H.Q. Of Cao Dai

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31762, 20 August 1968, Page 13

H.Q. Of Cao Dai

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SAIGON, Aug. 19.

Tay Ninh has become one of South Vietnam’s uneasiest cities in recent weeks, and remains one of its oddest, the Associated Press reports.

Only 15 miles from the Cambodian border and on one of the most important North Vietnamese infiltration routes to Saigon—43 miles away—the city is the headquarters of the Cao Dai sect. It is a city that has grown used to waiting for such an attack as today’s and accustomed to living with the earshattering effects of massive bombing raids from giant Amercian aircraft only a few miles away. American officers responsible for its defence and for stopping infiltration from the border have long believed that attacks on Tay Ninh coincide with big troop movements from the border.

They believe Tay Ninh Is mortared or rocketed to pin down the defence forces while the guerrilla main body slips silently past. Hot, dusty and dominated by the nearby black Virgin Mountain, Tay Ninh is termed by the Cao Daists a holy see.

It contains their ornate and huge temple and its grounds described by one observer as “Kipling’s East squared." A twentieth century and exclusively South Vietnamese sect, the Cao Dai venerates Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Victor Hugo and Sir Winston Churchill. The emblem of the church —which has its own pope—is a huge eyeball.