Account_for_the_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Diem_Regime

Account for the rise and fall of the Diem regime Cameron Murdoch When the French left indo-china in 1954, the belief was that general elections would be held to unite all people of Vietnam. However until the elections, ruling bodies had to be created to keep law and order in the Viet Minh controlled north, and French controlled south. As leader of the Viet Minh, Ho Chi Minh was elected president of North Vietnam. The solution for South Vietnam was not so simple. It had no clear, nationalist leaders, the pre-existing government was filled with Francophiles and the general population was split into factions, some people were loyal to street gangs, others to religious sects and so on. The solution came from the United States who were eager to keep Vietnam free from communism. The United states believed that Vietnam would be the next ‘domino’ to fall to communism in Asia., Therefore if they could keep Vietnam capitalist they could better defend themselves from communism. This train of thought was popular at the time due to the ‘Domino Theory’, a theory stating that one country after the other would fall to communism in south east Asia, starting with China, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malay, Indonesia then Australia. America wanted a capitalist, anti-communist, catholic leader in south Vietnam and so called upon Ngo Dinh Diem, a Vietnamese catholic living a monasterial life in Washington. Diem was seen by many as a puppet for the U.S. This rise to power was supported, brutally, by Colonel Lansdale, a CIA representative, responsible for the halt of the spread of communism. Lansdale had to work hard to create an acceptable image Diem. Diem had little political experience and had no call to fame within South Vietnam. His main support therefore came from the U.S and his family. Shortly after coming to power, Diem engaged in a purge of politicians and bureaucrats and replacing them with family members, a method called nepotism. Together with his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu and Lansdale, Diem ruthlessly cracked down on opium gangs and militia based religious sects such as the Binh Xuyen, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao. Diem used used the secret police (controlled by his brother Nhu) and the army (supplied and trained by American CIA operatives) to destroy and shut down these bases of opposition creating many enemies, mainly within the ranks of the Buddhist monks. The elections that were meant to have taken place in 1956 never happened. Diem was afraid that the communists, who had a far greater public image, would succeed and unite Vietnam under communism. Therefore Diem cancelled the elections under the pretence that he believed Ho would cheat and rig the election, he was supported by US. He also claimed that because he had not taken part in the Geneva Accords he was not duty bound to obey them. The Geneva Accords were a series of contracts ruled up to ensure that Vietnam would stay outside foreign influence and untie peacefully, this didn’t happen. In October a referendum took place in South Vietnam asking the people to choose between Bao Dai (previous emperor of Vietnam) and Diem for president. Diem was advised to make the election appear fair, in Saigon, a city of 450 000 voters, Diem got 605 000 votes. Early in his reign Diem made a series of public appearances, he was encouraged by Lansdale who insisted that he create a popular public figure instead of reverting to French based dictatorship. Never-the-less, Diem slowly did revert into a French style dictatorship and this coupled with the corruption in his government created an unpopular image. As well as private and personal support, South Vietnam under Diem received millions of dollars worth of aid money from America. By 1960 South Vietnam’s economy was running nearly entirely on America aid money. As a result upper class citizens were able to wallow in the affluence that the aid brought. This did not extend to the lower classes who suffered in increasing poverty. As American aid dried up in the early 60’s many of the upper class citizens, many of whom held high ranking positions, turned against Diem convinced he couldn’t run a country. Diem was destined to fail as a leader of Vietnam. His style of leadership was out-dated and proven to create enemies, just like Diem did when he eliminated the incredibly powerful street gangs and religious sects. His failure to treat the people decently was shown by his disregard for the elections that would unite the nation and as a result more opposition grew up. This opposition, coupled with increasing Viet Cong control of the country side and failing economy meant that eventually all the people of South Vietnam, from government officials to peasant farmers, grew to distrust Diem and wanted a coup against him. On November 1st 1963, Diem’s main military staff overthrew him in a coup. Diem and his brother Nhu were assassinated the next day.