WIDOW'S RETREAT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000200070030-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2001
• Sequence Number: 30
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/03A)TtiTWI
Widow's Retreat
Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu had arrived in
the U.S. 5f weeks ago as a crusading
wife; last week she left, an embittered
widow. From Beverly Hills she flew to
Rome to join her three younger chil-
dren, Son Trac, 15, Son Quyen, 11,
and Daughter Le Quyen, 4. Either be-
cause of a shortage of funds or a niis-
understanding with California's Young
Republicans, who, had originally invit-
ed her to I-cis Angeles to speak. Mme.
Nhu departed owing nearly, half of her
52,000 bill at. the Beverly Wilshire Ho-
tel (the manager did not seem worried
about collecting). Following her by mail
was ., stack of books, among them To
L.ire Again and TNT: The Power With-
in You; How to Release the Forces In-
side you and Get Wheat You Want.
At the airport, reading a long fare-
well statement, she referred to the fact
that the U.S. had encouraged the coup:
"Judas has sold the Christ for 30 pieces
o't sister. The Ngo brothers have been
sold for a few dollars." By this Mme.
Nhu meant the aid that the U.S. had
withheld from Diem but restored "to
those who would not hesitate to turn
their guns against their own duly elect-
ed leaders." She had heard reports that,
after being murdered by South Viet
Ham's new rulers, "President Ngo Dinh
Diem's face was serene in death, and
my husband had a slight smile though
his face was all streaked with blood. I
think therefore that I cannot be less
-serene than they."
In Rome she was welcomed by Diem's
-'rather, Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc,
-%,ho had been attending the Vatican
Iouncil; then she was whisked to a trec-
haded convent for a rest. Eventually,
.Lae. Nhu insists, she will return to
earth Viet Nam. Said she.: "My burden
-"ill he. hard indeed, for the Devil "has
.ot been disarmed and is still trying to
at me down."
RUSSIA
-1e Scholar as Pawn
In part, Soviet accusations of alleged
rteriean espionage have been tnoti-
rrd ht the Kremlin's desire to divert
, re.sric discontent against foreign
.ipegnats. By arousing fear of foreign
the Kremlin has sought to break
n the attraction of Western culture
"lee .Soviet people.
;,'wrote Professor Frederick C. Barg-
,rti to The Soviet Image of the United
J s more than a decade ago.. The
is ,'raved prophetic last week when
itw,stans announced that Barghcxnn,
i,'.n+,.time chairman of Yale's Rus-
stt?ltes program, was under arrest
"espionage.- Then, as suddenly as
Moscow called oaf its scent-
pointlcss exercise. After being held
win'cu'e nelson for 16 days. the
1- ?+.. released and e.vpclled from
of experts who have devoted their en-
reers to the occult art of Krcmlinology.
Ever since the first U.S.-Soviet cultural
exchange agreement was signed In 1958,
he has also played a key role in arrang-
ing for Russian and American.intellcc-
tuals to travel and study in one anoth-
er's countries. Faced with the news of
Barghoorn's arrest, President Kennedy
postponed negotiations for an extension
of the exchange program, firmly gave
the official U.S. answer to the Russian
charge: "He is a distinguished scholar.
He was not on an intelligence mission
of any kind."
A shy, serious bachelor, Barghoorn
liked nothing better than to hole up for
a ten-hour stretch in his top-floor office
at Yale's Hall of Graduate Studies.
"There, amidst bundles of old laundry
and discarded razor blades, he meticu-
lously pored over books, clippings and
back issues of Pravda. Russian-speaking
week the U.S. embassy was infortttedl
that Barghoora had been arrested
as #
.
spy "a few days ago." Six times u,,' 1 11 "1
48 hours, the U.S. protested that Barg-
boorn was innocent, demanded his ter'
lease. But all U.S. Ambassador Polr ,
Kohler got from Deputy Foreign Min f
inter Valerian Zorin was a stubborn j
uyet. Nobel Prizewinner.lohn Steinbeck
Glared angrily: "They Should have ac's
rested me. I covered more territory and
asked more questions." In New Haven,
Yale students and faculty launched a l
on 1,200 U.S. campuses.
The uproar was obviously more than
the Kremlin had bargained for. Five'
days after his arrest was announce d,. ii
the prisoner was taken from his cell, put
in a car packed with Soviet plainclothes)
PROFESSOR BARGHOORN (CENTER) $ FELLOW TOURISTS* IN RUSSIA (1961)
The uproar was effective.
Barghoorn knew his subject firsthand.
From 19421 until 1947 be was it press
attache at the U.S. embassy in Moscow.
To avoid trouble, Barghoorn deliberate-
ly did not carry a camera during five
trips to Russia between 1956 and last
March, when he arranged for scholarly
exchanges or gathered information for
his recent hooks, Soviet Russian Nation.
atisnt and The Soviet Cultural Offensive.
His critical opinions were no secret
("While talking peace, the Kremlin
don-bound airliner. Barghoorn was "not
doing the proper work" of a scholar,'
insisted the Russians, but he was being
released because of the "personal con-
cern expressed by President Kennedy."
One theory, publicly advanced by for-
mer CIA Chief Allen Dulles, is that the
Soviet had arrested Barghoorn by way'
of retaliation: the U.S. has just expelled
two Soviet diplomats for spying and ar-
rested a "chauffeur" for a Soviet trade
agency in Manhattan. According to this
theory, the Russians meant to swap
their spies-a blackmailing deal which
President Kennedy had previously ruled
out. Another explanation, forecast by
Barghoorn himself in his hook, is that
the Kremlin may feel that cultural ex-
changes have gone too far, that Rus-
sians have become too ready to mix
with visiting foreigners. The arrest of
well-known U.S. p{,gfcr:,sotr t5turltl s.ir tJ
as a warning t(i flltsSjar ~ci{)zc`tls"that
"the attraction a Western culture" can
still be extremely unhcatthy.
wages war"); nevertheless, he got a
friendly welcome from academicians
wherever he traveled inside Russia.
The latest trip seemed no exception.
Traveling on a 30-day tourist visa, the
professor spent most of his time touring
the capitals of Soviet Asia, including
Tashkent, Samarkand and Alma Ata.
Back in Mosco , he stopped off for a
drink at the ai,artmnent of U.S. Nlinistcr-
Counsrl,r Walter J. Stoessel, From
tf-%r ', .tf d tth~~.~ y chauffeur drove Barg-
,
htorii t? he i heel Mctropnlc at
about 7 ; 5 i, nt. on Clot. a I . Then he
encily Welcome. Bar} hoivn is a looser '.. hcdule,t tv fl', to Warsaw }tillc and no? I rc,r,lcnt Kingman I;rrw to
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