Separate South Vietnam
A SEPARATE SOUTH VIETNAM
After the Geneva Accords were signed and sealed, the South was ruled by a government led by Ngo Dinh Diem, a f iercely anticommunist Catholic. His power base was significantly strengthened by 900,000 refugees, many of them Catholics, who had fled the communist North during the 300-day free-passage period. Nationwide elections were never held, as the Americans rightly feared that Ho Chi Minh would win with a massive majority. During the first few years of his rule, Diem consolidated power fairly effectively, defeating the Binh Xuyen crime syndicate and the private armies of the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai religious sects. During Diem's 1957 official visit to the USA, President Eisenhower called him the 'miracle man ' of Asia. As time went on Diem became increasingly tyrannical in dealing with dissent. Running the government became a family affair. In the early 1960s the South was rocked by anti-Diem unrest led by university students and Buddhist clergy, which included several highly publicized self-immolations by monks that shocked the world. The US decided Diem was a liability and threw its support behind a military coup. A group of young generals led the operation in November 1963. Diem was to go into exile, but the generals got over-excited and both Diem and his brother were killed. He was followed by a succession of military rulers who continued his erratic policies.
A NEW NORTH VIETNAM
The Geneva Accords allowed the leadership of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to return to Hanoi and assert control of all territory north of the 17th Parallel. The new government immediately set out to eliminate those elements of the population that threatened its power. Tens of thousands of ’ landlords', some with only tiny holdings, w ere denounced to 'security committees ' by envious neighbours and arrested. Hasty 'trials' resulted in between 10,000 and 15,000 executions and the imprisonment t of thousands more. In 1956, the party, faced with widespread rural unrest, recognized that things had got out of control and began a Campaign for the Rectification of Errors.
THE NORTH -SOUTH WAR
The campaign to 'liberate ' the South began in 1959. The Ho Chi Minh Trail. which had been in existence for several years, was expanded. In April 1960 universal military conscription was implemented in the North. Eight months later, Hanoi announced the formation of the National Liberation Front (NLF), which came to be known, derogatorily, as the Viet Cong or the VC. Both are abbreviations for Viet Nam Cong San, which means Vietnamese communist. American soldiers nicknamed the VC 'Charlie '. As the NLF launched its campaign, the Diem government rapidly lost control of the countryside. To stem the tide, the Strategic Hamlets Program was implemented in 1962, based on British tactics in Malaya. This involved forcibly moving peasants into fortif ied 'strategic hamlets ' in order to deny the VC bases of support. This programmed was abandoned with the death of Diem, but years later the VC admitted that it had caused them major problems. And for the South it was no long er just a battle with the VC. In 1964 Hanoi began sending regular North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. By early 1965 the Saigon government was on its last legs. Desertions from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), whose command was notorious for corruption and incompetence, had reached 2000 per month. The South was losing a district capital each week, yet in 10 years only one senior South Vietnamese army officer had been wounded. The army was getting ready to evacuate Hue and Danang, and the central highlands seemed about to fall. It was clearly time for the Americans to 'clean up the mess '.
