Ngo Dinh Diem’s election

The election President Eisenhower was determined to maintain the government of South Vietnam, this meant propping up the president, Ngo Dinh Diem. Ngo had worked in the French administration of Vietnam in the 1930’s. In 1954 Ngo emerged as leader of South Vietnam. In October he was officially elected.

The election was rigged The election was rigged with 605,000 people in Saigon voting for Ngo despite only 450,000 people living in Saigon at the time. The USA knew that the election was rigged but they did nothing as they needed Ngo as president. The USA had NO intention of abiding by the Geneva agreement for a reunification election in 1956. The USA knew that Ho Chi Minh would win. The USA supported Ngo because he had prevented a communist victory in the South. They continued there support of him by training the South Vietnamese army.

The weaknesses of Ngo Dinh Diem’s government Ngo was not a popular or successful president. He was a catholic while most of the Vietnam people were Buddhists. His persecuted Buddhists, even going as far as to banning the flying of the Buddhist flag on Buddha’s birthday. In June 1963, a 73 year-old Buddhist monk, Quang Duc, set himself alight as a protest against Diems religious policy. Ngo ruled as a dictator. He was only interested in hunting down supporters of the Vietminh and re-educating themselves at prison camps.

Diem was encouraged to carry out land reform. When asked to carry this out land reform Diem did the exact opposite. Land was taken from the peasants who were farming it and given to Diem’s supporters. Ho Chi Ming carried out land reform in the North and was a much more popular leader.

The growth of opposition By the end of the 1950’s Diem’s terror campaign had got rid of most of the Vietminh supporters in the South. In 1959 the communist government in the North issued orders to the Vietminh begin a terror campaign against the South Vietnamese officials. Over the next few years 4,000 officials a year were assassinated. In the 1960 former members of the Vietminh set up the National uberation Front to oppose Diem’s regime. They demanded removal of Diem and land reform, and began a guerrilla campaign against the regime. To Diem and the USA all opposition was communist. The opposition was labelled the Vietcong as a term of abuse.