Word: ky
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Phantoms & Diplomats. Though Premier Nguyen Cao Ky promises to execute profiteers, he has yet to make good his threat-and bullets alone can hardly reverse Saigon's rising tide of corruption. A huge, incalculable bite from Washington's $1 billion foreign-aid program is taken each year by government and military officials. U.S. refrigerators and air conditioners meant for hospitals end up in generals' homes; troop commanders collect the "phantom pay" of soldiers whose deaths in combat go unreported to Saigon. For $675, a well-to-do youth can buy an Interior Ministry "diploma" that certifies...
...show that he meant business, Ky announced that one civil servant would be executed shortly for embezzling $255,000. He also had a convicted Viet Cong terrorist shot in a Saigon marketplace, ordered all four army corps commanders to do likewise. Stirring unhappy memories of highhanded Mme. Nhu, the government slapped an 11 p.m. curfew on the capital in order to mute the blatant contrast be tween Saigon's hedonistic existence and the grim, grey life of the Communist-ridden countryside...
Shake & Shock. Plainly, some of Ky's moves were more gestures than policies. Paris reacted to the cutting of diplomatic ties with characteristic hauteur, but showed no signs of withdrawing its cultural and economic missions in Saigon. De Gaulle's only reported comment was to inquire loftily: "Qui est Ky?" It will take more than a few executions to cure the corruption that plagues Saigon and most other Asian capitals. Moreover, price controls on rice and other consumer goods do not get to the root of the problem: scarcities caused by Viet Cong control of roads between farming...
Nonetheless, Ky's first ten days succeeded in their announced purpose to "shake and shock the country out of its lethargy." Where earlier governments tried to rule by consensus, Buddhist Ky is applying casuistry and a very un-Vietnamese puritanism. Impetuous and inexperienced as he is, Ky sounds far more believable in his demands for austerity than his predecessors did. Moreover, he has an air of no-nonsense realism that has been sadly lacking in South Viet Nam. To Saigon newsmen's howls of outrage over his newspaper shutdown, Ky replied with icy calm: "Communists...
...Sources. Dr. Carl F. Essig Jr. of the U.S. Public Health Service's Addiction Research Center in Lexington, Ky., listed five "minor tranquilizers," in addition to meprobamate and chlordiazepoxide, that can lead to intoxication or dependence: glutethimide (Doriden), ethchlorvynol (Placidyl), ethinamate (Valmid), methyprylon (Noludar) and diazepam (Valium). Excess use of any of these, said Essig, may cause drowsiness, difficulty in thinking, and incoordination of movement. The effects are similar to those of barbiturates and alcohol, and, like these, the newer drugs may contribute to traffic accidents, injuries from falls, interference with work and violent behavior...