Diem’s 1957 visit to the US saw him extolled by President Eisenhower for his ‘heroism and statesmanship’, while he was given a ticker tape parade through New York. Four years later, Vice President Johnson hailed Diem as the ‘Churchill of Asia’. The main reason why the US chose to tolerate a dictator who appeared, in the longer term, to be harmful to their chances of building a stable republic below the 17th parallel is that, above all else, Diem’s credentials as an anti-communist were impeccable. He had made a name for himself as a hard-line opponent while serving as governor in Binh Thuan Province during the 1920s and early 30s. As leader of the RVN he instigated a brutal campaign against suspected and actual communists. Over 50,000 political opponents were sent to labour camps, and 12,000 executed during 1955–59, with a further 2,000 killed by the ARVN during the small uprising in 1957. The impact on the southern Communists was severe: of the 10,000 or so members of the Vietnam Workers Party who remained in the South after partition, an estimated 5,000 remained by 1959. However, the effect on the population at large was to further alienate Diem from the people.
As well as opposition from the communists, several other groups – Buddhists, nationalists, religious sects, and intellectuals – coalesced under the broad banner of the National Liberation Front (NLF) in 1960. Although it was dismissed as a communist front by the US, who referred to it as the Viet Cong communist party, it illustrated the range of groups who refused to accept Diem as leader. As infiltration from the north continued apace, non-violent protests also increased in frequency. The critical moment came on 8 May 1963 when ARVN troops attacked demonstrators in Hue, killing nine monks. One month later, on 11 June, a Buddhist monk, Thich Quang set himself on fire in Saigon; the self-immolation was captured on film and broadcast around the world. The response of the regime was as predictable as it was callous. Ngo Dinh Nhu’s wife, Mme. Nhu described the scene as a barbeque in a television interview, and on 21 August, Diem used Special Forces to impose martial law and attack pagodas, the Buddist places of worship, throughout the country.
A day after the attacks, Henry Cabot Lodge arrived in Saigon as US Ambassador to Vietnam. He was quickly informed by ARVN officers of an impending coup against Diem and his family. While US pressure forced the officers to postpone their plan, President Kennedy’s criticism of Diem in his interview with Walter Cronkite on 2 September made it clear that the US was unlikely to support Diem’s authoritarian strategy in the long term.
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