Module 5
Essay 1
HIST 4140 1.2: The Vietnam War
Jerone Murphy
Louisiana State University The call to rebuild South Vietnam after the Dai's reign in office was going to take an individual who was political savvy, incorruptible and who physically stood by his people with sound beliefs. It would take a person who the people of South Vietnam felt they could trust. That new individual would have to become one with the people such as Ho Chi Minh did for the north. After Dai's political reign, South Vietnam was left vulnerable. The U.S. felt at any moment that Ho Chi Minh could capture the south in its state of political unrest. The person that the U.S. believed at the time could do such a thing was Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was the prime minister to Dai when he held office. Though he didn't make huge waves politically, the U.S. felt he was sound enough to do exactly what they needed him to do. Diem had rid South Vietnam of organized crime and corruption, something few believed was untamable, even many and his own advisers advised him against it. Because Diem was able to clean up the crime, the U.S praised him and felt that he was the right individual to lead the south, “The South Vietnamese leader,…show more content… In the beginning outside of Diem being of Catholic faith and his potential dictator approach to government, he was respect for being a true nationalist. It was for these reasons that the United States felt that Diem represented the best hope for a strong South Vietnamese government that could resist Communist influence. As it turned out, Diem’s regime was undemocratic, corrupt, and extreme from the beginning. Though Diem was popular among Catholics and had some influence in South Vietnam’s cities, his regime was universally hated in rural areas, which proved a perfect hiding and training ground for Communist forces, and that what the U.S. feared. All of which lead to a coup and the death of
