Ngo Dinh Diem
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Template:Audio «ngoh dihn zih-ehm» (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of the Republic of Vietnam (1955–63). Ngô Đình Diệm was unmarried; thus his sister-in-law, Madame Nhu, was regarded as the First Lady of South Vietnam.
It should be noted that apparently, the ancestors of Diem asserted its seperateness from other families with the surname of Ngô by preserving a similar middle name, Đình. This might cause some to believe that the family's name is Ngô Đình.
Contents |
Rise to power
Ngô Đình Diệm was born in Huế, the original capital of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam. The Ngô family is Catholic. He was one of the highest ranking officials of the Nguyễn Dynasty under Emperor Bảo Đại before World War II but resigned after accusing the Emperor of being a "tool" of the French. He was nationalist, devoutly catholic, and anti-Communist; his elder brother, Ngô Đình Thuc, was the archbishop of Huế.
In 1945 he was imprisoned and exiled to China following conflicts with anti-French Communist forces that were gaining power in Vietnam. After his release, he refused to join in the brief post-war government of Hồ Chí Minh and went into exile in the United States. He returned to be appointed Prime Minister of South Vietnam by Emperor Bảo Đại in 1954, following the French withdrawal. He rejected the Geneva Accord (which called for unification and elections in 1956); on October 26, 1955, in a disputed nationwide referendum, the nation's Catholics voted to remove the Emperor Bảo Đại as head of state and Diệm made himself the first President of the Republic of Vietnam.
When the referendum was held, Diệm's troops guarded the polls and those who attempted to vote for the Emperor were assaulted. Diệm's detractors say that the fraud was obvious. In Saigon, for example, Diệm claimed more votes than there were registered voters in the entire area. Emperor Bảo Đại was forced to abdicate rather than divide the country further and issued one last appeal for the country to unite under a democratic government. Diệm's American advisors were frustrated by this, as no one believed the long-absent former monarch could have posed much of a popular threat from his chateaux in France.
Rule
Diệm's rule was firm, puritanical and nepotistic. His most trusted official was his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, leader of the primary pro-Diệm political party. Ngô Đình Can his other brother he put in charge of the former Imperial City of Huế. Another brother Ngô Đình Luyen he appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom and also put him in charge of the Cham people, minorities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
His brother Nhu's wife Madame Nhu was South Vietnam's First Lady and she led the way in Diệm's programs to reform Saigon society in accordance with their Catholic values. Brothels and opium dens were closed, divorce and abortion made illegal, and adultery laws were strengthened. Diệm also won a street war with the forces of the gangster Le Van Vien, the notorious ruler of the Cholon brothels and gambling houses who had enjoyed special favors under the French and Bảo Đại. Diệm was also passionately anti-Communist. A member of the Catholic Vietnamese minority, Diệm's pursuit of pro-Catholic policies antagonized many of Vietnam's Buddhists. State police were often accused of assaulting Buddhists (the religious majority in the country). Buddhist activists staged mass protests and even self-immolations culminating in several coups attempts, the final one resulting in Diệm's own execution.
U.S. ties
Diệm forged a relationship with the United States for support, while retaining policies that were independent from the United States. The United States supported Diệm in the hopes of securing a foothold in Southeast Asia from which to increase pressure on Communist China. Claims of corruption were merely political rhetoric, however. Hồ Chí Minh and his communist policies were popular, and Diệm was not. President Eisenhower himself commented that, given a democratic election, a socialist government would no doubt win. The United States did not want South Vietnam to be ruled by a Communist government, so the U.S. continued to provide Diệm with support.
Diệm's acquiescence to large-scale support by the United States ensured his political dominance, but his insistence on maintaining control over American pursuits in Vietnam drew ire from his backers, leading to his eventual assassination at American initiation.
