The Diem Regime in South Viet Nam

1. The Diem Regime in South Viet Nam

2. The Diem Regime in South Vietnam • After the Geneva Conference Vietnam was split into two. South Viet Nam became an independent republic ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem

3. The Identity of the Diem Regime • Diem was an authentic nationalist • He believed that Viet Nam should be ruled by Vietnamese • He had resigned as Minister of the Interior to Emperor Bao Dai as he resented French rule and the failure of France to let the Vietnamese make significant decisions

4. The Identity of the Diem Regime • He had fraternised with the Japanese during WWII In 1945 they had invited him to be Prime Minister in Bao Dai’s puppet government • In 1945 he was captured by the Viet Minh and was invited to join their government but refused. • His brother and nephew had ben killed by the Viet Minh. Diem had become fervently anti-communist

5. The Identity of the Diem Regime • In 1946 he tried to establish an anti-communist organisation • In 1947, when the French had returned to Viet Nam, he set up an anti-French political party

6. The Identity of the Diem Regime • He was described as honest and a man of integrity • He was a workaholic with an amazing stamina

7. The Identity of the Diem Regime Diem saw his nation as a Confusian society in which everyone knew their place and their was no 20th century nonsense about democracy

8. The Identity of the Diem Regime In Diem’s own words, "A sacred respect is due to the person of the sovereign. He is the mediator between the people and heaven as he celebrates the national cult."

9. The Identity of the Diem Regime • Diem arranged, with CIA support a vote of 98.2% for himself in the 1955 elections. • Bao Dai was removed as Emperor. Diem became President. • Diem cancelled the 1956 elections under the Geneva Accord. He knew he would not win the elections and that the people would vote for the Viet Minh if given a free choice. Voting in 2005 with statue of Ho Chi Minh in forground – in trying to avoid a communist dictatorship Diem set up his own one party state

10. The Identity of the Diem Regime Diem saw democracy as a “western disease’ “ To him, his one man rule was not evil, but a necessity imposed by war and history. If he relaxed his dictatorship everything would fall apart and then there would be chaos.” H. Dareff The Story Of Vietnam 1966

11. The Identity of the Diem Regime • No democracy meant that Diem was in reality a dictator

12. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The illusion that he was popular and had the support of the majority of people in South Viet Nam was just propaganda

13. The Identity of the Diem Regime • He was a devout Catholic • He briefly trained for the priesthood • He spent two years in a monastery in New Jersey in the USA • Diem never married

14. The Identity of the Diem Regime • When he became South Viet Nam’s Prime Minister in 1954 and then later President he lacked popular support, gaining most of his support from the Catholic minority. Note the Catholic priest in the crowd

15. The Identity of the Diem Regime • Catholics were given preference in jobs in his regime. Diem greeting Catholic priests

16. The Identity of the Diem Regime • Diem set up an oligarchy • This was a family dictatorship • He surrounded himself with family and a few close aides – the only people he personally trusted. This meant he was a remote and aloof figure.

17. The Identity of the Diem Regime President Ngo Dinh Diem with the Ngo Dinh family at Phu Cam, Hue

18. President Ngo Dinh Diem, brothers Ngo Dinh Nhu, Bishop Ngo Dinh Thuc. Mrs. Nhu, sister and Ngo Dinh Nhu's children. The Identity of the Diem Regime

19. Ngo Dinh Diem = President Ngo Dinh Nhu = Head of Can Lao Political Party and Diem’s chief political advisor Madame Nhu = ‘First lady’ & Head of the Women's Solidarity Movement Monsignor Ngo Dinh Thuc = Catholic Archbishop of Hue Ngo Dinh Can = Governor of Central Viet Nam Ngo Dinh Luyen = Ambassador to Great Britain The Identity of the Diem Regime

20. Ngo Dinh Nhu was the most important figure after Diem The Identity of the Diem Regime

21. Diem was negatively described as a remote, inflexible and authoritarian figure. Diem had many faults : remoteness, inflexibility, and an authoritarian belief that he alone knew what was best for his country and had no need to listen to any critical voices. Arnold R Isaccs, The Guardian 2/8/87 Diệm's rule was firm, puritanical and nepotistic. He had the goal of achieving social reform in South Viet Nam and undertook the pursuit of pro-Catholic policies The Identity of the Diem Regime

22. Can Lao members spied on people in schools, factories and villages Suspected Communists were reported and dismissed from their jobs Other members of non-communist opposition groups were rounded up and labelled communists Diem used Nhu to enforce his ideas Nhu set up the Revolutionary Labour Party or Can Lao in 1956 South Viet Nam became a one-party state Its members were placed in key government jobs The Identity of the Diem Regime

