Events
1955
Diem initiates ARVN-enforced land redistribution
1959
Diem regime passes Law 10/59 to
root out Communists
1960
South Vietnamese Communists form National Liberation
Front
Key People
-
Ngo Dinh Diem
U.S.-backed
leader of South Vietnam; ran anti-Buddhist regime that was rife
with corruption and nepotism
-
Ngo Dinh Thuc
Diem’s
brother; also the Catholic archbishop of Hue
-
Ngo Dinh Nhu
Diem’s
youngest brother, whom Diem appointed chief of the government’s
Can Lao secret police organization
-
Madame Nhu
Nhu’s
wife; served as South Vietnam’s de facto first lady and became wildly
controversial
Diem in Office
Upon taking office, Ngo Dinh Diem quickly
developed a reputation for using force rather than democratic means
to initiate change. Beginning in 1955, he
used ARVN troops to reverse Communist land redistribution
in South Vietnam and return landholdings to the previous owners.
Fearful of Viet Minh popularity and activity in rural areas—which
had increased as a result of Diem’s cancellation of the scheduled 1956 elections—Diem
uprooted villagers from their lands and moved them to settlements
under government or army surveillance. He forcibly drafted many
of these peasants into ARVN, increasing his unpopularity in rural
areas even further.
Catholicism and Nepotism
Diem’s government was also unpopular because it had an
overwhelming Catholic bias and contained several unpopular,
key figures who were members of Diem’s own family, the Ngo family. Although
Catholics made up less than a tenth of the Vietnamese population,
Diem himself was Catholic, as were all his other family members
in the government. Diem’s government engaged in often vicious persecution
of Buddhists, who made up the overwhelming majority
of Vietnamese citizens, particularly peasants. Diem’s brother Ngo
Dinh Thuc, the influential Catholic archbishop of Hue, in
particular came into conflict with Buddhists.
Diem continued his nepotistic trend by installing his
youngest brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, as the leader of the
government’s secret police organization, the Can Lao.
Moreover, because Diem himself was not married, his sister-in-law,
Nhu’s wildly unpopular, Francophile wife, Madame Nhu,
became South Vietnam’s de facto first lady. In the years
that followed, Madame Nhu would emerge as a notorious figure in
Vietnam and on the world stage; arrogant, extravagant, and prone
to nasty, on-the-record comments, she created one public relations
disaster after another for the U.S.-backed Diem government.
Diem’s Crackdown on Communism
In general, Diem’s repressive policies between 1955 and 1959, though
designed to root out Communists from South Vietnam, actually increased
sympathy for Communists in the South and swelled the ranks of the
southern Viet Minh. Although the southern Viet Minh
were anxious to revolt against Diem, Viet Minh leaders in the North
held back their southern forces because they feared that the United
States might get involved in the conflict.
In May 1959, Diem passed Law 10/59,
establishing military tribunals to search out Communists in South
Vietnam, whom he derisively referred to as Viet Cong.
These tribunals were unconcerned with justice, and Law 10/59 was
brutal in its application.
The National Liberation Front
In 1960, a group of Vietnamese
intellectuals issued the Caravelle Manifesto, which
called for mild reforms to Diem’s corrupt regime. Diem, paranoid,
unable to take criticism, and unwilling to negotiate, threw the
reformers in jail and refused to diminish the power of his much-hated
brother Nhu. A coup against Diem was attempted later that year but
failed.