Diệm's effective land reforms are thought to have contributed to his increasing popular support in the South. However, while Diệm himself was an effective leader, his family abused his position to support minority Catholics. The enforcement of his Catholic "moral values" was often unpopular and the Buddhist community resented the favoritism he apparently showed to his fellow Catholics. His end, however, came at the initiation of the CIA, who fomented dissidence in the Buddhist communities. While the U.S. had supported Diệm's rise to power, it grew frustrated by his desire for independence from U.S. command. The nominal U.S. support he retained was based on a situational allegiance only, and the U.S. grew increasingly wary of Diệm's intention to moderate their ventures, just as Diệm and his family circle grew increasingly wary of U.S. intentions.
U.S. strategists had originally hoped that Diệm could be the charismatic equivalent of Hồ Chí Minh, and thus be a popular and viable counterweight to Hồ Chí Minh's popularity. As Diệm showed to be unsuited to being the puppet that the U.S. had intended him to be, the opinions of these strategists began to change in the 1960s. Diem began circumventing the strategies of U.S. think tanks, rather opting for domestic strategies that proved more effective than those prescribed by American analysts. U.S. planners complained, annoyed that Diệm had not implemented their strategies of land reforms to compete with the highly popular Communist program, and further claimed that the nepotism and corruption in his government was hurting the South Vietnamese cause. Continued antagonism between the U.S. and Ngo eventually led to his assassination at American initiation.
Coup and assassination
When the regime turned on a protest by Buddhist monks in May 1963, the U.S. stopped giving aid. A number of monks publicly immolated themselves in protest, and the U.S. grew intensely annoyed with Diệm's unpopular public image. In their defense, Diệm and Madame Nhu claimed that the Communists had infiltrated the Buddhist groups. Their crackdown was in accordance with the agreed-upon anti-Communist policy. Madame Nhu infamously referred to the incident as a "barbecuing."
On orders from U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Henry Cabot Lodge, the American ambassador to South Vietnam, refused to meet with Diệm. Upon hearing that a coup d'etat was being designed by ARVN Generals led by General Dương Văn Minh, the United States gave secret assurances to the generals that the U.S. would not interfere. Dương Văn Minh and his fellow plotters overthrew the government and executed President Diệm and his younger brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, on November 2, 1963. The United States publicly expressed shock and disappointment that Diệm had been killed, though they had secretly initiated the circumstances that led to his assassination. Ironically, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated just twenty days later.
When Madame Nhu, visiting the United States at the time, learned of the coup d'etat, she immediately identified the United States as the perpetrator. She later said, "Whoever has the Americans as allies does not need enemies." Madame Nhu went on to predict a dark future for Vietnam and that, by being involved in the coup, the troubles of the United States in Vietnam were only beginning.
Repercussions of Ngo's assassination
After the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. was able to consolidate its control over the government of South Vietnam, facilitating the election of corrupt officials who supported their policies. Among the many who know of the political situations surrounding his death, Ngo Dinh Diem's assassination is considered the decisive political moment during which the Vietnam War was lost. As a result of the solidified American presence post-assassination, internal turmoil ran rampant among South Vietnamese, as soldiers found themselves locked in a Catch-22 between Communist interests and American commercial interests. The assassination also bolstered the North Vietnamese attempts to characterize the South Vietnamese as supporters of colonization, as what was previously lies and speculation became fact.
Quotes
- "If Your Majesty ever has cause to be dissatisfied with my handling of our country's affairs, you have but to speak the word and I will step down."
- "The Communists will defeat us, not by virtue of their strength, but because of our weakness. They will win by default."
Further reading
- Richard Reeves. 1994. President Kennedy: Profile of Power. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-67-189289-4.
- Frances Fitzgerald. 1972. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-31-615919-0, ISBN 0-67-972394-3, ISBN 0-31-628423-8.
- Robert Mann. 2001. A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam. New York: Perseus. ISBN 0-46-504370-4, ISBN 0-46-504369-0.
- Hilaire du Berrier. 1965. Background to Betrayal.
- Le Xuan Nhuan. 1996. Về Vùng Chiến Tuyến. Westminster: Van Nghe. ISBN 1-886566-15-1.
See also: Vietnam War
External links
- JFK and the Diệm Coup - Provided by the National Security Archive.
- Diệm Biography From Spartacus Educational
- Photos of Diem's family
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