Word: ho
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...even President Ho believed that his uncovered country could long endure an all-out air war with the U.S. Although Peking loudly rejected Lyndon Johnson's "carrot-and-stick" bid last week, Ho was more cautious. Hanoi radio reported the gist of the President's speech, and Ho released an earlier interview in which he demanded American withdrawal from South Viet...
...life. After all, poverty has been the pattern for centuries. Thousands of volunteers turned out patriotically to dig the slit trenches (Hanoi's air-raid shelters) that have been cut through the once verdant parks along the Red River and the capital's two lakes, reminders of Ho Chi Minh's grim determination to pursue his quest for control of all Viet Nam, even if it costs him his economy and the lives of his people...
Ministerial Swap. At 75, Ho is the senior Communist leader in Asia. Red China's Mao Tse-tung was still a party underling in 1923 when Ho was tapped by Stalin to lead the revolution in Asia. Though Mao now swings more weight, Ho is reluctant to accept him as any kind of overlord, subtly and cautiously tries to play Mao off against the Russians in order to secure greater freedom of action for himself. Says one Western diplomat admiringly: "The older Ho gets, the more skilled he becomes at playing one man against another, one faction against another...
...plenty of men and factions to deal with in his own government. Western experts separate Ho's lieutenants into pro-Peking and pro-Moscow categories. Solidly in the so-called Moscow camp is Premier Pham Van Dong, 59, who is nominally Ho's second-in-command. But Pham is counterbalanced in the party power structure by Secretary General Le Duan, a Peking-style hardliner. And last week, in a cabinet shuffle that had Ho-watchers from Washington to Moscow scratching their heads, the standing committee of the National Assembly met in extraordinary session to replace Ho...
Straight-Shooters. At the heart of Ho's complex political equation is Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap, 52, the stocky, slab-cheeked victor of Dien-bienphu and the man who runs Ho's considerable military establishment. Giap is tentatively pro-Moscow in his political orientation, but for a Communist general, he is basically apolitical. Unswervingly loyal to Ho, Giap has honed North Viet Nam's 250,000-man army into one of Asia's toughest military units. Though short on transportation and heavy artillery, Giap's men are tautly disciplined and almost overweeningly proud. Some...