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Ngo Dinh Diem First President of the Republic of Vietnam


In office 26 October 1955 – 2 November 1963
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Duong Van Minh

Personal details
Born	3 January 1901 Hue
Died	2 November 1963 Saigon
Spouse	none

Ngô Đình Diệm Jean Baptiste «ngoh dihn zih-ehm» (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of South Vietnam (1955–1963).

Rise to power

Ngô Đình Diệm was born in Huế, the original capital of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam. His Ngô family was Roman Catholic and aristocratic, dating back to the seventeenth Century. He was one of the highest ranking officials of the Nguyễn Dynasty under Emperor Bảo Đại before World War II but resigned once it became clear that the French would not honor their commitment to delegate real power to Vietnamese officials. He was nationalistic, devout Catholic, anti-Communist, and preferred the philosophies of personalism and Confucianism. His elder brother, Ngô Đình Thục, 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 former Emperor and then-current Chief of State Bảo Đại in 1954, on the condition that he be given total control over all civilian and military matters. Diệm's appointment came after the French had been defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and were ready to withdraw from Indochina. Many Americans and Europeans held out little hope for the future of South Vietnam under Diem's leadership, with one U.S. official describing his government in Time magazine as being held together by "Scotch tape, bits of string and putty." At the same time, the U.S. government attempted to raise public awareness within the United States of the 'plight' of South Vietnam and its 'beleaguered' leader.

When a referendum was held on October 23, 1955, on whether to turn South Vietnam into a republic, Diệm's troops guarded the polls and those who attempted to vote for the Emperor were assaulted. Observers say that the fraud was obvious. In Saigon, for example, Diệm claimed more votes than there were registered voters in the entire area. (Ex-Emperor) Chief of State 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 position was backed by the United States, while the long-absent former monarch could not have posed much of a popular threat from his château in France.

On October 26, 1955, Diem became President of the Republic of Vietnam, and Bảo Đại was deposed and continued to live as an exile in France until his death.

Rule

Diệm's rule was authoritarian and nepotistic. His most trusted official was his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, leader of the primary pro-Diệm political party. Ngô Đình Cẩn, his younger brother, was put in charge of the former Imperial City of Huế. Another brother, Ngô Đình Luyện, was appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom and also put in charge of the Cham people minorities in the Central Plains of Vietnam.

Madame Nhu, the wife of his brother 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 private army of the Binh Xuyen organised crime syndicate of the Cholon brothels and gambling houses who had enjoyed special favors under the French and Bảo Đại. he further dismantled the private armies of the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious sects, which controlled parts of the Mekong Delta. Diệm was also passionately anti-Communist. Tortures and killings of "communist suspects" were committed on a daily basis.

As opposition to Diem's rule in South Vietnam grew, a low-level insurgency began to take shape there in 1957. Finally, in January 1959, under pressure from southern cadres who were being successfully targeted by Diem's secret police, Hanoi's Central Committee issued a secret resolution authorizing the use of armed struggle in the South. On 20 December 1960, under instruction from Hanoi, southern communists established the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam in order to overthrow the government of the south. The NLF was made up of two distinct groups: South Vietnamese intellectuals who opposed the government and were nationalists; and communists who had remained in the south after the partition and regrouping of 1954 as well as those who had since come from the north, together with local peasants. While there were many non-communist members of the NLF, they were subject to the control of the party cadres and increasingly side-lined as the conflict continued; they did, however, enable the NLF to portray itself as a primarily nationalist, rather than communist, movement.

The cornerstone of Diem's counterinsurgency effort was the Strategic Hamlet Program, which called for the consolidation of 14,000 villages of South Vietnam into 11,000 secure hamlets, each with its own houses, schools, wells, and watchtowers. The hamlets were intended to isolate the NLF from the villages, their source of recruiting soldiers, supplies and information.

Diem was the subject of two failed coups. The first occurred in 1960, and the second occurred in 1962 after two air force officers revolted and bombed his palace.

Government policy towards Buddhists

Diem's treatment of Buddhists is a matter of controversy. Estimates of the religious composition of South Vietnam overwhelming estimate a Buddhist majority of between 70 ann 90%.. As a member of the Catholic Vietnamese minority, he is regarded by a majority of historians as having pursued pro-Catholic policies that antagonized many Buddhists. Specifically, the government was regarded as being biased towards Catholics in public servant and military promotions, as well as allocation of land, business favours and tax concessions. Diem also once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting that he was a Buddhist "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted." Many officers in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam converted to Catholicism in the belief that their military prospects depended on it. The Catholic church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French, which required official permission to conduct public Buddhist activities, were not repealed by Diem. The land owned by the Catholic church was exempt from land reform. A minority view asserts that Diệm did not discriminate against Buddhists, citing that. more than one quarter of South Vietnam's Buddhist pagodas were built during Diệm's rule, some with government funds.

