Ngo Dinh Diem (3 January 1901-2 November 1963) was the President of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963, preceding Duong Van Minh. Ngo Dinh Diem was the first leader of South Vietnam, and led the anti-communist forces in the Vietnam War. Ngo Dinh Diem was an unpopular leader due to the corruption of his government and his persecution of Buddhists.
Biography[]
Ngo Dinh Diem was born on 3 January 1901 in Quang Binh, French Indochina (present-day Vietnam) to a Roman Catholic family. He joined the civil service and helped to round up communist agitators for the French authorities in Indochina. During World War II and the following Vietnamese War of Independence, Ngo Dinh Diem was exiled and he headed to seminaries in Lakewood, New Jersey and Ossining, New York in the United States to seek asylum. In 1955 he was appointed as the head of the democratic South Vietnam while the communist Ho Chi Minh became the leader of the Marxist-Leninist North Vietnam. Ngo Dinh Diem's Christianity alienated the mainly-Buddhist population of South Vietnam and he oppressed them with several laws, and was responsible for massacring many of them at their temples. In protest to Diem's actions, the Buddhist monks would kneel down on a prayer mat and set themselves on fire, killing themselves in protest to attract international attention to Diem's cruelty.
In 1957, the communist Viet Cong rose up against his rule and in September 1959 North Vietnam began to support the Viet Cong with supplies and an invasion of the Kingdom of Laos. Diem's government fought against the Viet Cong with aid from advisors from the United States, and in 1960 and 1962 there were two assassination attempts against him from his rivals.
Death[]
Ngo Dinh Diem's corrupt rule and inactivity in commanding the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) during the Vietnam War led to the CIA of the United States plotting a coup against him. He attempted to escape Saigon from underneath the city, but he was captured and held in an M113 armored personnel carrier. Diem and his brother were shot in the back of the APC, and the USA succeeded in its goal. However, Ho Chi Minh criticized the foolish American decision rightly, saying that the death of the strong anti-communist man weakened them. In fact, many coups occurred after his death and South Vietnam remained unstable.