¹ Message to The American Friends of Vietnam, published in its Symposium on America's Stake in Vietnam (1956), p. 101Google Scholar.

² He had abdicated at the time of his temporary alliance with Ho Chi Minh, leader of the revolutionary forces, in August, 1945. This alliance lasted only until he could get out of the country. He returned to the South under French protection as Emperor in 1949.

³ See Fall, B. B., The Viet-Minh Regime: Government and Administration in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Data Paper No. 14, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1954Google Scholar.

⁴ The Vietnamese, like the Chinese, place the family name first; and sometimes the second name, as in the case of Ngo Dinh, also gives a key to the branch of the family. Because there are only about 300 family names, and only 30 of these in wide use, given names are common in everyday speech. It is more polite, however, to use the family name for persons in high office; and I follow this practice.

⁵ These were the qualifications adopted by the North when it chose a national assembly in 1946. The South hardly could adopt a more restricted franchise.

⁶ See Le Journal d'Extrême Orient (Saigon) [hereafter cited as Le Journal], January 24, 1956, p. 1Google Scholar, and January 15, 1956, p. 3, “correcting” the issue of January 23, 1956, p. 2. The January 25 issue printed the full French text of the Minister's clarifying statement.

⁷ Historically Viet Nam had consisted of three parts, Cochin-China, Annam, and Tonkin, which at times were separate kingdoms and at other times under a single ruler. Tonkin and part of Annam lie north of the 17th Parallel and hence now constitute the (Communist) Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. In general, speaking of the Republic of Viet Nam, South Viet Nam refers to Cochin-China, Central Viet Nam to that part of Annam south of the 17th Parallel. The P.M.S. (Plateaux Montagnards du Sud) is a newly created division consisting of the highlands formerly constituting part of Cochin-China or Annam.

⁸ These have profoundly changed the religious complexion of the country, as 676,000 of the refugees are Catholics. Prior to the civil war there were well over a million Catholics in the North, but only about 450,000 south of the 17th Parallel. Today the figures are reversed, and Catholics constitute over 10% of the 11 millions living in this area. The rest are Buddhists or belong to some sect that is essentially Buddhist, such as the Cao Dai or Hoa Hao, save for the mountain tribes, who generally are primitive animists.

The 860,000 figure does not include a large number of Chinese refugees, who have never been counted and have been left to their own devices in finding homes and employment. Since Chinese were not citizens prior to Ordinance No. 48 of August 21, 1956, they were not represented in the Assembly.

⁹ Originally 44 members were elected as independents, but 33 almost immediately aligned themselves with one or another of the existing parties.

¹⁰ The Ministers were Nguyen Huu Chau, Presidency (which is organized as a department); Nguyen Van Si, Justice; Tran Chanh Thanh, Information and Youth; Vu Quoc Thong, Public Health and Social Action, and Vu Van Mau, Foreign Affairs. The others were Cao Van Tuong, Nguyen Cao Thang, Nguyen Khac Oanh, Nguyen Phuong Thiep, Nguyen Van Thinh, and Vuong Quang Nhuong. Nguyen Cao Thang, pharmacist, Nguyen Phuong Thiep, editor of La Gazette de Saigon, and Ministers Nguyen Huu Chau, Tran Chanh Thanh, and Vu Quoc Thong subsequently served on the Assembly's constitutional commission. See below.

¹¹ In summarizing the work of the Assembly the Speaker categorically denied the existence of such a draft. The Times of Viet Nam (Saigon) [a weekly, hereafter cited as The Times], July 14, 1956, p. 2Google Scholar. [The less important daily edition, started October 1, 1957 is cited as Daily Times.]

¹² Le Journal, March 16, 1956, p. 5Google Scholar.

¹³ Ibid., April 19, 1956, p. 2. This prints the full text in French.

¹⁴ Descendants of the aboriginal tribes who were pushed into the highlands by the invading Vietnamese, these people differ from the latter in religion, language, customs and law. Tension has tended to increase in the last few years because for the first time the government has undertaken to exploit the highlands on behalf of the Vietnamese.

