Ngo Dinh Diem Essay example

However, Diem was a poor controller, a bad ruler. He, along with his brother, made brutal policies against Buddhists and eliminated a large amount of them in the Buddhists sanctuaries of Saigon. Diem's brother Nhu was heavily involved in these activities together with his brother's full support and the army trained by American military advisors (Moss, 2010). Nhu's wife even referred to the Buddhists as "barbecue" on a television show. All of this along with the fact that the Buddhists were denied the right to display their holy flags on the birthday of Buddha caused an immediate outburst in South Vietnam. Heavy protests started taking place and several Buddhist monks even burnt themselves to fatality as

Diem's nationalism and administrative experience made him the logical choice for the premiership of an independent Vietnam, but he was lacking many qualities that were required for the challenges he would face. Herring admits that even now it is unclear how Diem became the premier of Vietnam. The US did not think that Diem was capable of controlling the nation, but at the same time, "there was no one to take his place who would serve US interests better"(55). Through his bungling of responsibilities, Diem was found to be nothing but trouble for the United States and France, therefore; officials in Saigon were convinced that he must be removed. Now the experiment in nation building assumed the form of a crusade. Private charitable agencies provided food, soap, toothbrushes and emergency medical supplies. American money and technology helped to repair the vast damages resulting from more than a decade of war. More than any other single group, American aid allowed South Vietnam to survive the first few critical years after independence. By the late 1950s it appeared as though the new nation was flourishing.

Diem’s reaction to this event was denying responsibility and he put the blame on communists. Despite repeated encouragement from the United States government to reconcile with the Buddhists, Diem remained unyielding and asserted that there was no presence of religious persecution (Toong, 2008). The height of the Buddhist crisis was reached when Thich Quang Duc ignited himself and burned to death in as a protest in the street in front of a large crowd in Saigon (Moss, 2010). The appalling images of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc were spread throughout the world by international media coverage. Demonstrations by the Buddhists and retaliation by the GVN continued to escalate to a point where the United States could no longer support the Diem government, which despite financial assistance that amounted to over $1,000,000 per day and the support of the American military, refused to cooperate (Toong, 2008).

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.

Through O’Brien’s description of the Vietnamese monks, he highlights the absurdity of the effect of war on the Vietnamese people. Americans find themselves often forgetting the effect of their presence in foreign countries. The Vietnamese people and their needs were affected indefinitely by the Vietnam War. What is also underestimated is how much of an emotional toll the Vietnam War took on the average citizen.

Taking Vietnam by its reins, the U.S. became more involved in Vietnam’s struggles, and tried to prevent the weakening South Vietnam’s potential fate. In response to John Dulles’ idea of containment, it was decided that Vietnam would be divided at the 17th parallel. As a result, Ho Chi Minh became upset and claimed that from “North to South, [Vietnam] must unite closely…one in thought and deed” (Ho, After Geneva). America believed that by reenacting prior successful containment strategies, they would also be victorious for Vietnam. Korea was soon the ideal outcome that the United States longed for; a divided country that maintained the communism in one area. Along with the division of Vietnam, Eisenhower

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 book, Cold War Mandarin Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam 1950-1963, by Seth Jacobs is a comprehensive retelling of the rise and fall of Ngo Dinh Diem’s government in South Vietnam. In that retelling Jacob focuses on the major events that took place in Vietnam as well as showed how America backed a leader that did nothing to booster his nation and led America into one of the worst wars in its history. The Diem regime was a corrupt and tyrannical government that used the United States’ fears of communism to push its own goals that ultimately led to its own demise. Jacob viewed the escalation of America’s involvement in Vietnam as the following, “The nine-year “experiment” that ended when Diem died was

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

---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.

The Buddhist riots of 1963 triggered the events that led to the eventual fall of President Diem's government. For the eight years that he was in office, Diem notoriously pursued policies that were largely oppressive. In addition to largely favoring the Catholic religion, Diem's administration according to Isserman and Bowman (2009) also botched up the country's land reform initiatives. Attempts by any of the oppressed groups to stand up for their rights were met with stiff opposition from the country's security forces. Although Diem at first enjoyed U.S. patronage, this changed after it became clear that his administration would not withstand pressure from the masses who were protesting against injustices by his regime. It is however important to note that after Diem was ousted and assassinated, the country was suddenly ushered into a period of instability and unrest as coups and countercoups became commonplace. For the role they played in the toppling of Diem's administration, the Buddhist riots of 1963 represent one of the most significant historical turning points particularly for South Vietnam.

The conflict in Vietnam for the United States started when President Dwight D. Eisenhower went along with the domino theory and sent in military advisors in South Vietnam to stop the communist movement from taking place in South Vietnam. The Vietnam conflict was between the communist’s and the United States. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, and Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Cong, a guerilla group to help spread communism. The United States were supporters of the South Vietnam because they wanted them to maintain their government rather than falling to the domino theory of communism. After Eisenhower’s term ended John F. Kennedy became president and took control of the situation of Vietnam but on November 22, 1963, Kennedy was

An agreement according to which Vietnam was to be divided at the 17th parallel until elections scheduled for 1956. After which the Vietnamese would establish a unified government. In 1959, North Vietnam became involved in war again. Guerrillas popularly known as the Vietcong were conducting an armed revolt against the U.S. sponsored regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. On July 17, 1966, Ho Chi Minh sent a message to the people saying “nothing is as dear to the heart of the Vietnamese as independence and liberation”. That became the motto of the North Vietnamese cause. Ho lived to see only the beginning of a long round of negotiations before he

Ngo Dinh Diem was a man who had been described by many different titles. This was due to the many decisions he made in order to advance in his political career. There is evidence which proves that Diem had both nationalist and opportunist characteristics in him. This essay will investigate whether he was predominately a nationalist or an opportunist through an analysis of different sources which exhibit what Ngo Dinh Diem did. The essay will investigate whether he was a nationalist or an opportunist by analysing the state in which South Vietnam was in, the decisions which Diem made and how the people of South Vietnam and the world reacted to them.

It has been nearly five decades since the first President Ngo Dinh Diem, the founder of the Republic of Vietnam was assassinated in a military coup. Vietnamese history on its media in general and its education in particular are still unclear about the data, events related to this president who had the logical policy line, great political ideology of the South Vietnam and his people at that time. The remained images of Ngo Dinh Diem in new Vietnamese generations’ thoughts are just “Ngo Dinh Diem was regarded as a puppet of the United States, tied in a phrase meaning sarcastic and offended word, "U.S. -Diem clique", and the Diem government is just a creation of the United States in order to serve geo-strategic purposes during the Cold War”. However, those ambiguous images of the first president of Vietnam are still questioning to its whole Nation because there’s none logical evidence to offend his existence.