The partition of Vietnam in 1955 did nothing to heal the wounds of the previous decade of fighting.  Ho Chi Minh was not satisfied to see his country divided.  In 1956, Communist insurgents began a guerilla campaign in the South, assasinating over 400 South Vietnamese officials.  The Communists also organized 37 armed companies in the far south, within the Mekong Delta.  Meanwhile, the US supplied military advisors, The U.S. Military Assistance Advisor Group (MAAG) to take over training of South Vietnamese armed forces.

In 1959, the North Vietnamese organized Group 559 to infiltrate forces into the south along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which ran through the neighboring neutral countries of Laos and Cambodia.  In Hanoi, capital of North Vietnam, the Communist government announced in 1960 the formation of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam.  President Diem dubbed the group "Vietcong."

This same year, Americans elected John F. Kennedy president of the United States.  In his January 1961 inauguration speech, Kennedy signaled his commitment to the containment policies of his predecessors, assuring the world that Americans would be "ready to bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."  In his term of office, Kennedy tripled U. S. military spending in Vietnam.  However, critics in Congress, led by Senator Mike Mansfield, questioned the "waste" of $2 billion in South Vietnam, based on reports that much of the money had disappeared into the pockets of Diem and his cronies.  In spite of the reports of corruption within the Diem government, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, on a tour of Saigon, assured Diem of continued U. S. support.

Possibly as a result of such reassurance, Diem increased his crackdown against internal dissent within South Vietnam.  Buddhist students led the protests against the Catholic Diem, who responded by removing Buddhists from several key positions within the government.  With other avenues of protest denied them, `Buddhist monks took extreme measures to mark their displeasure with the corruption and intolerance of the Diem regime:  they set themselves on fire.

Amidst growing turmoil both within and without the Diem regime, the United States faced a dilemma as to how it should handle the increasing unpopularity of Diem.  Word reached U. S. operatives of a military coup planned against Diem.  The CIA reported the plot and the U. S. Ambassador, Melvin Laird, asked Washington if the U. S. should intervene to stop the coup.  Although the plot could not have gone forward without U. S. approval, the American government remained silent--in effect, giving its "tacit approval" to the overthrow of Diem.  In early November, planes and tanks moved against the presidential palace in Saigon.  Diem managed to escape in an armored personnel carrier, along with his brother-in-law, Ngo Dinh Nhu, head of the secret police.  From the APC Diem frantically radioed the U. S. embassy for help.  No help was forthcoming, and shortly thereafter opposing forces located and murdered Diem and his hated brother-in-law.

Ironically, three weeks after the assasination of Diem, Kennedy himself was assasinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

Sources:

Vietnam Who's Who

Vietnam Timeline

Vietnam Online

U. S. Policies in the Vietnam War



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