Caravelle Manifesto

Summary

The Caravelle Manifesto of Liberty and Progress, also referred to as the Manifesto of the Eighteen, was written in April 1960, as a public critique of the South Vietnamese government under President Ngô Đình Diệm. The manifesto of grievances included the Diệm regime's restrictions on freedom and pushed for reforms in the country. Its eighteen signatories were all old-time anti-communist politicians, leaders of the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo sects, the Đại Việt and the Việt Quốc parties, and Catholic groups. Eleven signatories had been cabinet ministers; four had been in other high government positions. They organized themselves as the 'Bloc for Liberty and Progress', with a platform of constitutional revision toward greater power for the National Assembly against the presidency. After the November 1960 coup attempt, the government arrested most of the eighteen, and their Bloc disintegrated.