Mar. 24, 1963 - The South Vietnamese Government today denounced as an unfounded insult a report of a bipartisan U.S. Senate group headed by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield criticizing the pace with which South Vietnam is moving toward democracy. The report, made in Washington Feb. 24, urged a reassessment of security needs in southeast Asia and an orderly reduction of U.S. grant aid of all kinds except to South Vietnam, where American armed forces are helping the Government battle Communist guerrillas. Mr. Mansfield said South Vietnam appears to be “only at the beginning in coping with its grave inner problems.” South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem (pictured right) responded: “Democracy in South Vietnam is of the most authentic form. It is cemented with the blood of our children. Any doubt must be considered unfounded and a serious insult to the executive and the legislative body of Vietnam.”
