laTimes
CIA - 1-41e're.
.
ra
6 Feb 70
FulbrightAccuses-Thieu of Persecuting a Deputy,
-7E-8
6 1970
tempting to document this by quarters when they were both
introducing the Chau case.
junior army officers.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5—Sen- Mr. Chau has beeen accused 'It appears," Senator Fulator J. W. Fulbright, chairman by President Thieu of having bright said, "that Thieu's open
Communist connections. Senof the Senate Foreign Relations ator Fulbright
suggested that attacks on Chau began only
Committee, said today that the real reason for President after Chau had denounced the
President Nguyen Van Thieu of Thieu's attack was Mr. Chau's pharmacist Thang."
President. Thieu succeeded
South Vietnam was persecuting growing power as- an opposi- yesterday
in obtaining the 102
an Opposition leader for expos- tion leader and as a critic of
signatures needed on a petition
ing the President's "political what Senator Fulbright said lifting
Mr. Chau's parliamentary
bag man" with the National was President Thieu's attemptt
to corrupt the National Assem- immunity, thus exposing him to
Assembly.•
prosecution.
Senator Fulbright also said bly.
In his column today, Mr.
President
Thieu
accused
Mr.
that the United States mission
in Saigon had "shrugged its Chau of failing to report that, Kraft said Ambassador Ellsshoulders" over the case, de- starting in 1965, he was in con- worth Bunker had been directed
spite instructions from Wash- tact with his brother, Tran to intervene with President
Thieu on Mr. Chau's behalf but
ington to intervene on behalf Ngoc Hien, a North Vietnamese "the
embassy has not bestirred
of Tran N::IRShaL the Opposi- intelligence agent.
itself."
tion leader who has been Senator Fulbright said,
threatened with death by Presi- know for a fact, from private
sources, that he did report his
dent Thieu.
The affair was described by contacts with his brother to a
the Senator as an "ominous de- number of United States_ officials. in Vietnam, including
velopment."
"Perhaps the story of Tran C.I.A. officers with whom he
Ngoc Chau will prove to be ra-d—daily contact.
the last chapter in the history Mr. Chau was designated by
of representative government the Central IntelligenceAgency
in Vietnam," the Senator said in 1966 to be head '.of the
training program at the Vaungin a three-page statement.
Senator Fulbright raised the tau pacification center. AccordSoo
ing to Congressional sources,
file 12
issue as the committee con- the
for
listinz
of clicluded the opening round of to C.I.A. at one point sought
have Mr. Chau enlist his
hearings on various resolutions brother
on
Trail:
(311!
C
as
an
agent.
supporting and criticizing UnitThieu's Aide a Target
ed States policy in Vietnam.
After his election to the
The Vietnamization program National
Assembly in 1967, Mr.
was criticized in the hearings
became head of the Opas supporting a corrupt regime Chau
in Saigon, and Senator Ful- position bloc. Starting last
bright was evidently attempting year, he began to advocate a
to document this point with in- cease-fire and direct negotiations with the Vietcong.
troduction of the Chau case.
"Perhaps the story of Tran According to Mr. Fulbright's
Ngoc Chau will prove to be the account, Mr. Chau also began
last chapter in the history of to attack Nguyen Cao Thang,
representative government in a Saigon pharmacist and a
of President Thieu's
Vietnam," the Senator said in member
inner circle. Mr. Thang was
a ree-page statement, which described today
sued after having summar- Kraft, syndicated by Joseph
iz= the contents at today's President Thieu's columnist, as
"political bag
committee session.
man," a descriptio used apThe committee concluded the provingly by Senatorn Fulbright.
opening round of its hearings Mr. Chau's 'brother was
aron Vietnam in which the Nixon rested in April and interrogate
d
Admi
;nistration's program of in July. It was not until
Viejtamization had been criti- November, however, that Presicizal as constituting support dent Thieu 'began to attack Mr.
for a corrupt regime in Saigon. Chau, a personal friend with
Mr. Fulbright,was evidently at- whom he had once pared
By JOHN W. FINNEY
Special to The New York Times
- 71
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