¹⁵ Aside from Mrs. Huynh, Mr. Kre, and the five carry-overs, as to whom see above, note 10, the other members of the committee were Ha Huy Liem, professor; Ha Nhu Chi, professor; Nguyen Van Lien, a former judge; Ton That Toai, businessman; Trass Quang Ngoc, a former government official; Tran Sy Don, physician; Tran Van Trai, lawyer, and Truong Vinh Le, publisher.

¹⁶ An “official translation” was published as a special Supplement A to The Times for October 27, 1956, and in pamphlet form by the Secretariat of State for Information, Saigon, 1956. This pamphlet failed to include the Preamble, but it has a useful introduction. I follow this “official translation” save that I correct a few errors and substitute a few words (e.g., Speaker and Chief Justice rather than President) that will be more meaningful to an American audience, even though a better translation has been put out in mimeograph by the Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group.

English translations of the drafting committee's text were published in the weekly issues of The Times for May 5 through June 16, 1956, inclusive. Supplement A to the issue for July 7, 1956, printed a translation of the full text as submitted to the President by the Constitutional Assembly on July 2, 1956, together with the “notes in the Assembly Journal” that will be referred to below.

¹⁷ For accounts of the block and committee systems, see The Times, December 22, 1956, p. 2Google Scholar.

¹⁸ See, for example, The Times, June 2, 1956, p. 1Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Art. 63 of the Assembly draft still was written in terms of “serious conflict” between the two departments.

²⁰ One of these is a woman, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ve, the wife of Nguyen Van Kim. She is a graduate of the Law School of Hanoi, now in North Viet Nam.

²¹ That article reads, “The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary have as their responsibility the defense of freedom, democracy, the republican form of government, and public order.”

²² Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U. S. 425, 442 (1886).

²³ See Field, O. P., The Effect of an Unconstitutional Statute (1936)Google Scholar. For recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, see Brinkerhoff-Faris Trust Co. v. Hill, 281 U. S. 637 (1930); Great Northern Ry. v. Sunburst Oil Co., 287 U. S. 358 (1932); Landis v. North American Co., 299 U. S. 248 (1936). In a concurring opinion in Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12, 26, 29 (1956) Frankfurter, J., argued that “For sound reasons, law generally speaks prospectively” and criticized his colleagues because their “opinion is not limited to the future.” Yet he voted to apply the ruling retroactively to the case before the Court.

²⁴ Note how even Hans Kelsen's dream of prospective rulings was shattered when the Austrian system was amended to permit cases to reach the Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof) by certification from the regular courts. He explained, “This retroactive effect of the annulment is a technical necessity because without it, the authorities charged with the application of the law would not have an immediate and consequently sufficiently cogent interest to cause the intervention of the Constitutional Court …. It is necessary to encourage them to present these requests by attributing in case of annulment a retroactive effect.” Kelsen, , “Rapport sur la garantie juridictionnelle de la constitution,” 1929 annuaire de l'lnstitut International du Droit Public (Paris), p. 127Google Scholar.

²⁵ To escape from this dilemma, the second clause of Art. 87 could be construed to mean that, once held unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, the voided clause shall not be applied even to past acts. This would make the rights of the parties hinge upon the court's willingness to postpone action on a case pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court.

²⁶ I have discussed this general problem in “Judicial Control of Legislation: a Comparative Study,” American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 3, p. 186 (1954)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “New Jersey's ‘Popular Action’ in rem to Control Legislative Procedure,” Rutgers Law Review, Vol. 4, p. 391 (1950)Google Scholar; “Judicial Control of the Constitutionality of Statutes and Administrative Legislation in Colombia,” Southern California Law Review, Vol. 23, p. 484 (1950)Google Scholar; “El Control de la Constitucionalidad de las Leyes a Petición del Ejecutivo Previamente a la Promulgación: la Experiencia de Colombia,” Revista Mexicana de Derecho Público, Vol. 1, p. 243 (1947)Google Scholar, reprinted in translation in Southern California Law Review, Vol. 21, p. 154 (1948)Google Scholar; “Judicial Review of Legislation under the Austrian Constitution of 1920,” this review, Vol. 25, p. 670 (1934)Google Scholar.

²⁷ The Times, December 22, 1956, p. 2Google Scholar.

