest turnout was in Selma, where 1,400 adults stood in a line that stretched for five blocks into a white residential area shaded by enormous oaks and magnolias. Eight hundred schoolchildren and teen-agers marched by the courthouse to show their support but returned immediately to the church, where their line had formed.
Sheriff James G. Clark, who had arrested hundreds around the courthouse during the last four weeks, remained inside his office. He had just been released from the hospital where he was sent Friday suffering from exhaustion. The student march was spontaneous, but the Selma demonstration was held with the permission of white authorities of the city and Dallas County. The parade permit was issued by Selma’s Public Safety Director, Wilson Baker, after a weekend meeting between the authorities and Black leaders in Selma. In Marion, the seat of Perry County and also the town of Dr. King’s wife, about 150 Blacks were so inspired by Dr. King’s visit that they refused to leave the courthouse at the end of the day. They were in a second-floor courtroom, where registration had taken place, and said they planned to stay there all night.
A Federal judge ordered the release today of 50 more persons jailed during voter registration demonstrations at Selma. Two white ministers from the Boston area were among those released. United States District Judge Daniel H. Thomas signed an order requiring Dallas County officers to release the prisoners into the custody of Federal marshals pending a habeas corpus hearing. Last week, Judge Thomas signed a similar order affecting 26 Blacks. In both cases he stayed payment of $50 fines.
Two state officials refused today to produce records that the United States Civil Rights Commission had subpoenaed in regard to racial violence and church burnings in Mississippi. T. B. Birdsong, the State Highway Patrol Commissioner, and Walter Dell Davis, the Insurance Commissioner, appeared along with about 10 other local and county officials whose records had been sought by the commission. Mr. Birdsong, asked for Highway Patrol investigation files on the deaths of two Blacks and on several cases in which civil rights workers had been beaten, said that the reports were confidential documents that contained “unsubstantiated” material. He said that the reports included the opinions of investigators “which could hurt innocent persons” if they came out in the hearings.
Mr. Davis, represented by Ruble Griffin, Assistant State Attorney General, said he would “cheerfully” furnish records of fires at Black churches around the state last summer if a court order was obtained. But he said he would not produce the files unless a court order required him to. He added that his office had investigated the church fires and that arson had been suspected in many cases.
Malcolm X charged last night that his home “was bombed by the Black Muslim movement on the orders of Elijah Mohammed,” its leader.
President Johnson increased today his pressure on Congress to make Washington a “great capital city” worthy of the richest nation on earth. President Johnson proposed to Congress a fight against crime in the District of Columbia. It could set a pattern for the rest of the nation.
President Johnson sent to Congress today three reports dealing with science and what he called the need “to understand the profound changes which it promises.”
The federal government began an investigation today into a complaint that 12 hospitals in seven Southern states were violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A federal judge refused to order a recount of some 8,000 ballots cast by a Gary (Indiana) local of the United Steelworkers Union in their vote for union president.
The American Civil Liberties Union protested today a proposed investigation of the Ku Klux Klan and certain other groups by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
The Atomic Energy Commission announced an additional cutback in the production of uranium-235.
Rep. Wright Patman, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, ruled out any investigation of possible political influence in the awarding of national bank charters.
Cyrus Vance, the Deputy U.S. Secretary of Defense, ordered the Departments of the Army and the Air Force to amend their regulations regarding individual state National Guard units, so as to prevent any racial discrimination as a requirement of association with the U.S. military. Such regulations were ordered to be implemented “to ensure that the policy of equal opportunity and treatment is clearly stated”; the new requirements would be quickly accepted by the states, and by the end of 1965, there would not be a single segregated national guard unit in any of the fifty states.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas rode a pony out of New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains tonight after having been trapped in heavy snows on an icy trail for nearly nine hours.
Twenty-eight children were burned in Mapleton, North Dakota, none seriously. when 44 cars of a Northern Pacific freight train derailed today and a car of peroxide exploded. The children were on their way to school, or in the school yard, when the explosion occurred nearby. The blast blew out windows in the school, the depot and two stores. The cause of the derailment was not determined.
The United States will attempt to launch tomorrow the first of three giant folding-wing Pegasus satellites to sample the meteoroid population near the earth.
Methamphetamine inhalers, formerly available in the United States as an over-the-counter medicine, were barred from sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) except by doctor prescription. In announcing the new rules, FDA Commissioner George P. Larrick said that he had received 153 reports of meth abuse in 1964, compared with 54 in 1963 and only five a year in 1960, 1961 and 1962.
United Artists’ new epic film “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” starring Max von Sydow as Jesus Christ, premièred at the Warner Cinerama Theatre in New York City. Despite an all-star cast including Charlton Heston, John Wayne, Claude Rains, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, and José Ferrer, it did poorly at the box office.
John Lennon passes his driving test.
The Beatles recorded “Ticket to Ride” at the EMI Studios in London.
Nat King Cole, the velvet-voiced popular singer, died in St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California this morning. He was 45 years old.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 885.32 (-3.15)
Born:
Adama Barrow, 3rd President of the Gambia, in Mansajang Kunda, Gambia.
Héctor Beltrán Leyva, Mexican drug lord, in Badiraguato, Mexico.
Bruce Bell, Canadian NHL defenseman (Quebec Nordiques, St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers), in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Tony White, NBA Point guard (Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors), in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Nate Blackwell, NBA Point guard (San Antonio Spurs), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Reggie Sutton, NFL defensive back (New Orleans Saints), in Miami, Florida.
Derrick Crudup, NFL safety (Los Angeles Raiders), in Delray Beach, Florida.
Died:
Nat King Cole, 45, American singer and jazz pianist (“Unforgettable”, “Mona Lisa”); from lung cancer.
History Diaries 