EMBASSY EFFORTS TO AVOID A "ONE PARTY" SENATE ELECTION IN SOUTH VIETNAM

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05504720
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: November 22, 2019
• Case Number: F-2019-00384
• Publication Date: June 28, 1973

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MEMORANDUM
Approved for Release: 2019/11/13 C05504720
3575
NATIONAL SECURI Y COUNCIL
INFAMATION
/.
SECRET /YES ONLY 4.ne 28, 1973
MEMORANDUM FOR: MR. KISSINGER
FROM: WILLIAM L. STEARMAN
SUBJECT:
acq�,t_
Embassy Efforts to Avoid a "One Party" tf)
Senate Election in South Vietnam
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Attached at Tab A is a report from the CIA describing efforts we made . Y
in Saigon to avoid the threat of a. "one party" Senate election in South
Vietnam scheduled for August. To our knowledge none of these
activities were cleared by the NSC, and this report represents our first
word on what appears to have been a major intrusion on internal GVN
politics.
The Agency and the Embassy clearly were responding to the possibility
that only Thieu's Democracy Party would contest the planned election
for one-half of the Senate's membership. Other parties were not
expected to participate as a result of a tight filing schedule which, they
claimed, did not provide sufficient time to negotiate formation of lists
and their fears that the election would be loaded in Thieu's favor. In
a memo of June 16 (2 days before the filing cutoff), the Agency had
alerted us to the possibility of a one party election but had not indicated
the actions it was then taking to avert this contingency. (In any event
the memo was OBE by the time we received it. The filed date had
passed and four dates registered.)
Although no opposition or independent slates filed for the election, four
groups (two associated with Thieu and two unknown, probably GVN-
inspired lists) registered. The Embassy has commented that Thieu's
lists are certain of victory and that he therefore will control the formerly
independent Upper House. Significantly, the Embassy has also apportioned
the blame for this largely no-contest election to both the administration
and the politicians, who had ample warning of the legal filing schedule
yet -- apparently without harassment -- failed to compose their own
differences to file a joint Senate slate.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. 20305
XENORANDUM FOR: The Honorable G. ;J,cMurtrie Godley
-Assistant Secretary for East Asian
and Pacific Affairs
Department of State
Colonel Richard Kennedy
National Security Council Staff
SUBJECT:
Efforts to Avert a 'One-Party" Senate Election in
South Vietnam
4(111
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1. On 16 June 1973, we sent you an assessment of President
Nguyen Van Thieu's probable strategy in the Senate elections scheduled
for August 1973. The following is a review of the efforts made by the
Mission in Vietnam to avert a "one-party" election.
2. On 2E, August 1973, thc South Vict.TIamese voters will elect 31
Senators, or approximately half the total membership of the Senate.
Anticipating a possible one parfy election and remembering the damage
done to the Government of Vietnam (GIN) image here in the United States
and abroad by the uncontested-presidential election of 1971, the U. S.
Government sought to encouragi broall participation in the upcoming Senate
elections.
3. Diplomatic representations impressed Opon President Thieu and
other GVN leaders the desirability of the presence of opposition slates
in the election so as to prove that the voters would indeed be offered
a genuine choice. The GVN did remove the requirement that candidates
for the Senate had to be sponsored by political parties which had
qualified under the Political Parties Decree Law 060.
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FOR THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS:
.I rit sotI2CES
(191ICE
Theodore G. Shacklo7
Theodore G. Shackley
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