Background to the Vietnam War
Encyclopedia
The background leading up to direct American military involvement in Vietnam
can be traced to the close of World War II
, when a power vacuum was created with the defeat of the Japanese, and the rise of the Viet Minh
under Ho Chi Minh
. From 1945 through the events leading up to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
, Vietnam would become a state divided into North Vietnam
, controlled by Ho Chi Minh
, and South Vietnam
, allied and propped up by western powers. Through the incursion and attempt to recolonize Vietnam by France
and the United Kingdom
, Vietnam would be set on the path for eventual direct American incursion in a containment
policy intended to curb the spread of Communism
throughout southeast Asia
.
French involvement in Vietnam began in 1787, when Monsigner Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau de Behaine
, Bishop of Adran returned to France from Vietnam with Nguyen Canh, the seven-year old son of a pretender to the throne of Vietnam. Following the seating of Nguyen Anh (Canh's father) on the throne of Vietnam in 1802, the royal dynasty would last with French support until 1954, ending with the final Vietnamese emperor, Bao Dai
.
Direct involvement began 1835 with the arrival of Dominique Lefèbvre
, who in 1844 conspired with a group of French priests to replace then-emperor Thieu Tri
with another ruler more aligned with Christian interests. The plot failed, but Lefebvre was imprisoned. Learning of his capture, the French fleet responded, and a battle ensured on March 23, 1847. Following this skirmish, France would send troops, who were forced to evacuate Tourane in 1859. In 1861, under the leadership of Vice-Admiral Léonard Victor Joseph Charner, French military forces would enter Saigon, claiming the city as their own. From that point forward, Vietnam was a colony of France.
As a colony with a long national history, France was forced to deal with a long series of civil wars and nationalist movements that marked their occupation of Vietnam, later French Indo-China.
The man who would later be named Ho Chi Minh
entered the scene in a country that loathed its status as a colony. French colonialism, dependent in no small measure on profits gained from cheap labor for mining, runbber, construction and other industries, had essentially laid the foundation for national unrest in the early part of the twentieht century. Added into this forumla was the growing ethnic, political, and economic division between Catholic
and Buddhist Vietnamese. Vietnamese society at all levels was politically and economically divided during this period, as it was at the end of French rule.
Originally named Nguyen Sinh Cung, Ho Chi Minh, was born in 1890 in central Vietnam. In 1911 he would sign on as a stoker in a French freighter, and would spend thirty years away from Vietnam. Travelling extensively, Ho would see not only France, but also visited the United States and London where he would meet Irish Nationalists, finally ending up in Paris
. where he would remain for six years.
In 1919, with the close of World War I, he would attempt to meet with Woodrow Wilson
, asking for a right to self determination for Vietnam. Meeting French socialists, who noted his attempt, and quickly sided with the Communist faction. In 1924, Ho moved to Moscow
.
At the end of World War II
, Japan
ese forces in Indochina
turned over power to Vietnamese Nationalists as a way of causing trouble for the allied occupation forces operating in the postwar period. Japan had, late in the war, created a nominally independent Vietnamese government. Japan allowed this government to be displaced by the Viet Minh
under Ho Chi Minh
. In September 1945, Chinese forces as agreed at the Potsdam Conference
occupied Indochina south to the 16th parallel
to supervise the surrender and repatriation of the Japanese. The next month, a British force landed in Southern Vietnam and occupied Indochina south of the 16th parallel. The immediate postwar period was very chaotic with criminals, nationalists and French soldiers released from prison all fighting for power.
The French eventually gained a measure of control back over parts of Vietnam. Those parts were mostly in the British zone. In early 1946, the French began a series of dual negotiations with the Chinese and Viet Minh over the future of the Vietnam. The Viet Minh were willing for nationalist reasons to agree to almost any concessions including the return of the French in order to get the Chinese army out of the country. For their part, the French traded their pre-war concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese ports for Chinese cooperation in Vietnam. The French landed in early 1946 outside Hanoi and quickly established themselves as the administration in the cities. After failed negotiations with the French over the future of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh retreated into remote parts of the countryside to fight a small-scale insurgency against the French.
