Ngo Dinh Diem During The Vietnam War

In this war, South Vietnam wanted communist rule to stop but North Vietnam wanted there to be communist rule. North Vietnam controlled South Vietnam for many years. North Vietnam drained their resources, they demanded that South Vietnam did most of the fighting, and pay most of the expenses. South Vietnam was more interested in political games but their political leadership and military leadership were both corrupt. In 1955, American President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged his support to Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam’s leader) and South Vietnam. With training and equipment from American military and police, Diem’s security forces cracked down on Viet Minh’s supporters. By 1957, the Vietnamese

The United States played a very crucial role in the conflict that occurred in Southeast Asia between the U.S.-backed democratic South Vietnam, and Soviet-backed communist North Vietnam. Following the defeat of its French administration in 1954, North Vietnam, led by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, wanted to reunify the country with the help of its rebel allies in the south, known as the Viet Cong. Out of this chaos emerged a difficult situation for the United States, as Cold War sentiments were present within this proxy war between the two powerful nations and the third party of Vietnam. The United States wanted to support Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam, in order to ensure his government would not fall into ruins and be taken control by the communists, but President Eisenhower was also hesitant to get his troops involved in this large scale conflict in Southeast Asia.

President Ngo Dinh Diem was put into power by America to be the President of South Vietnam they choose him due to him being anti-communist and a Christian which America approved of. The CIA provided him with guns and military advisors who advised the South’s military in order to strengthen the South against the North because they believed they were preparing for an inevitable conflict over time with continued American aid turned into over a thousand military advisors being sent in to help train the

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;

From the beginning, the people of America had a distrust in the government when they first began to involve themselves in the Vietnam War. The United States feared that communism would overtake the world, and, unlike the majority of its citizens, the government of America felt it their responsibility to prevent this from happening. An opportunity presented itself in which America could aid in the prevention of the overtaking of Vietnam by a communist government. South Vietnam and North Vietnam were separated at the seventeenth parallel, and South Vietnam wanted it to remain that way and to become its own independent country and democracy. However, North Vietnam and its leader, Ho Chi Minh, wanted to unite both North and South Vietnam under communist rule. In 1954, President Eisenhower put into effect America’s plan to halt the spread of communism. Eisenhower sent a letter to Ngo Dinh Diem, the Prime Minister of South Vietnam, with America’s plans and motives in efforts to gain the trust of a possible new American ally. The citizens of America saw this, not as an opportunity, but as a danger to their precious country. The American government viewed South Vietnam’s situation as a cry for

The Vietnam conflict began long before the U.S. became directly involved. Indochina, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was under French colonial rule. The Vietnam communist-nationalist, also known as the Vietminh, fought for their freedom from the French. The French were being slaughtered, and were doing little to keep the communist North Vietnamese out of South Vietnam. The U.S. sent financial aid to France to help them eliminate the communist threat. At the Geneva Conference in 1954, the major powers tried to come to an agreement on Indochina. There would be a temporary division on the 17th parallel in Vietnam. The Vietminh would control North Vietnam, and South Vietnam would be ruled under the emperor Bao Dai. There was to be an election held in two years to set up the permanent

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

The Vietnam War was a bloody dispute that lasted 20 years, from 1955 to 1975. After winning its own independence from France in 1954, the country itself split into two parts, North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, a communist leader who lead his country into its revolution against the French. The North had a communist style government styled off of the successful Communist revolution in Russia. The South on the other hand, was backed up by the United States and had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was a very repressive leader though, and soon enough a guerilla force made up of communists now called the ‘Viet Cong’ started to attack and kill Southern Vietnamese government officials. The Viet Cong

