Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngo Dinh Diem (born January 3, 1901-died November 2, 1963 in Vietnam) was a Vietnamese political leader that served as the first president of the South Vietnam in 1955-1963. His family was one of the noble families in Vietnam and one of the first Vietnamese converts to the Roman Catholicism in 17th century. He was on friendly terms with the Vietnamese imperial family in his youth, and in 1933 he served as the emperor Bao Dai’s minister of the interior. In 1945, he refused the proposal to join Ho Chi Min’s independence movement and went into self-imposed exile, living abroad for most of the next decade. When the Geneva conference took place in 1954, the United States delegation proposed Diem’s name as the new ruler of South Vietnam. The French argued against this claiming that Diem was “not only incapable but mad”. However, eventually it was decided that Diem presented the best opportunity to keep South Vietnam from falling under the control of communism. He then defeated Bao Dai in a controlled-referendum and proclaimed himself as President of South Vietnam in 1955. Once in power, the Americans discovered that Diem was unwilling to be a ‘puppet’ ruler. He constantly rejected their advice and made decisions that upset the South Vietnamese people. Several attempts were made to overthrow Diem but although the Americans were unhappy with his performance as president, they felt they had no choice but to support him. Diem’s anti-democratic tendencies were soon exposed. He despised the Geneva Accords and had no intentions of allowing the 1956 reunification elections to proceed. Diem’s power base began to erode in the late 1950s. In 1959 Hanoi began to refocus its efforts by seeking to remove Diem from power. The National Liberation Front (NLF) – essentially the underground communist party in South Vietnam – was formed the following year. Diem’s land reforms, rural resettlement schemes and pro-Catholic social reforms fuelled growing opposition, leading many South Vietnamese to support the NLF. By late 1960 Diem’s ‘Agroville’ project had failed and his government lost control of many rural areas. Other notable Vietnamese began to speak out against Diem, demanding greater democracy and accountability. In 1963 Diem’s public image in the US and worldwide had been eroded. Reports of his corruption and brutality appeared regularly in the media. He killed in November 1963 after a coup led by ARVN (South Vietnam Army) generals and backed by the CIA and White House.