Ngo Dinh Diem And The Vietnam War

Before the 1900th century, various countries such as China and France dominated the country currently known today as Vietnam. Throughout the countries history the Vietnamese people were often times mistreated. The Vietnamese people had a strong craving for independence. In the early 20th century one man united the liberation cause; that man was named Ho Chi Minh.

The assessment of leadership can be a significant factor as to why America eventually lost the war. Essentially the leaders of the North, Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Ngygen Giap were prepared to fight for as many years as necessary to unify North Vietnam during Dien Biem Phu and the Second Indochina War. On the other hand, historical evidence clearly shows the RVN leadership had been unstable since Diem, as stated by Harrison “Within a decade, Diem had created a dictatorship so unpopular so as his own overthrow”. General Westmoreland failed and other respected generals failed to understand the Vietnamese and nature of war in the South, as a result led to Americas failure in Vietnam. America itself underwent multiple changes in Presidency through Kennedy Johnson and Nixon, and was forced to apply different approaches that had led of clear goals and coherent US foreign policy.

US policy during the war was weak and not nearly aggressive enough to beat the North Vietnamese. For example, President Johnson was unwilling to order a full scale invasion of North Vietnam. His reason for this was it passed through the territory of countries not involved in the war This was due to fears that it would also provoke China into entering the war directly. Another example would be Johnson’s refusal to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. As a result, supplies would continue to flow uninterrupted. The reasons for not cutting off the trail were mainly political. These political reasons include not wanting to breach Laotian neutrality, especially since the North Vietnamese had no qualms about breaching, and that US

By 1964, the US—desperate to contain communism—had already sent troops to support South Vietnamese leader, Ngo Dinh Diem. Ngo Dinh Diem couldn’t end communist infiltrations of the South; such infiltrations were otherwise known as the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese communist guerillas), who made their debut to the South in 1959. Diem did not receive loyalty and his rule was so “deteriorated that he was overthrown and assassinated by several of his generals with the tacit approval of the Kennedy Administrations”¹ in 1963;

The overall efforts of the United States in Vietnam has been described as a ‘war of liberation’ this can also be used to define Eisenhower’s overall policy towards Vietnam as it was based fundamentally on the fear that it was ‘certain that the fall of Vietnam to Communism would lead to the loss of all of Southern Asia’ and in an attempt to prevent this; his administration adopted a new policy of nation building. The overall aim of nation building was to build a Western government within Vietnam that would be strong enough to withstand Communism and also build a new Vietnamese nation. This was done by appointing Diem; a Catholic, to run North Vietnam with the belief that him acting as a figurehead would make it less likely for Ho Chin Minh to take power of Vietnam. Herring further explains ‘The Eisenhower administration after Geneva firmly committed itself to creating in the Southern part of the country a nation that would stand as a bulwark against Communist expansion.’ However, this did not happen without its consequences, for example: this over amplified American’s commitment to Vietnam by following the precedent policies by Truman aligned the United States with unstable and unrepresentative regime, and ultimately failed in laying the foundations for a completely stable nation as David L Anderson explained America

As it would appear from documented accounts, the Eisenhower administration made a full-scale commitment to the Diem regime in wake of the aftermath of the others success in terms of the rebellion. It seemed that the promotion of the South Vietnamese accomplishments provided the United States with more than one billion dollars gross revenue in terms of the economy, and aided the military with enlistments, and such between the dates of 1955 and 1961. The United States used their militia advisors to build an army in the South of Vietnam with the idea that they’d be able to fend off any, and all anticipated attacks from the north across the seventeen parallel. The civilians also assisted in the “war” and remilitarization effort by constructing

Diem was therefore determined to be the best man for the job of preventing communism in S. Vietnam. One reason is most likely because he was “Westernized” being that he “lived for some time in the Mayknoll Seminaries in New Jersey and New York State” (Genesis 116). He quickly gained the approval of American Catholics such as Cardinal Spellman, which “certified Diem as an important anti-Communist” (Scheer 116). Some Americans were skeptical of Diem at the time, but as Secretary John Foster Dulles simply stated, “the United States could simply not find ‘a better man’ to carry out its designs” and “Diem is only means US sees to save South Vietnam and counteract revolution. US sees no one else who can” (Gettleman 133). This is, however, a little unsettling being that it sounds as though the U.S. merely “settled” on Diem in lieu of a better candidate.

