zen.org Communal Weblog

Sent to David Farber’s Interesting People mailing list:

“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 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their
ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the
Vietcong. 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.”

– Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled, ‘U.S.Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,’ September 4, 1967.