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1830s: Discriminatory Policy Against Catholics

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1830s: Discriminatory Policy Against Catholics

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Emperor Minh Mang introduced a policy of persecution of Catholics in the 1830s.

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1848 and 1851: Discrimination Against Catholics

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1848 and 1851: Discrimination Against Catholics

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Emperor Tu Duc issued orders forcing Catholics to convert/ face execution.

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Anti-Catholic violence increased as France's influence over Vietnam grew because Catholicism was associated with the  oppressor.

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Diem graduated and went into government service.

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1920s and early 1930s: Bao Dai-Diem Partnership

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1920s and early 1930s: Bao Dai-Diem Partnership

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Bao Dai worked with Diem to loosen colonial restrictions on Vietnamese life.

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Diem exposed early communist cells in Quang Tri.

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Diem rounded up leaders of communist demonstrations throughout Vietnam and reported them.

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1930 and 1931: Revolts From Communist Party

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1930 and 1931: Revolts From Communist Party

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The Communist Party instigated peasant revolts in central Vietnam, which Diem helped the French to dismiss.

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Diem, at age  thirty-two years old, gained control of the most important ministry in Bao Dai's cabinet.

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March 1945: Refusal of Partnership Offer

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March 1945: Refusal of Partnership Offer

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Diem regretted turning down the offer of a premiership of a puppet regime under his old sovereign, Bao Dai, from the Japanese (he refused because Vietnam wouldn't have any real independence.

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Viet Minh murder Diem's brother, Khoi, and his son.

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Ho Chi Minh summons Diems to offer him the position of the post of minister of the interior, which Diem refuses since Minh killed his brother.

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After trying to organize (unsuccessful) anti-Viet Minh movement in the north, Ho chi Minh orders for Diem to be re seized. Diem barely escapes by communist soldiers until French soldiers re-occupy Vietnam in 1946, starting the Franco-Viet Minh War and shifting Ho's attention from Diem.

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America intervened Vietnamese and French conflict.

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Diem was interviewed by Robert Hoey, the State Department's officer in charge of Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos affairs, to talked about the Indochina conflict. He spoke about the topic in a way to appeal to American Policy makers. The first piece of information Diem gave was that he portrayed Ho Chi Minh in a way that confirmed to Americans that Communism was monolithic. The second piece of information he gave was that France's "Bao Dai Solution" was inadequate and that a Vietnamese leader that is not affiliated with neither communist nor the French was needed.

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Viet Minh controlled two-thirds of Vietnam, while French control had been reduced to territories around Hanoi, Haiphong, and Saigon.

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Dien Bien Phu fell, which  indicated the end of French predominance in Indochina.

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French representatives and Viet Minh signed a truce at the 1954 Geneva Convention to stop hostilities on the condition that there would be a demarcation line along the 17th parallel dividing Vietnam, and provisions for elections to be held in both north and south Vietnam would be established (bound to whatever results occurred).

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Over 200,000 refugees were trying to evacuate from Hanoi and Haiphong. The U.S. Defense Department mobilize a task force for evacuation with the aid of the navy referred to as "Passage to Freedom."

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Diem ensured victory during the 1955 referendum on Bao Dai by using various voter suppression tactics. They prohibited people from campaigning for the emperor. They stuffed ballot boxes were stuffed, intimidated voters, and spread anti-Bao Dai propaganda.

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The constitution granted Diem rights over legislative, executive, and judicial functions. Diem was granted the power to issue and change laws, appoint or dismiss officers, rule by emergency (whenever he wished), suspend temporarily certain civil liberties.

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Vietnam had about 1,450,000 Catholics, majority of which were from the south (half of which were refugees from the north).

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The Can Lao political Party was also known as the Revolutionary Worker's Party which aimed to rally support for Diem. They gained power by infiltrating the army/police/ media, spying on potential traitors, and other forceful actions.

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January 1956: Anti-Communist Denunciation Campaign 

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January 1956: Anti-Communist Denunciation Campaign 

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The Anti-Communist Denunciation Campaign backfired because it created many enemies since Diem's tactics to remove Viet Mihn sympathizers were very harsh (people witnessed their family members executed). The campaign escalated with the passing of Ordinance No. 6 that allowed officals to jail anyone they perceived to be a danger.

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Diem established a policy where landlords could collect only 25 percent or less of a farmer's crop.

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Diem established the CIP (Commercial Import Program) and maintained it for two decades. The United States gave dollars to Diem's government, who sold them to licensed South Vietnamese importers. The CIP was more favorable than directly injecting the South Vietnamese economy with money because they could give a lot of money to Diem's nations while also avoiding inflation.The middle class benefitted from the CIP because they were able to have new luxuries. Entrepreneurs also benefitted from the CIP because they were able to set up factories.Rural communities that made up over 85 percent of the population didn't benefit from the CIP because while middle and upper classes enjoyed new luxuries, their conditions hadn't changed.

