“Diem was the kind of asian we can live with,” said a Supreme court Justice Member (Conflict). The Diem family was a powerful family due to the fact that Ngo Dinh Diem was the prime minister of South Vietnam in 1954. Diem grew up in the same region as the person he was going against. Diem grew up as strong catholic member. He led vietnam with a strong sense of anti-communism (Vietnam War). Diem was a powerful ruler who rose to power in South Vietnam, then fell harshly from his position after his corruption. The corruption ended up getting him killed by his own country's generals.
Diem rose to power quickly mainly due to America favoring him. America had many reasons to favor him. Diem grew up in a higher class family and received a decent education. As a smart kid, he studied law at a Vietnamese university, after he declined a scholarship in France (Conflict). Diem was the best pick of the remaining potential leaders that weren't dead or joined the enemy and communism (Vietnam War). The biggest reason America favored Diem was because he was strongly anti-communist. Diem was also catholic, along with many Americans (Conflict).
In 1933, Diem was dismissed from office because the French did not like him. He wanted Vietnamese independence, and France had lost their patience with him. Until 1950, Diem did nothing eventful. He focused on religion and things that he enjoyed doing. Then in 1950, he fled Vietnam due to the Viet Minh coming after him. He showed up one year later in America. There, he did what is called ‘networking’. He met with important people, increasing his popularity in the states. At the Geneva conference, U.S. had mentioned Diem as a potential leader. “The only boy we got out there” (Conflict). French had disagreed, but later decided he was the lesser of the evils (Ngo Dinh Diem). They held a vote in the country to elect a prime minister. It was between Diem and Bao Dai, the former emperor. The election was most likely rigged, as he won with 98% of the votes. This was just the start of his corruption (Conflict, Ngo Dinh Diem).
Diem was always a person who was uneasy about changes that were requested of him. He ended up making changes to the land in South Vietnam even though he did not want to.
From the 17th century on, Vietnam had never had a steady period of peace or prosperity. Vietnam fell into a civil war between the 16th to early 19th century between three powerful lords, Trinh and Nguyen, and the Tay Son brothers. Next, French influence and invasions took over Vietnam and established Fre...
The book goes through every year of his life up to 1975. It describes how he slowly worked his way up the ladder of key roles in the politics in Vietnam. Diem was a nationalist but he served under the communist party and put his faith in many different leaders throughout the years. Eventually he became an important asset to Vietnam by going to the United States with his wife and his kids to try to help his country from Washington, D.C. He was serving as a consultant on Vietnam affairs in Washington, D.C. to highest government officials to help give the United States insight on how to go about intervening in Vietnam He covers each important event in his life to give insight how on his life progressed up to 1975.
This basically sums up how the majority of people thought of Ngo Dinh Diem. He was a narrow leader only worried about gaining and keeping loyalty. Diem believed that he had a mandate of God to rule over Vietnam, and he did not have to earn the public's trust and admiration. Rather, these two items should be automatically bestowed. Diem thought the people owe him that much. The factors that led to his increased unpopularity and later demise are well documented in nearly all works on the Vietnam War. But is there more to the story? How did the people of Saigon, the ones that were most loyal, view their leader?
In the same vein, Zinoman in his forthcomong article, Nhân Văn–Giai Phẩm and Vietnamese “Reform Communism” during the 1950s: A Revisionist Interpretation, challenge a well established view about a NVGP movement, a surge of domestic political protest that peaked in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during 1956 that takes its name from two incendiary journals – Nhân Văn [humanity] and Giai Phẩm [masterworks]. He points out that foreign scholars and local intellectuals who interested in NVGP affair succeed “in conveying a plausible image of NVGP as a robust movement of political dissent against the party-state” (Zinoman forthcoming 2011, 3). He argues that it caused from their narrow study upon a most dramatic statements of opposition of NVGP and failure to analyze, in any depth, the content of NVGP’s published writing (Zinoman forthcoming 2011, 4).
When president of south Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem decided that the election of 1956 should be canceled, America strongly agreed so that Minh could not gain control of the whole country. Diem was a Catholic, which angered the country consisting mostly of Buddhist. In opposition to Diem, a new regime was conjured up in south Vietnam called the Vietcong. Vietcong were residents of South Vietnam who were in favor of the communist rule in North Vietnam.
The president Diem was not the ideal person to be in charge of South Vietnam. He was, as one American official said, "a puppet who pulled his own strings and ours (American) as well." He put people in prison camps, he was harsh on peasants, he refused to allow an election in the South, and he persecuted Buddhists and eliminated Vietminh supporters in the South. Though the US government supported him because he had prevented communist victory in the South.
This book would be an excellent source for anyone wanting to understand this period of the entrance into the Vietnam War. It is a great look into the character of each of the participants. It also would benefit those who are studying and learning how to develop strategy and policy for future wars that the United States may involve itself.