The United States began to support South Vietnam, but Diem proved to be a horrible leader and in 1963 was killed during a coup issued by John F. Kennedy. The National Liberation

During 1954 the Vietnamese government was struggling. The country needed a new leader so Ngo Dinh Diem filled that spot for them becoming the Prime Minister of South Vietnam. During his struggle to fight off communism he had to battle warlords and eventually the Vietcong. By 1956 The United States had stepped in to back Diem’s rule.

To begin with, the Vietnamese were led by the notable Ho Chi Minh who was inherently against the ruling of the French in Vietnam. Having received his education from Paris and the Soviet Union, he was a self-proclaimed communist and a true believer of western democratic systems such as right to free speech (Dorman & Kennedy, 2008, 106). He was not ready to surrender his land to foreigners especially considering the fact that they would also lose their control over all the proceeds from their farming, and Vietnamese citizens being reduced to manual labourers. Additionally, the Americans lost the war on Vietnam due to several reasons. The regime South of Vietnam was not able to build popular support, hence making it hard to fight a common enemy. The South

In the fallout of World War II, decolonization around the world was taking place after their colonial rulers had been wasted off any feasible measure to retain them. At the same time, the communist superpower of the USSR began a campaign to set up a buffer zone, otherwise called satellite states, against their former allies and the North American Treaty Organization (NATO). An feeling of mutual antagonism between the two created a global stalemate, and the only measurable way to demonstrate their power was in small conflicts: such as in Afghanistan for the Communists and Vietnam for the Americans. For America, their duel with the Communists lead to a strategy to hold Communist sympathies in controllable, isolated areas. The American

American involvement in Vietnam was largely in response to Cold War polices and Strategies. Kennedy took a much more laid back approach to Vietnam than Eisenhower did. He only wanted to support the South and not give them direct military aid by getting involved. Kennedy believed that the nations themselves should bear the burden of fighting the war and America would merely give them supplies and political support. However, the administration’s attempt to help the South largely failed because neither the South Vietnamese nor the Americans knew how to deal with guerrilla warfare. Another issue was that Diem’s support quickly declining to the point where it was just about his own family. He never trusted any popular government official in

Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh was a Communist, who had announced Vietnam independent. He was a Marxist and believed in “national Communism ". Throughout the war with the French, Ho Chi Minh took refuge in northern Vietnam and settled there with his followers. He founded the Indochina Communist Party and the Viet Minh. North Vietnam was a deprived area and was cut off from the agricultural profit of South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was forced to ask assistance from main Communist allies, the Soviet Union and China. Both aided North Vietnam before and during the war. (Dong Si Nguyen, Duong xuyen Truong son: hoi uc.  Hanoi: Nha Xuat Ban Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 1999). Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. This had been a tremendously significant event in world history perhaps the most important event since the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. It marked the first occasion in human history in which a radical national movement under Communist leadership had succeeded in overthrowing the influence of a colonial state and establishing and maintaining its own new, independent form of social and political system. However, Ho’s type of communism was markedly different than that of Marxist ideology that had been the metaphorical icon of the October Revolution. alike to Jose Antonio’s fascist movement, the hierarchical communist party (later renamed the Vietminh) conformed intimately to the ideas of the person at its head, but unlike Antonio’s movement, did not

When I was young, I always wanted a simple life with no significant vicissitudes. I had just wanted to live selfishly on my own until I witnessed HIV-infected kids who were too guiltless to be victimized, and then the war in Syria that led to the destruction of Aleppo and countless deaths of innocent human beings. From that moment, I knew I could no longer stay still. But as soon as I decided to act, I realized the heartbreaking truth: I am living in Vietnam, a country that used to be so strong and brave but now is afraid to speak up for their rights and neglects the invaders trying to take over their land, I cannot thrive here.

The election was held and Ho Chi Minh was elected to be the communist leader. After establishing Ngo Dinh Diem as the leader of South Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh established the Viet Cong who ventured into South Vietnam to encourage communism and gain support of Ho Chi Minh. War between Vietnam and the United States was declared in 1965 due to the sinking of an American naval boat. Lyndon B. Johnson came into office in 1964, and with holding office for just a few months, President Johnson decided to drop bombs in Vietnam. Dispersing numerous bombs, the U.S. targeted the North Vietnamese economy in hope for a halt in the support of the guerrilla fighters who were among the South Vietnamese