751G.00/6–854: Telegram
The Chargé at Saigon (McClintock) to the Department of State
2700. Repeated information Geneva 206, Paris 958, Hanoi, Bangkok unnumbered. Embassy informed that following successful daylight attack May 30 against post of Binh Chanh, about 15 miles southwest of Cholon on road to Mytho, in which six of seven Vietnamese regular army defenders were killed, the Viet Minh kidnapped all members of Council of Notables in Binh Chanh and neighboring town of Binh Dien and destroyed all civil records.
It is believed that in anticipation of elections, the Viet Minh throughout south Vietnam are undertaking a program of terrorism directed against village notables, who presumably are only ones qualified to say which people are eligible to vote. It is also quite obviously intended to weaken control of central government by terrorizing all [Page 1667] those who might be considered its representatives. Members of the provincial councils are also said to be special objects of Viet Minh attention and most of them are now trying to resign their posts or fleeing to the larger towns for protection.