Herring begins his account with a summary of the First Indochina War. He reports that the Vietnamese resisted French imperialism as persistently as they had Chinese. French colonial policies had transformed the Vietnamese economic and social systems, giving rise to an urban middle class, however; the exploitation of the country and its people stimulated more radical revolutionary activity. Herring states that the revolution of 1945 was almost entirely the personal creation of the charismatic leader Ho Chi Minh. Minh is described as a frail and gentle man who radiated warmth and serenity, however; beneath this mild exterior existed a determined revolutionary who was willing to employ the most cold- blooded methods in the cause to which he dedicated his life. With the guidance of Minh, the Vietminh launched as a response to the favorable circumstances of World War II. By the spring of 1945, Minh mobilized a base of great support. When Japan surrendered in 1945, the Vietminh filled the vacuum. France and the Vietminh attempted to negotiate an agreement, but their goals were irreconcilable.
Eisenhower, outlined in a powerful speech what has now become known as the “Domino Theory”. Eisenhower reinforced the need for the US, to not only contain the USSR at pre-determined critical locations, but in all locations (Leeson & Dean 2009). As the Domino Theory proposed, if one nation became communist, the surrounding nations were likely to become communist and thus, falling like a row of dominos. As a result of these fears, US policy makers viewed Vietnam of upmost importance. Domino-theory logic held that if Vietnam was to become a communist nation, the potential for all of Indochina and even all of Southeast Asia to become communist rose. Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh’s popularity in both North and South Vietnam were escalating. The upcoming free elections promised at the Geneva Convention and scheduled to occur in 1956, gave promise to a unified, communist Vietnam. For US leaders this sparked there worst fears, thus the US threw its support behind the politician Ngo Dinh Diem (Rosenau
The Vietnam War was a war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 1st 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30th 1975. This war was fought between the North Vietnamese Viet Cong and the government of South Vietnam. The criticism of the war in Vietnam started out as a reaction to President Johnson’s policy of fighting for a limited purpose and a negotiated peace in Vietnam. Criticism is valuable because it helps to correct communal procedures. That is a great advantage of exposed societies. But criticism works only if those in control have a sufficient intellect in order to recognize when a policy has gone wrong. The Vietnam War and its leaders is a "monument to the failure of that necessary wisdom" (Lewis). The supporters were known as “hawks.” As the President escalated the war effort, and became a hawk himself, his chief critics who disagreed with the war became known as “doves,” which included college students, faculty, and several other people who felt that the war was corrupt, was promoting no advantage for the US, and was increasing the number of casualties. But the Doves’ access to this goal is restricted: the war drags on. Many disaffected doves adapt to this situation by rebellion. They reject societal goals and means
Ho Chi Mnih "Uncle Ho" : Carroll, Michael. "Ho Chi Minh: A Biography." Canadian Journal of History 43.2 (2008): 355-7. ProQuest. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. is mostly known as the president of northern Vietnam or Viet Mnih in 1941. Ho chi minh was born Nguyen Sinh Cung on May 19, 1890 in central Vietnam "he was a seasoned revolutionary and passionate nationalist obsessed by a single goal: independence for his country" Karnow, Stanley. "Ho Chi Minh." Time. Time Inc., 13 Apr. 1998. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. IN his younger years he had job as a cook on a French steamer ship he spent years at sea traveling to several different locations aboard this traveling ship by 1919 he was living in France . Meanwhile living in France Minh gathered a group of Vietnam immigrants and petitioned the delegates at the Versailles peace conference for the rights for subjects in Indochina that the French colony control . they protested that the subjects of Indochina be granted the same right that the government do. In 1920 he joined the new French communist party .three years later he began recruiting members of a Vietnamese national movement that would later from the Indochinese communist party which was founded in Hong Kong in 1930. He tralved the world as a representative of the communist international organization.
With a goal of stopping the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, America replaced France in South Vietnam - supporting autocratic President Ngo Dinh Diem until his own generals turned against him in a coup that brought political chaos to Saigon.
...m was not even really supported by the Vietnamese people. How could the United States expect to win a war when nobody wanted the government they had set up? South Vietnamese guerillas began to work with the North Vietnamese soldiers to defeat the American supported government and to unify Vietnam. The United States basically turned the Vietnamese that were earlier on their side against them. They became angry that so many of their civilians were being injured and killed and did not want the government set up by the United States to stay in place. With even more Vietnamese people against the United States, there was no way that they were going to be able to win this war.
Vietnam has a very rich and cultural diverse background dating all the way back to 1066 when William the Conqueror invaded and paved the way for English colonization. The French had been colonizing since the 19th century. The French role in Vietnams history is critical; they started out by bringing these simple peasants to the latest technology of farming and hunting (Yancey 37). The French helped these people out greatly in the beginning, but like all stories of occupation go they just got worse. They started forcing rules and laws on the people of Vietnam. Thus started the First Vietnam War, also known as the Indochina War between France and Vietnam. "The French possessed military superiority, but the Vietnamese had already the hearts and minds of the country. (38). Even from the beginning the Vietnamese had the odds to there favor. The French looked at the wars in numbers and how many lost on each side. They gathered from all the battles that they were winning because the Vietnamese casualties far outweighed the French; nonetheless they were wrong. To a certain point the French were fighting a game that they could not win at any cost. The French had the military superiority but the Vietnamese had the manpower and the Guerilla tactics. The Indochina War ended with French loosing terrible at Dienbienphu, where a whole French garrison was wiped out.
...em into, “three distinct political regimes in the North, the Center and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our national unity and prevent our people from being united,” (Minh, 1945).