ChjpHunter
Posts : 55 Join date : 2010-09-15
| Subject: During Nolting' Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:41 am | |
| During Nolting's first meeting with Diệm after the assassination attempt, the president adamantly asserted that the media was responsible for the bombing. He pointed to the Newsweek article and other "derogatory articles in the press",[10] using them to justify his claim that "the Americans were supporting the revolution".[10] Diệm declared that while some journalists were portraying the bombing as a wake-up call he saw it as "a warning to them—an indicator of the danger of their irresponsibility [in fomenting disorder]".[10] In a later meeting with General Paul D. Harkins, head of the US military mission to Vietnam, Diệm joked: "I shouldn't have put him in the air force, because I had put his father in jail years ago".[9] Diệm went on to predict that "sometime I'm going to get shot right in the back of the neck. Sometime they'll get me that way".[9] He was shot dead after a successful coup in 1963.[9] Diệm reacted to the assassination attempt by cracking down on political dissidents and further tightening control of the press.[16] Off the record, one official admitted that "[w]e don't even talk about freedom of the press or ask for other liberties any more ... [Diệm] had completely surrounded himself in a protective oligarchy".[9] Nhu justified anti-opposition restrictions, remarking that "[t]here's always going to be an opposition. If we take these people in, there will be another opposition springing up, because they are controversial men."[9] Madame Nhu added, "[y]ou open a window to let in light and air, not bullets. We want freedom, but we don't want to be exploited by it."[17] Streaming Audio RecorderTime Management Tips | |
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