The Second Vietnam War

The Eisenhower Administration

U.S. government policy is made in the post Geneva era by President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles

Ike and Dulles move immediately to alter the political outcome in Vietnam: press Diem to create a separate state and set up South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) to provide a military option in Southeast Asia

Ike and Dulles defined U.S. interests entirely in terms of communism and the potential benefits to the Soviets and Chinese

U.S. global policy of containment of communist power was the only important goal

In 1954, the French and U.S. attempt to revive the completely discredited arrangement the French had made with Bao Dai, first in the 1930s and later in the 1940s: Bao Dai appoints Ngo Dinh Diem as premier of the "state" of Vietnam

South Vietnam

Diem moved quickly to gain control of the religious sects (Cao Dai and Hoa Hao) and gangsters (Binh Xuyen) who were powerful in the south

Diem uses a controlled referendum in 1955 to oust Bao Dai and make himself president of South Vietnam

Diem's thinking about government reflected the now gone feudal world of mandarins and a court of family members; has no interest in the peasants, who should simply obey him

Diem played almost no role in removing the French from Vietnam, although he was in favor of independence

North Vietnam

In the North, perhaps one million Catholics flee to the south (about 800,000 remain) and the government faces severe economic hardship

Government in the North had the benefit of being led by the legendary hero of the victory over the French; Ho had enormous legitimacy throughout Vietnam

Policies of land reform to consolidate land ownership result in considerable violence by communist cadres on larger landowners - many thousands are killed

Communist government reverses course in 1955-56 and adopts a less harsh land reform
Economic conditions improve very little as country remains at war for the next 20 years

Outbreak of Conflict

Diem launched a savage attack on South Vietnamese communists in 1957 - many are arrested and killed in confinement

Diem moveed to gain support of large landowners in rural areas - reverses much previous land reform; removes many village notables and replaces with northern Catholics

In 1958-1959 many former Viet Minh begin to organize resistance to Diem

In 1960, the National Liberation Front is established in the south; composed of communist and non-communists opposed to Diem; southern nationalists have to persuade the government in the north to give them support

Initial armed resistance occurs in the deep south - Ca Mau - with the insurgents using weapons captured from the South Vietnamese government

Thereafter, a subterranean struggle occurred between southern communists in the NLF and northern government for control over the NLF