Ngo Dinh Diem was the first president of South Vietnam from 1955 until he was murdered in 1963. Ngo Dinh Diem was an anti-communist, who replaced Bao Dai in the South Vietnamese government in 1955. Diem refused to follow the Geneva accords, as he did not allow for South Vietnam to participate in free elections. Diem also executed hundred of Buddhists, as Diem was Roman Catholic, and this led to a retraction of support from the United States. In a coup d’état, Diem was assassinated, and the void of power left behind threw Vietnam into chaos and led to a civil war. Diem’s presidency and death weakened South Vietnam and left it susceptible to communism from the

JFK told troops in 1961: “The United States is determined to help Vietnam preserve its independence, protect its people against Communist assassins…” Kennedy wanted people to believe that Soviet supported Communism was another force coming to take command of Vietnam (Faber 117). The way the U.S. acted was that of any government turned to communism was taken over by the Soviet Union and not their own independent land. In 1945, Ho Chi Minh sent a series of letters to President Truman asking for support in their efforts to rebuild the country (Course Slides 8). At that time, there was no indication that Vietnam would be taking aid or guidance from the Soviet Union. In fact, Minh was asking for U.S. help. President Johnson spoke of the war as if it would come to an easy end and be welcomed by the South Vietnamese “ The central issue of the conflict…is the aggression by North Vietnam…If that aggression is stopped, the people and government of South Vietnam will be free to settle their own future-“ (Faber 117). However, many people in South Vietnam were not happy with the U.S. installed government and the role that the Americans were playing in their country. In November1960, the overthrow of Diem was

Compared to Vietnam, America had very different ambitions and motives within the war. The U.S. was part of a large goal, known as “containment”, which was essentially stopping the spread of Communism. America believed that Communism Now in order for America to fulfill their goal of having an anti-communist society, they needed a powerful and determined leader who would vouch for them and support their belief of abolishing communism. Which is why in October 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem defeated the former emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, and appointed himself president of South Vietnam ("Ngo Dinh Diem."). Ngo Dinh Diem was originally a Vietnamese political leader who was born into one of the noble families of Vietnam. Diem was well known by the Vietnamese

The Vietnam War (1965-1975) was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. The Vietnam War brought so many mixed emotions, fear from communism, and many lost lives. The Vietnam War was also very costly the war had spending over $140 billion dollars, the war seemed to start with good intentions that seemed to get lost in the lengthy battle for the North’s freedom, unity, and hopes that America would put a stop to the continuing communistic presence from taking over in Indonesia. In

Until the First Indochina War, the region was a colony of France, known as Indochina, part of the French Union – in the war, troops were drawn from elsewhere in the French Union to fight in the war against the Viêt Minh (lead by Hô Chí Minh). Later, between the years 1955 & 1965 – the Americans were supporting Ngô Đình Diêm, a puppet President they had helped install. However, the Americans didn’t realise what a problem he would become. He ran his authoritarian and

The Vietnam War was fought from November 1955 to April 1975. The French, who had regained control of the Southeast Asian country from Japan after World War II, faced a guerrilla-style fight in the form of the North Vietnamese faction known as the Viet Cong, known by the acronym VC in the latter part of the war. The Viet Cong viewed themselves as freedom fighters who wanted to be free from foreign influences. However, in order to achieve economic and political freedom for their country, they received assistance from Chinese and Russian Communist military and economic advisors. This group was led by Ho Chi Minh, a Communist-trained leader who led subversive campaigns into South Vietnam, which was ruled by a leader named Ngo Dinh Diem. Ho Chi Minh operated from his capital city of Hanoi, while Ngo Dinh Diem's base of operation was Saigon. With the country divided, yet liberated from the French, both sides became embroiled in a proxy war between the Soviet Union, who supported Ho Chi Minh's government, and eventually, the United States, who saw the expansion of Communism into Southeast Asia as a threat to the international security of the citizens of the affected countries.

---Between 1955 and 1960, the North Vietnamese with the assistance of the southern communist Vietcong, tried to take over the government in South Vietnam, and in November 1963 President Diem was overthrown and executed. The following year, the North Vietnamese began a massive drive to conquer the whole country aided by China and Russia.