Buddhist crisis

The regime's relations with the U.S. worsened during 1963, as well as heightening discontent among South Vietnam's Buddhist majority.

In May, in the central city of Huế, where Diệm's elder brother was the archbishop, Buddhists were prohibited from displaying Buddhist flags during Vesak celebrations commemorating the birth of Gautama Buddha when the government cited a regulation prohibiting the display of non-government flags. A few days, Catholics were allowed to fly religious flags at another celebration where the regulation was not enforced. This lead to a protest lead by Thich Tri Quang against the government, which was suppressed by Diệm's forces, killing nine unarmed civilians. Diem and his supporters blamed the Vietcong for the deaths and blamed the protestors for the violence. Although the province chief expressed sorrow for the killings and offered to compensate the victims' families, they resolutely denied that government forces were responsible for the killings and blamed the Vietcong.

A turning point came in June when a Buddhist monk, Thích Quảng Đức, set himself on fire in the middle of a busy Saigon intersection in protest at Diem's policies, photos of which were transmitted around the world and for many people came to represent the failure of Diem's government. A further number of monks publicly self-immolated themselves, and the U.S. grew increasingly frustrated with the unpopular leader's public image in both Vietnam and the United States. Diệm used his conventional argument, equating dissenters to communists.

As demonstrations against his government continued throughout the summer, the special forces loyal to Diem's brother Nhu raided the Xa Loi Pagoda in Saigon in August, arresting around 1400 monks, and injury thirty as well as vandalising the pagoda. The US indicated their disapproval of Diem's administration when their ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge visited the Pagoda in the aftermath. No further mass Buddhist protests occurred during the remainder of his rule.

During this time, Madame Nhu, who was a defacto first lady due to Diem's bachelor life, inflamed the situation by mockingly applauding the suicides, referring to them as "barbeques" while Nhu stated "if the Buddhists want to have another barbeque, I will be glad to supply the gasoline".

Coup and Assasination

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 on November 2, 1963.

The coup was very swift. On November 1, 1963, with only the palace guard remaining to defend President Diệm and his younger brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, the generals called the palace offering Diệm safe exile out of the country if they surrendered. But that evening, they snuck out of the palace through an underground passage to Cholon, where they were captured the following morning, November 2. The brothers were executed in the back of an armored personnel carrier that was taking them to Vietnamese Joint General Staff headquarters. Diem was buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery next to the house of the US ambassador, Lodge.

The United States publicly expressed shock and disappointment that Diệm had been killed.

Repercussions of Diệm's assassination

Upon learning of Diem's ouster and death, Ho Chi Minh is reported to have said, "I can scarcely believe the Americans would be so stupid." The North Vietnamese Politburo, was more explicit, predicting: "The consequenses of the 1. November coup d'état will be contrary to the calculations of the U.S. imperialists... Diem was one of the strongest individuals resisting the people and Communism. Everything that could be done in an attempt to crush the revolution was carried out by Diem. Diem was one of the most competent lackeys of the U.S. imperialists... Among the anti-Communists in South Vietnam or exiled in other countries, no one has sufficient political assets and abilities to cause others to obey. Therefore, the lackey administration cannot be stabilized. The coup d'état on 1. November 1963 will not be the last."

After Diem's assassination, South Vietnam was unable to establish a stable government and numerous coups took place during the first several years after his death. While the U.S. continued to influence South Vietnam's government, the assassination bolstered the North Vietnamese attempts to characterize the South Vietnamese as supporters of colonization.

References

Ngo Dinh Diem - University of Wisconsin
Anthony Trawick Bouscaren, 'The Last of the Mandarins: Diem of Vietnam,' Duquesene University Press, Pittsburgh, Penna, 1965. P13.
Moyar (2006) p. 13.
Karnow (1997) p. 326; Moyar (2006) p. 36.
Moyar (2006) p. 33.
"The Beleaguered Man" Time April 4, 1955.
The 1966 Buddhist Crisis in South Vietnam HistoryNet
Gettleman (1966) pp. 275-276.
Moyar (2006) p. 215-216.
Tucker (2000) p. 291.
Gettleman (1966) pp. 280-282.
Karnow (1997) p. 294.
Buttinger p. 933.
Moyar (2006) p. 215-216.
Karnow (1997) p. 295; Moyar (2006) pp. 212-213.
Gettleman (1966) pp. 64-283.
Gettleman (1966) pp. 264-283.
Gettleman (1966) pp. 278-283.
Moyar (2006) pp. 212-216, 231-234.
Tucker (2000) pp. 292-293.
The Pentagon Papers, Vol. 2 Ch. 4 "The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May-November, 1963," pp. 201-276,
G. Herring, America's Longest War, 1996, pp116.
Moyar (2006) p. 286.
Moyar (2006) p. 286.