Though the US had no direct role in the return of the French to Indochina, Washington's desire for a more uniform postwar European economy and European cooperation on a variety of other matters required French cooperation in the postwar period. And because successive French governments threatened to become more uncooperative in Europe if the United States refused to accede to their demands overseas, Washington committed itself to a policy of supporting the French in Indochina.
After taking power in 1953, the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
accepted the Indochina policy established by the Truman Administration and its foreign policy corps essentially without modification. Support for the French colonial regime was continued, on the pretense that the French were fighting towards the ultimate independence of Vietnam, as well as the defeat of the communists. With the end of the Korean War
, the U.S. became less interested in sustaining the French presence in Vietnam.
movement led by Communist Party leader Ho Chi Minh
. The French, however, failing to achieve more than what amounted to a military stalemate, under financial pressure at home and under increasing pressure from Washington to make good on their end of the bargain, adopted new measures by 1953. For instance, the so-called Navarre Plan called for a buttressing of the Vietnamese National Guard and the deployment of an additional nine battalions of French troops. The French made a request for $400 million in American assistance, of which $385 million was ultimately given. This discrepancy has often led to the charge that the United States failed to adequately fund French efforts to crush the rebellion early. (Herring, 1986, p. 27) The Navarre Plan ultimately failed to end the fighting, however. After the Viet Minh defeated the French colonial army at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
in 1954, the French negotiated an end to their presence in Indochina.
The issue of increasing US involvement in Vietnam was by this point already proving to be divisive in Washington. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
refused to overtly commit US forces to the region, even to support the faltering French forces at Dien Bien Phu
. After the end of the Korean War, Vietnam ceased to have any strategic value for the U.S. and French colonial rule seemed to, if anything, be helping to strengthen the communist movement in the country.
Unwilling to directly support French colonialism, and somewhat disillusioned by the mixed results of American intervention in Korea
, Congress instead opted for Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
' proposal for "United Action" in Southeast Asia. "United Action" was an outgrowth of the Eisenhower Administration's "New Look" policy, whereby local forces should be called upon for the defense of their territories rather than relying on direct US military involvement. "United Action" called for Vietnamese forces to be responsible for the defense of Vietnam, although with US assistance. The direct results of "United Action" were Washington's tacit acceptance of the upcoming Geneva Accords and the creation of SEATO, a coalition of the United States, United Kingdom
, France
, Australia
, New Zealand
, the Philippines
, Thailand
, and Pakistan
to draw a firm line against communist expansion and make war in Southeast Asia less likely. The signatories would share the military burdens of protecting Southeast Asia from "indirect aggression."
, Vietnam was partitioned
, ostensibly temporarily, into a Northern and a Southern zone of Viet-Nam. The former was to be ruled by Ho Chi Minh, while the latter would be under the control of former Emperor Bao Dai
. In 1955, the South Vietnamese monarchy was abolished and Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
became President of a new South Vietnamese republic.
The Geneva Conference specified that elections to unify the country would be scheduled to take place in July 1956, but such elections were never held. In the context of the Cold War, the United States under President Eisenhower had begun to view Southeast Asia
as a potential key battleground in the greater Cold War, and American policymakers thought democratic elections in Vietnam would result in an 80% vote for Ho Chi Minh and therefore blocked elections in the south of the country. With the failure to hold elections conflict resumed between the forces of Ho Chi Minh and the US backed government of Ngo Dinh Diem.
Ngo Dinh Diem was an anti-Communist exile previously residing in New Jersey. Over French objections, the United States installed Diem because he was regarded as a staunch nationalist who could more adequately oversee the construction of a pro-Western South Vietnam than Emperor Bao Dai
who was seen as weak and a remnant of the French colonial authority. This decision was based largely upon Diem's anti-communist and pro-western stances, not his wisdom or experience as a ruler.
Diem's early regime was troubled by powerful religious sects. The Cao Dai
and Hoa Hao
religious sects were among the most potent political factions in Vietnam in the wake of the partition. They effectively controlled huge rural areas and maintained their own private armies. In addition, the Binh Xuyen
, something of a mafia organization, also wielded immense influence and military strength. Their challenge to Diem's fledgling government cast serious doubt on the likelihood of success of the American efforts in Vietnam, and many began to expect an ultimate US withdrawal. Although it initially appeared that Diem would be unable to resist the pressures of these organizations, his startlingly successful campaigns against them in 1955 prompted a deeper American commitment.