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South Vietnam was voting for the national assembly during the 1959 elections. This was a threat to Diem because he needed to make sure that the outcome of the election would keep him in a position of power so he rigged the elections. He manipulated the voting process by having candidates disqualified for random reasons, censored news coverage of independent candidates, and threatened them as well.

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The Caravelle Group was a group of South Vietnamese politicians fed up with the corruption and their objective were demanding reform in the government, economy, and army. They published these ideologies in a letter made public at a press conference.

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September 1960: Communist Part at the Third Party Congress

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September 1960: Communist Part at the Third Party Congress

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The two objectives that the Communist Party in North Vietnam settled on during the Third Party Congress were that they needed to use violence to get rid of Diem and the American and that they needed to form a coalition with a new political group that wasn't aggressively communist to attract more widespread support.

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20 December 1960: National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam 

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20 December 1960: National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam 

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The National Liberation Front was formed at Xom Giua. The organization was formed in response to a decision made at the Third Party Congress of the Communist Party in North Vietnam. The objective of the National Liberation Front (NLF) was to endorse patriotic ideologies like overthrowing colonizers, increasing civil liberties, and reunification, rather than communist objectives.

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The objective of the agroville campaign was to relocate lower class into areas that were defended against communism.The lower class disapproved of the campaign because the lower class were forced to build these camps themselves and had to abandon their ancestral lands. VC guerillas directed their dissatisfaction with Diem and the campaign at local officials and civilians--- killing and murdering thousands.

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ARVN reported a lot of communist troops were stationed in the village of Ap Bac near Saigon that were getting ready to fight South Vietnam's army. While the ARVN had a lot of man power and advanced machinery to kill many people easily, ARVN were unwilling to fight so their slowness made it easier for VC to defeat them. Further, AVRN machinery weren't invincible--- VC took down 14 of the 15 helicopters they had. While technically speaking, VC fled Ap Bac, which would count as a win for AVRN since that was their objective, AVRN suffered so many losses that it could be argued that VC actually won because not only were their losses low, but keeping Ap Bac wasn't even their objective to begin with.

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US Ambassador to South Vietnam Frederick Nolting left office and and nuns, monks, and Buddhists protested Diem's policies outside the National Assembly Building as instructed by Thich Tinh Khiet.

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3 June 1963: Violence Against Protestors

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3 June 1963: Violence Against Protestors

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Government troops like AVRN attacked the protestors in Hue using tear gas, attack dogs, and brown liquid that burned them. Diem also declared Hue to be under martial law

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Thich Quang Duc was a 73 year old Buddhist monk who was marching alongside 350 nuns and monks down Saigon's major boulevards. When they reached the intersection of Phan Dinh Phung Boulevard and Le Van Duyet Street, they stopped, and Quang Duc pulled out a cushion and sat down. The fellow protestors poured gasoline on him and Quang Duc lit a match. He burned to death and was incased in a glass to be named a martyr for the protest.

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Summer 1963: Pagoda Demonstrations Met With Violence

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Summer 1963: Pagoda Demonstrations Met With Violence

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In response to a claim Diem made that VC were responsible for the Hue massacre, more Buddhists protested. At the Cholon's Giac Minh Pagoda demonstration, government police brutalized hundreds of monks and sent them off to jail in American trucks. Diem also ordered armed forces to go into padogas to arrest, beat and massacre monks and nuns at the Xa Loi Pagoda and Tu Dam Pagoda.

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In response to Diem's violence against his people, Kennedy talked about starting a coup. U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. looked for dissenters among the AVRN generals to encourage a coup. His plan was have the ARVN replace Diem's seat.

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One obstacles the ARVN generals faced in carrying out a coup were that none of the generals were eager to lead a coup. Additionally, they needed a cue from Washington that America would see to it that the coup succeeded, and they couldn't recruit Brigadier General Ton That Dinh who was the military governor of Saigon that had access to various military forces. Further, they were worried that John Richardson, a CIA station chief in South Vietnam, would find out about the coup and inform Nhu.

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Foreign powers like Roger Lalouette, France's ambassador to South Vietnam, and Ramchundur Goburdhun, the Indian chair of the International Control Committee (ICC), compelled North and South Vietnam to reach a peace agreement by highlighting how both sides were being overbearing and that would lead Ho to threaten to use North Vietnam as the battlefield in a USSR-PRC war.

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Kennedy signaled for the start of the coup and the rebel troops won. The coup was successful because the number of rebels and people who disliked Diem was far greater than the number of loyalists. The coup was violent and people criticized Kennedy's decision to align with the violent nature Diem's assassination.

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Between Diem’s arrest at St. Francis Xavier church and the convoy’s 11 o’clock arrival at JGS, Diem and Nhu had been murdered. Coup leaders were shocked at the sight of their corpses.