23. From 1955 to 1960 Diem, … attempted to assert his authority over rural South Vietnam. His minions killed, tortured and imprisoned tens of thousands who resisted his unfair rule. It was vicious repression. CIA director William Colby, writing in reflection although at the time the USA was not so harsh in its views. The Identity of the Diem Regime Above: Fear on a woman's face as her village gets searched by soldiers

24. The Saigon based criminal syndicate called Binh Xuyen were crushed by force in street battles using the army In this way Diem consolidated his power All potential opposition groups were eliminated Diem used bribes to crush the Cao Dai and force to defeat the Hoa Hao. The Hoa Hao leader was guillotined. The Identity of the Diem Regime

25. Under Law 10/59 military tribunals tried “infringements of national security with sentences of death or hard labour for life for being a Communist or working with Communists” By 1961 150,000 political prisoners were being held in a system of concentration camps The Denunciation Campaign Diem set up a campaign for people to denounce communists, especially those Viet Minh cadres who had stayed at home. 12,000 had been killed between 1955 and 1957 By 1958 40,000 political prisoners were in gaol The Identity of the Diem Regime

26. Fortified Hamlets were set up. This was called the Agroville Strategy In these strategic hamlets, rural people were made to live behind barbed wire In 1962 American advisers helped expand these to move 34 % of the population into villages protected by stockades so that they would not help the Viet Cong, the liberation group who had been set up to defeat Diem The Identity of the Diem Regime

27. Madame Nhu, the ‘first lady’ played a leading role in the moral reform President Diem instituted in South Vietnam, closing down brothels, opium dens and gambling houses. She was at the front of imposing Catholic morality on South Vietnam, which included the abolition of divorce, contraceptives and abortion. Nightclubs and ball rooms were also often targets. This campaign of decency, while admirable, was met with a great deal of hostility by those who did not share Madame Nhu's view of ethics. The Identity of the Diem Regime

28. The Identity of the Diem Regime Madame Nhu set up the Women’s Solidarity Movement to co-ordinate her morality campaigns. In October 1961 she introduced a resolution in the National Assembly to create a military training program for 1,500 young women who would, in turn, train more women to build a reserve force of some 360,000

29. She justified Diems the repressive regime poetically: “ If we open the window not only sunlight but many bad things will fly in.” By keeping the window shut, the Diem regime made sure that the bad things - such as democracy - were kept out. H Dareff The Story of Vietnam 1966 The Identity of the Diem Regime

30. Diem was a difficult friend for the Americans. Diem himself did not always do what they wanted. He was a nationalist and did not accept the idea of being any other nations puppet. The Identity of the Diem Regime Ambassador Fritz Nolting, was appointed ambassador to Vietnam in 1961  with orders to support the government of Ngo Dinh Diem.

31. Diem visited the USA and was lauded as a hero of the free world. Privately the US were less sure of him. The reality was that they had no alternative in South Vietnam to back. The Identity of the Diem Regime The United States President Eisenhower greeted  South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem in Washington, 05/08/1957 Right: With Vice President L.yndon B. Johnson As a hero in a parade in the USA

32. What Diem got from the USA was military support – advisors and equipment The Identity of the Diem Regime

33. The Identity of the Diem Regime Left:: A father holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armoured vehicle. The child was killed as government forces pursued guerrillas. Above: Viet Cong killed by the South Vietnam Army

34. The Identity of the Diem Regime Above: Diem talking with supporters Diem Inspecting troops, Dalat, South Vietnam, March 30, 1963

35. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The Buddhist Crisis • Favouritism was given to Catholics. Catholic families were given privileges or excused from obligations. This reflected the Catholic identity of the Diem regime.

36. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The Buddhist Crisis • Diem’s brother, the Catholic Archbishop of Hue, banned the display of Buddhist flags and a Buddhist festival in Hue.

37. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The Buddhist Crisis South Vietnamese troops, enforcing a ban on the Buddhist multicoloured flag, fire upon 20,000 Buddhists at Hue. The attack begins a series of intensifying protests by Buddhists against the government.

38. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The Buddhist Crisis Buddhist monk Quang Duc sets himself on fire in protest against the Diem government's policies. Buddhist protest intensify daily

39. The Identity of the Diem Regime This was a crisis for the Diem Regime

40. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The Overthrow of Diem A group of discontented Army Generals began to plot a coup d’etat with tactic approval of the US Ambassador Cabot Lodge

41. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The Overthrow of Diem • On 1 November 1963 the coup began.

42. The Identity of the Diem Regime • The Overthrow of Diem • Diem and Nhu fled to a Catholic church but were captured and killed Diem Nhu

43. The Formation of the Identity of Ngo Dinh Diem and the Regime he presided over. The Expression of this Identity. • - what factors influenced / contributed to this identity • - what were the characteristics of this identity • - what were the expressions of this identity (both positive and negative)