Word: ky
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THERE was always something fundamentally unworkable about the script for South Viet Nam's presidential elections in October. Authored in part by U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, the plan called for an earnestly contested race among three candidates-President Nguyen Van Thieu, Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky and retired four-star General Duong Van ("Big") Minh. If Thieu won a reasonably honest election, the scenario went, the Administration could declare Vietnamization a resounding success and step up the pace of its withdrawal from the longest war in U.S. history...
When he turned up for a packed press conference in a wing of Saigon's Independence Palace last week, South Viet Nam's Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky was clad in an outfit that had everything. It was a light blue, double-breasted, bell-bottomed suit with brass buttons-not quite Western, not exactly the Nehru or Mao style, not really a military tunic, but a little bit of each. Above all, it was distinctive and snappy. So was Ky, as he fought for his political life in the wake of his exclusion by the Supreme Court from...
First of all, said Ky, the court's decision to bar him, on the grounds that he lacked enough valid signatures from National Assemblymen and provincial councilmen, was "arbitrary and unlawful." Therefore, he added, he would probably not bother to appeal, since the same result could be expected the second time around. "To achieve his ideal, a fighter has ways to fight-legal and illegal," said Ky. "Until this minute, I still follow the legal way to fight." The implication was perfectly clear that at any moment he might switch to other tactics-and that was the point...
Nevertheless, rumors of coups persist as a kind of spectral presence. In a showdown, however, most observers feel that the military would not back Ky but would either remain neutral or support President Thieu...
...increased at the main radio station and public utilities. In recent weeks an old Diem regulation has been revived, which prohibits Vietnamese Air Force planes from overflying Saigon. As a final perverse touch, rumors have been floated that Thieu might launch a phony coup as a pretext to arrest Ky...