Word: ky
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Huntington sees several reasons for the rising level of political life in South Vietnam, and one of them is Nguyen Cao Ky. In Huntington's previous studies of developing countries, he has often found in the military a primary source of modernizing influence. In the case of Vietnam, he says, Diem was "really the centralizer and the modernizer" but he was unsuccessful in trying to unify a diverse country "from the top down." Ky, Huntington feels, has "natural political flair. He flies planes, he wears purple scarves, everyone has heard of him; he has made a deep impression...
Style is more relevant than content in this stage of politics, Huntington thinks. He attributes peace candidate Dzu's strong 800.000-vote showing to a rabble-rousing political style similar to Ky's, which impressed the voters more than his platform...
Whatever the value, or lack of value, of Ky's leadership in more substantive terms, Huntington feels that he performs a useful function. 'If you're trying to impose democracy on a society you have to expect the rabble-rousers to play their part," he says...
...strongly about Vietnam. "Most people don't appreciate the complexity and variety of this society," he comments. Almost half the population is composed of different minority groups, and it is this half that is most immune to Viet Cong influence and most strongly supports the government--now. Thieu and Ky's majorities on September 3, for example, came from the strongly tribal area of the Third Core...
...potential threat of this diversity, Huntington says, was what brought about Diem's downfall. By the same token, he adds, the existence of so many groups makes some form of coalition democracy the only kind which can hold the country together. Future stability depends on whether the Thieu-Ky government can accommodate the growing plural consciousness of population it depends on for support. Huntington thinks that there are signs that this may happen...