Late last year, following my return from a ten-day visit to South Vietnam, I had lunch with an official in the South Vietnamese mission in Washington. Uncharacteristically somber, he said, “I’m afraid South Vietnam is about to enter a period of great political instability.” The balance of his assessment was equally sobering, although he did become guardedly optimistic toward the end: “It is very late, but I think there is still time to save the country.”
The political instability he predicted has now materialized, and South Vietnam, for so long relegated to the inside pages of the papers, has been on page one again—not only because of the escalation in military activity but because of the wave of demonstrations that is now sweeping the country.
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