Dulles, on the premise that a communist leadership would win any free election with a universal suffrage would under no circumstances allow free elections, argueing that it was in US interests to allow Diem to hold a referendum ahead of the elections mandated by the Geneva Conference. Given the solvency of the Diem government shown by its victory over the sects, Diem won public support in the 1955 referendum.
In the late 1950s, the United States provided support to South Vietnam. But at the same time, North Vietnam began to activate former Viet Minh groups that had remained in the south in violation of the Geneva accords. At the highest levels in North Vietnam, it had been decided to overthrow the government in the south by force as there was no possibility of regaining power through the ballot box.
In the end, neither the US nor the two Vietnams signed the election clause in the accord. Initially, it appeared as if a partitioned Vietnam would become the norm, similar in nature to the partitioned Korea
created years earlier.
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
can be traced to the close of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when a power vacuum was created with the defeat of the Japanese, and the rise of the Viet Minh
Viet Minh
Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
under Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
. From 1945 through the events leading up to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was a joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on August 10, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 10135 and the destroyer on August 2 and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats...
, Vietnam would become a state divided into North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
, controlled by Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
, and South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
, allied and propped up by western powers. Through the incursion and attempt to recolonize Vietnam by France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Vietnam would be set on the path for eventual direct American incursion in a containment
Containment
Containment was a United States policy using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to stall the spread of communism, enhance America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet...
policy intended to curb the spread of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
throughout southeast Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
French colonial period
Pigneau de Behaine
Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau , commonly known as Pigneau de Béhaine, also Pierre Pigneaux and Bá Đa Lộc , was a French Catholic priest best known for his role in assisting Nguyễn Ánh to establish the Nguyễn Dynasty in Vietnam after the Tây Sơn...
, Bishop of Adran returned to France from Vietnam with Nguyen Canh, the seven-year old son of a pretender to the throne of Vietnam. Following the seating of Nguyen Anh (Canh's father) on the throne of Vietnam in 1802, the royal dynasty would last with French support until 1954, ending with the final Vietnamese emperor, Bao Dai
Bao Dai
Bảo Đại , born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy , was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty. From 1926 to 1945, he was king of Annam under French ‘protection’. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam...
.
Direct involvement began 1835 with the arrival of Dominique Lefèbvre
Dominique Lefèbvre
Dominique Lefèbvre was a French missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, Bishop of Isauropolis in partibus infidelium, and Vicar Apostolic in Vietnam during the 19th century. His imprisonment in Vietnam was a pretext for the first French naval interventions in the country.Dominique...
, who in 1844 conspired with a group of French priests to replace then-emperor Thieu Tri
Thieu Tri
Nguyễn Phúc Miên Tông was the third emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty taking the era name of Thiệu Trị...
with another ruler more aligned with Christian interests. The plot failed, but Lefebvre was imprisoned. Learning of his capture, the French fleet responded, and a battle ensured on March 23, 1847. Following this skirmish, France would send troops, who were forced to evacuate Tourane in 1859. In 1861, under the leadership of Vice-Admiral Léonard Victor Joseph Charner, French military forces would enter Saigon, claiming the city as their own. From that point forward, Vietnam was a colony of France.
The rise of Ho Chi Minh
The man who would later be named Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
entered the scene in a country that loathed its status as a colony. French colonialism, dependent in no small measure on profits gained from cheap labor for mining, runbber, construction and other industries, had essentially laid the foundation for national unrest in the early part of the twentieht century. Added into this forumla was the growing ethnic, political, and economic division between Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Buddhist Vietnamese. Vietnamese society at all levels was politically and economically divided during this period, as it was at the end of French rule.
Originally named Nguyen Sinh Cung, Ho Chi Minh, was born in 1890 in central Vietnam. In 1911 he would sign on as a stoker in a French freighter, and would spend thirty years away from Vietnam. Travelling extensively, Ho would see not only France, but also visited the United States and London where he would meet Irish Nationalists, finally ending up in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. where he would remain for six years.
