Conflict in Asia 1955-63

Question 1

When did Diem refuse to hold elections to reunify Vietnam?

Answer 1

August 1955

Question 2

What was the impact of Diem refusing to hold elections?

Answer 2

Ho Chi Minh to concentrate on consolidating communist control in North Vietnam.
Focusing on Land reform by redistributing land among the rural farming population and implementing agricultural reform.

Question 3

When did the North decide to use revolutionary violence to overthrow Diem and reunite Vietnam?

Answer 3

January 1959

Question 4

When does Kennedy replace Eisenhower as US president

Answer 4

January 1961

Question 5

When is the Strategic Hamlet Program introduced?

Answer 5

March 1962

Question 6

When did a buddhist monk burn himself to death in protest?

Answer 6

June 1963

Question 7

When was Diem assassinated?

Answer 7

November 1963

Question 8

What was Diem like as a leader?

Answer 8

-corrupt and nepotistic
-Catholic
-his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu served as prime minister
-large amounts of US economic aid designed for agricultural improvements was taken by Diem and his family.
-his primary interest was preservation of his own power
-resistance towards his regime grew

Question 9

What was the National Liberation Front? (NLF)

Answer 9

A political group formed in the South in 1960 by North Vietnamese leadership. With it’s purpose being to free South Vietnam from US imperialism and create a unified Vietnamese state. It was a way of getting around Geneva conference agreements which had forbidden the North from placing forces into the South.

Question 10

Why did the NLF emerge? What role did Diem play in this?

Answer 10

Diem had largely ignored the interests of of the majority of the population, particularly the rural peasantry.

It focused on promotion of nationalism and the reunification of Vietnam and the ‘imperialist’ Diem and his regime served as a barrier to these objectives

Question 11

What was the Ho Chi Minh Trail?

Answer 11

a supply route into the South for equipment and personnel to support the NLF

Question 12

What were Kennedy’s policies towards Indochina?

Answer 12

-Committed to containment based on domino theory
-flexible response
-counterinsurgency measures

Question 13

What was flexible response?

Answer 13

The expansion of US non-nuclear capabilities as this would reduce the threat of a nuclear war and enable the USA to react to a wider range of threats

Question 14

What did Kennedy send General Maxwell Taylor to do in 1961?

Answer 14

Assess the situation in Vietnam

Question 15

What did General Taylors 1961 report on Vietnam conclude?

Answer 15

1) an increase in helicopters for counterinsurgency
2) greater training support for the South Vietnamese Army
3) an increase in the numbers of US combat forces (up to 10,000 ground troops)
4) some strategic bombing of North Vietnam

Question 16

How did Kennedy react to the 1961 report?

Answer 16

Kennedy chose to adapt a compromise. Deciding to ignore the 10,000 troops recommendation, but did see the validity of strengthening the South Vietnamese Army.

Question 17

What was the aim of the Strategic Hamlet Program 1962?

Answer 17

it aimed to create armed stockades, which would house South Vietnamese rural peasants in the hope that it would isolate people from the Vietcong.

Question 18

Why was the Strategic Hamlet Program unsuccessful

Answer 18

• For Diem and Nhu it was a way of spreading their influence rather than encouraging peasants to challenge the Vietcong
• Not well planned and little incentives to get people to move
• often led to improved recruitment of the peasants into the Vietcong- Vietcong agents would get into hamlets

Question 19

Why did the Buddhist crisis emerge?

Answer 19

Buddhists were banned from flying their flags in honour of the Buddha’s birthday whilst Catholics had been encouraged to display Papal flags the week before. Tri Quang was prevented from giving speeches

Question 20

How did the Buddhist crisis escalate?

Answer 20

-Protests multiplied and became more coordinated.
-Protesters engaged with the foreign press, especially the US
-Tri Quang secretly met with US officials and warned that they put greater pressure on Diem to carry out reforms or remove him

Question 21

What was Madam Nhu’s comment on the Buddhist crisis?

Answer 21

‘Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands’

Question 22

How was Diem removed from leadership?

Answer 22

There were significant reductions in American support for his regime. Encouraging generals in South Vietnam to plan a coup against Diem November 1963.

Question 23

Were the US involved in the coup?

Answer 23

Potentially encouraged or carried out by the Kennedy administration- Lodge acknowledged that without the USA it could not have been initiated.

Question 24

Why was there conflict in Asia?

Answer 24

1) Diem’s failures
2) USA and containment
3) Ho Chi Minh’s leadership
4) the NLF
5) Kennedy’s flexible response strategy
6) US support for Diem’s ailing regime