Cable No. 481/TV from TVKBN [COSVN Party Current Affairs Committee] to Sau Dan [Vo Van Kiet] and Nam Xuan [Unknown]

1. According to BBC Radio, Huong has met with Minh to discuss turning over the Presidency to Minh.

If this report is true, you are to immediately determine the opinions and attitudes of the different classes of the population, of the different political factions, and of third force personalities. Cable the results to KBN [COSVN] immediately.

2. Previously we had projected the things we would have to do when Thieu was toppled from power. Now Thieu has been toppled in a situation in which we are winning big victories and in which the enemy is being defeated and is confused and in disorder, but now they have played this new card and they will suggest subjects for negotiations in order to limit our victory and to divert the mass struggle.

We still maintain our firm position that we must secure total and absolute victory.

Therefore our organization in Saigon-Gia Dinh must seize this opportunity to openly incite the people to hold meetings, seminars, street demonstrations, and powerful displays of our forces focused around the slogans of peace, independence, freedom, prosperity, and national reconciliation in combination with the true interests of each social class.

Use these actions to secure control of the government at the grass roots level, because at present there are a great many locations where things are falling apart at the lower levels. You must quickly ensure that our cadre and Party members fully absorb the contents of KBN’s [COSVN] Circular No. 10/TT.75 so that they understand the favorable current situation and are willing to boldly charge forward to advance our movement forward in a truly powerful manner. Naturally, this does not mean that we should send all of our cadre out to do this job, and our movement’s meetings, demonstrations, etc. must all be aimed at the goal of gaining control at the grass roots level and rapidly developing and expanding our forces (as has been done at Sau Tuong’s location) in order to lead up to X [sic].

We need to provide ideological leadership to our hard-core supporters in order to spread propaganda among positive [pro-communist] members of the third force, telling them not to fall for the scheming plots of the imperialists and the reactionaries who are now scheming to play a new card and to use negotiations to prevent us from security total victory. They are now proclaiming that that Saigon will be destroyed if there is an attack in order to try to change public opinion toward supporting negotiations.

If any of you believe that a policy decision is needed on any specific question, cable your thoughts to TVKBN [the COSVN Party Current Affairs Committee].