Why Doesn't the PRG have a capital?

Why no capital? Immediately that a ceasefire in Vietnam was to go into effect the PRG was to name its delegates to the four-party Joint Military Commission. They were to name the places where they were to be met by representatives of the United States, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Saigon Administration to form this four party Joint Military Commission. And when they did so and flew their flag and named their places they got bombed by the Saigon Government. I think I have indicated also before, the dangers in a period of peace like the time immediately after the 1954 Geneva agreements to a government in the liberated areas that does not continue to shield itself with military forces. If a capital were to be declared as an area, I wonder how long it would be before the Saigon government physically went in and occupied it.

I've got two theories as to where a capital will be declared, but it will be declared only when the outside countries of the world have recognised both the PRG and the Thieu government and do all they can, through this representation, through this recognition, to force the Saigon parties to continue to work together and not to give any kind of aid to encourage one or the other to upset the balance and the structure of peace that should be emerging in South Vietnam.

So recognition can play a positive part in putting pressure on both sides to get on with the business of solving the problem, which is to be left to them to work out. When that encouragement comes, when the two sides stop jockeying for position and finally reach an agreement as they're supposed to have done, then and only then, one of two areas are likely to be declared a capital of Vietnam. One, ironically enough, is that district capital where I taught, in Binh Long province. The other, I would suggest, would be in Quang Tri province, immediately south of the so-called demilitarised zone. I suggest this because intelligence reports from my own government that are in the New York Times say that SAM 2 missiles are appearing in great numbers in this area, that bulldozers and cement mixers have been busy preparing old American airstrips for use. Now the missiles, it should be pointed out, are defensive. The PRG does not have an airforce to my knowledge. I think that when the moment comes they will be able to stave off what is after all the world's third largest airforce, that of the Saigon administration.

Finally, American intelligence reports tell us that 10,000 Vietnamese who left South Vietnam during the conflict, who went to the Democratic Republic of South Vietnam and have received educational training in accountancy, business and all these facets that public servants need to know, have now returned to their own portion of the country to take up posts in the PRG. I think very shortly we will see a government declare the location of its own capital and will have fully staffed itself. The only stumbling block I can really see on the horizon is that the conflict and turmoil in Cambodia must first be ended, because that constitutes a very vital factor influencing all development, all trust, between the two parties in Vietnam.

I'm happy to see my own government finally standing up to the President after so many years, and asserting what they should have done a long time ago — the power of the purse — to have him call off the bombing in Cambodia. Perhaps it will hasten the end of the Lon Nol regime and with it a solution to the Cambodian problem, and then by reverse effect maybe we can have a solution to the problem in Vietnam itself. But until the Cambodian situation is solved I can see little hope for encouraging signs and mutual trust between the two parties in South Vietnam.