In 1919, with the close of World War I, he would attempt to meet with Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, asking for a right to self determination for Vietnam. Meeting French socialists, who noted his attempt, and quickly sided with the Communist faction. In 1924, Ho moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
At the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese forces in Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
turned over power to Vietnamese Nationalists as a way of causing trouble for the allied occupation forces operating in the postwar period. Japan had, late in the war, created a nominally independent Vietnamese government. Japan allowed this government to be displaced by the Viet Minh
Viet Minh
Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
under Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
. In September 1945, Chinese forces as agreed at the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
occupied Indochina south to the 16th parallel
16th parallel north
The 16th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 16 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, Central America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean....
to supervise the surrender and repatriation of the Japanese. The next month, a British force landed in Southern Vietnam and occupied Indochina south of the 16th parallel. The immediate postwar period was very chaotic with criminals, nationalists and French soldiers released from prison all fighting for power.
The French eventually gained a measure of control back over parts of Vietnam. Those parts were mostly in the British zone. In early 1946, the French began a series of dual negotiations with the Chinese and Viet Minh over the future of the Vietnam. The Viet Minh were willing for nationalist reasons to agree to almost any concessions including the return of the French in order to get the Chinese army out of the country. For their part, the French traded their pre-war concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese ports for Chinese cooperation in Vietnam. The French landed in early 1946 outside Hanoi and quickly established themselves as the administration in the cities. After failed negotiations with the French over the future of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh retreated into remote parts of the countryside to fight a small-scale insurgency against the French.
Though the US had no direct role in the return of the French to Indochina, Washington's desire for a more uniform postwar European economy and European cooperation on a variety of other matters required French cooperation in the postwar period. And because successive French governments threatened to become more uncooperative in Europe if the United States refused to accede to their demands overseas, Washington committed itself to a policy of supporting the French in Indochina.
Containment
In 1949, the communists reached the border of Vietnam in the north. The result was that the Viet Minh were able to receive almost unlimited amounts of conventional weapons. The war in Vietnam transformed itself from an insurgency to a full war between armies in the remote areas of Vietnam. The international situation had also changed dramatically. The Soviet Union had put in place in Eastern Europe authoritarian regimes under its control. China had fallen to communist armies and war had broken out in Korea. The war in Korea helped build a U.S. perception of a general communist threat in Asia. Given China's involvement in Korea and its supply of weapons to the Viet Minh in Indochina, U.S. policymakers began giving support to the French administration.After taking power in 1953, the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
accepted the Indochina policy established by the Truman Administration and its foreign policy corps essentially without modification. Support for the French colonial regime was continued, on the pretense that the French were fighting towards the ultimate independence of Vietnam, as well as the defeat of the communists. With the end of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, the U.S. became less interested in sustaining the French presence in Vietnam.
The end of French involvement
It is generally accepted that the United States funded approximately one-third of the French attempts to retain control of Vietnam, in the face of resistance from the Viet MinhViet Minh
Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
movement led by Communist Party leader Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
. The French, however, failing to achieve more than what amounted to a military stalemate, under financial pressure at home and under increasing pressure from Washington to make good on their end of the bargain, adopted new measures by 1953. For instance, the so-called Navarre Plan called for a buttressing of the Vietnamese National Guard and the deployment of an additional nine battalions of French troops. The French made a request for $400 million in American assistance, of which $385 million was ultimately given. This discrepancy has often led to the charge that the United States failed to adequately fund French efforts to crush the rebellion early. (Herring, 1986, p. 27) The Navarre Plan ultimately failed to end the fighting, however. After the Viet Minh defeated the French colonial army at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that...
in 1954, the French negotiated an end to their presence in Indochina.
The issue of increasing US involvement in Vietnam was by this point already proving to be divisive in Washington. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
refused to overtly commit US forces to the region, even to support the faltering French forces at Dien Bien Phu
Dien Bien Phu
Điện Biên Phủ is a city in northwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Việt Minh.-Population:...
. After the end of the Korean War, Vietnam ceased to have any strategic value for the U.S. and French colonial rule seemed to, if anything, be helping to strengthen the communist movement in the country.
Unwilling to directly support French colonialism, and somewhat disillusioned by the mixed results of American intervention in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Congress instead opted for Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...