²⁸ See ibid., June 16, 1956, p. 2.

²⁹ In the M.S.U. translation this paragraph reads, “Every citizen enjoys the right to freedom of the press, aimed at creating a correct and fair opinion, which the state shall protect against all acts aimed at distorting the truth.”

³⁰ See part 4 of the note in the Assembly Journal to Art. 24 of the Assembly draft.

³¹ Art. 54 provides that “No Deputy may be … sentenced because of anything he may have said or any vote he may have cast in the Assembly or any of its committees.” Had the committee draft prevailed, this would “not cover speeches, writings, or acts of such a nature as to endanger the security of the state.” The Times, May 19, 1956, p. 2Google Scholar.

³² The Times, October 20, 1956, p. 2Google Scholar.

³³ Henderson, Wm., “South Viet Nam Finds Itself,” Foreign Affairs, January, 1957, p. 285Google Scholar.

³⁴ The Minister, Tran Chanh Thanh, spent five years as supervisor of the administration of justice in 18 northern provinces for Ho Chi Minh before deserting to the South in 1952. This may explain some of the Southern parallels to Communist tactics.

³⁵ Osborne, John, “The Tough Miracle Man of Vietnam,” Life, May 13, 1957, p. 164Google Scholar.

³⁶ The government is the largest purchaser of periodicals and other publications. The 1957 budget of the Department of Information carried an item of 24 million piasters (about $350,000) for this purpose. In defending this item when it was under attack in the Assembly as a subsidy to favored publishers, the Department stated that it “buys Vietnamese papers and books to supply the information centers in the provinces, districts and villages and the poor quarters of Saigon. There are about 10,000 such offices. The Department regrets not having been able to buy more than one newspaper, and so has chosen one giving the largest number of items which are credible and reflect ‘a constructive and sincere opinion’ in accordance with the spirit advocated by Article 16 of the Constitution.” It added that it buys “all local papers without exception” for study, and foreign-language papers for distribution at home and abroad. The Times, February 23, 1957, p. 3Google Scholar. I am advised that sales of the weekly edition of The Times total 6,500 copies per issue, of which the government buys 4,000: of these 2,000 are for distribution overseas, 1,000 for use by army personnel studying English, and 1,000 for all other uses.

³⁷ The recent filming in Saigon of The Quiet American attracted extraordinary attention because the book has been banned there. The few copies in the hands of American residents were in great demand.

³⁸ As in the case of the March 5, 1957 edition of the daily Dan Chu, which contained an account of certain activities of the man who had attempted to assassinate the President at Ban Me Thuot. To the best of my knowledge, no charge ever was made questioning the accuracy of the account. Dan Chu enjoyed a reputation among the American newspapermen in Saigon as one of the very best local papers.

³⁹ See the account given in the Saigon Daily News Round-Up (a United States Operations Mission publication, hereafter cited NRU) for July 10, 1956Google Scholar, item 2.

⁴⁰ The Times, July 14, 1956, p. 2Google Scholar.

⁴¹ NRU for August 24, 1956, item 4.

⁴² The Times, September 14, 1957, p. 3Google Scholar.

⁴³ Id.

⁴⁴ Daily Times, November 20, 1957, p. 1Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Daily Times, March 14, 1958, p. 1Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ I trust that an American audience will not be too harsh in judging the Vietnamese because of these shortcomings. Our own First Amendment, it will be recalled, was followed by the Alien and Sedition Acts under conditions certainly far less explosive than those facing Viet Nam. In fact, many of our present-day conceptions of justice that we like to attribute to the Constitution were actually post-18th Century developments.

⁴⁷ The Times, October 20, 1956, p. 2Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ Ibid., December 22, 1956, p. 2.

⁴⁹ Ibid., September 8, 1956, p. 3.

⁵⁰ Grant, J. A. C., “Vai Y Kien Ve Viec Soan Thao Hien-Phap Nuoc My” (“Some reflections on the drafting of the American Constitution”), Viet My (Journal of the Vietnamese American Association), December, 1956, pp. 17 and 23Google Scholar; The Times, September 8, 1956, p. 3Google Scholar.