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View Full Version : New York Times September, 4 1967


infidel
01-31-2005, 11:52 AM
See any parallels here? Only need to look back at history to see what good it did.

U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote:
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror

New York Times September, 4 1967

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.

According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.

The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.


Pending more detailed reports, neither the State Department nor the White House would comment on the balloting or the victory of the military candidates, Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, who was running for president, and Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, the candidate for vice president.

A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.

The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta.

Few members of that junta are still around, most having been ousted or exiled in subsequent shifts of power.

Significance Not Diminished

The fact that the backing of the electorate has gone to the generals who have been ruling South Vietnam for the last two years does not, in the Administration's view, diminish the significance of the constitutional step that has been taken.

The hope here is that the new government will be able to maneuver with a confidence and legitimacy long lacking in South Vietnamese politics. That hope could have been dashed either by a small turnout, indicating widespread scorn or a lack of interest in constitutional development, or by the Vietcong's disruption of the balloting.

American officials had hoped for an 80 per cent turnout. That was the figure in the election in September for the Constituent Assembly. Seventy-eight per cent of the registered voters went to the polls in elections for local officials last spring.

Before the results of the presidential election started to come in, the American officials warned that the turnout might be less than 80 per cent because the polling place would be open for two or three hours less than in the election a year ago. The turnout of 83 per cent was a welcome surprise. The turnout in the 1964 United States Presidential election was 62 per cent.

Captured documents and interrogations indicated in the last week a serious concern among Vietcong leaders that a major effort would be required to render the election meaningless. This effort has not succeeded, judging from the reports from Saigon.

Qdrop
01-31-2005, 11:55 AM
cosmic.

ASsman
01-31-2005, 04:49 PM
Fuck this, I'm gonna go set myself on fire.

Echewta
01-31-2005, 05:21 PM
Here, let me throw the match on you two.

Whois
01-31-2005, 05:35 PM
Anyone bring fuel?

Remember: 1 part gas to 1 part diesel

SobaViolence
01-31-2005, 10:43 PM
what are you guys, communists?

immolation is such a pinko, faggot way to off yourself. Suffocating yourself with your own 2 hands...THAT'S the only true american way to go...

Ali
02-01-2005, 07:44 AM
what are you guys, communists?

immolation is such a pinko, faggot way to off yourself. Suffocating yourself with your own 2 hands...THAT'S the only true american way to go...getting shot by one of your children with your own gun seems to be the American Way to go.

Whois
02-01-2005, 10:27 AM
getting shot by one of your children with your own gun seems to be the American Way to go.

The one they molested... :D (y)

ASsman
02-01-2005, 11:27 AM
what are you guys, communists?

immolation is such a pinko, faggot way to off yourself. Suffocating yourself with your own 2 hands...THAT'S the only true american way to go...
Hardly, you try and sit still while your flesh turns green and melts away.

SobaViolence
02-01-2005, 01:11 PM
damn, you guys got me beat on this one...

Rosie Cotton
02-01-2005, 06:31 PM
Well, you know what they say about history...

ASsman
02-01-2005, 06:31 PM
Last I checked, all asshole politicians come from the same tree.

ASsman
02-01-2005, 06:45 PM
And who is arguing otherwise? You and your shadow it seems.

SobaViolence
02-01-2005, 07:08 PM
jungle warfare...urban warfare...both guerilla warfare
napalm
rising insurgency
staggering civilian casualties
US puppet wins 'democratic' election
then, they wanted to fight chinese communism, but they settle for vietnamese(asians all look alike)
now, they wanted to fight an arab country to settle the score for 9/11...instead of going after saudi arabia, they settle for iraq(arabs all look alike)

striking similarities.

Burnout18
02-02-2005, 01:54 PM
great find (y)