' proposal for "United Action" in Southeast Asia. "United Action" was an outgrowth of the Eisenhower Administration's "New Look" policy, whereby local forces should be called upon for the defense of their territories rather than relying on direct US military involvement. "United Action" called for Vietnamese forces to be responsible for the defense of Vietnam, although with US assistance. The direct results of "United Action" were Washington's tacit acceptance of the upcoming Geneva Accords and the creation of SEATO, a coalition of the United States, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
to draw a firm line against communist expansion and make war in Southeast Asia less likely. The signatories would share the military burdens of protecting Southeast Asia from "indirect aggression."
The partition of Vietnam and the Diem Government
According to the ensuing Geneva ConferenceGeneva Conference (1954)
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...
, Vietnam was partitioned
Partition of Vietnam
The Partition of Vietnam was the establishment of the 17th parallel as the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone in 1954, splitting Vietnam into halves after the First Indochina War.The Geneva Conference was held at the conclusion of the First Indochina War...
, ostensibly temporarily, into a Northern and a Southern zone of Viet-Nam. The former was to be ruled by Ho Chi Minh, while the latter would be under the control of former Emperor Bao Dai
Bao Dai
Bảo Đại , born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy , was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty. From 1926 to 1945, he was king of Annam under French ‘protection’. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam...
. In 1955, the South Vietnamese monarchy was abolished and Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
became President of a new South Vietnamese republic.
The Geneva Conference specified that elections to unify the country would be scheduled to take place in July 1956, but such elections were never held. In the context of the Cold War, the United States under President Eisenhower had begun to view Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
as a potential key battleground in the greater Cold War, and American policymakers thought democratic elections in Vietnam would result in an 80% vote for Ho Chi Minh and therefore blocked elections in the south of the country. With the failure to hold elections conflict resumed between the forces of Ho Chi Minh and the US backed government of Ngo Dinh Diem.
Ngo Dinh Diem was an anti-Communist exile previously residing in New Jersey. Over French objections, the United States installed Diem because he was regarded as a staunch nationalist who could more adequately oversee the construction of a pro-Western South Vietnam than Emperor Bao Dai
Bao Dai
Bảo Đại , born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy , was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty. From 1926 to 1945, he was king of Annam under French ‘protection’. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam...
who was seen as weak and a remnant of the French colonial authority. This decision was based largely upon Diem's anti-communist and pro-western stances, not his wisdom or experience as a ruler.
Diem's early regime was troubled by powerful religious sects. The Cao Dai
Cao Dai
Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, officially established in the city of Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. Đạo Cao Đài is the religion's shortened name, the full name is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ...
and Hoa Hao
Hoa Hao
Hòa Hảo is a religious tradition, based on Buddhism, founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ, a native of the Mekong River Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider Sổ to be a prophet, and Hòa Hảo a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known as Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương...
religious sects were among the most potent political factions in Vietnam in the wake of the partition. They effectively controlled huge rural areas and maintained their own private armies. In addition, the Binh Xuyen
Binh Xuyen
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van "Bay" Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh...
, something of a mafia organization, also wielded immense influence and military strength. Their challenge to Diem's fledgling government cast serious doubt on the likelihood of success of the American efforts in Vietnam, and many began to expect an ultimate US withdrawal. Although it initially appeared that Diem would be unable to resist the pressures of these organizations, his startlingly successful campaigns against them in 1955 prompted a deeper American commitment.
Dulles, on the premise that a communist leadership would win any free election with a universal suffrage would under no circumstances allow free elections, argueing that it was in US interests to allow Diem to hold a referendum ahead of the elections mandated by the Geneva Conference. Given the solvency of the Diem government shown by its victory over the sects, Diem won public support in the 1955 referendum.
In the late 1950s, the United States provided support to South Vietnam. But at the same time, North Vietnam began to activate former Viet Minh groups that had remained in the south in violation of the Geneva accords. At the highest levels in North Vietnam, it had been decided to overthrow the government in the south by force as there was no possibility of regaining power through the ballot box.
In the end, neither the US nor the two Vietnams signed the election clause in the accord. Initially, it appeared as if a partitioned Vietnam would become the norm, similar in nature to the partitioned Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
created years earlier.