The Global War 1955–1963: Conflict in Asia - Kennedy's Policies Towards Indo-China and Diem's Assassination

Question 1

Outline the main events in Kennedy’s policies towards Indochina and Diem’s assassination

Answer 1

• 1956
- Kennedy expresses he wants a non-communist Vietnam to ensure democracy for whole of Asia

• November 1961
- General Taylor and Walt Roscow sent to Vietnam to assess situation and create report

• March 1962
- Strategic Hamlet Program begins

• By September 1962
- Regime claimed that over 4 million people were in strategic hamlets

• End of 1962
- There were over 3000 hamlets

• 1963
- Roger Hilsman sent a telegram to Henry Cabot Lodge encouraging him to explore alternative leadership in South Vietnam

• May 1963
- Buddhists were banned from flying flags in honour of Buddha’s birthday, while Catholics, the previous week, were encouraged to fly Papal flags celebrating Thuc

• June 1963
- Elderly monk, Quang Doc, publicly burned himself in Saigon

• August 1963

• Lodge sent Kennedy a message agreeing that the conflict in Vietnam could be resolved satisfactorily while Diem remained in office
• Nhu organises renewed assault on Buddhists

• 1963
- Taylor and McNamara recommend significant reductions in US support to put pressure on Diem

• 1 November 1963
- South Vietnamese rebel generals activated a military coup against Diem and his regime

• 2 November 1963
- Diem and Nhu were assassinated

• 1964
- Strategic Hamlet Program collapses

Question 2

What did Kennedy think of the situation in Vietnam?

Answer 2

• 1956
• Wanted to ensure South Vietnam remained a non-communist democracy to secure democratic future of Southeast Asia as a whole
• Committed to containment and believed in the domino theory

Question 3

When did Kennedy express his belief that South Vietnam should remain a non-communist democracy?

Answer 3

• 1956

- Before his presidency

Question 4

What strategies did Kennedy adopt in Vietnam?

Answer 4

• Flexible response

• Improving US’ non-nuclear capabilities
• To reduce threat of nuclear war
• To protect US from wider-ranging threats e.g insurgency and subversion

• Counterinsurgency

• Tactics used to defeat guerrilla or unconventional warfare; they focus on intelligence gathering, targeting individual leaders, and methods aimed at infiltrating the enemy rather than confronting it head-on
• Guerilla tactics couldn’t be counteracted with nuclear weapons

Question 5

Report

Answer 5

• November 1961
• General Taylor and Walt Roscow sent to Vietnam to assess situation

• They made a report, recommending:

• An increase in the helicopter force in order to facilitate counterinsurgency actions
• Greater training support for the South Vietnamese Army
• Some strategic bombing of North Vietnam
• Send up to 10,000 US ground troops

• Kennedy’s response

• Committed to counterinsurgency rather than sending ground troops
• Saw value of strengthening Vietnamese Army

Question 6

When was a report made assessing the situation in Vietnam? Who made the report? How many US ground troops were recommended to be sent?

Answer 6

• November 1961
• General Taylor
• Walt Roscow
• Up to 10,000 US ground troops

Question 7

The Strategic Hamlet Program

Answer 7

• Introduced in March 1962
• Officially ended in 1964

• Aims

• To create armed enclosures to house South Vietnamese rural peasants
• To isolate peasants from NLF

• Effects

• By September 1962, regime claimed that over 4 million people were in strategic hamlets
• By end of 1962, there were over 3000 hamlets
• Often led to increased recruitment of peasants into NLF
• Corrupt officials took money meant for medical aid and agricultural improvements, alienating peasants
• Peasants forcibly relocated from ancestral land
• Programme soon collapsed and officially ended in 1964

Question 8

By what point had over four million people been placed in strategic hamlets?

Answer 8

• By September 1962

Question 9

How many hamlets were there by the end of 1962?

Answer 9

• Over 3000

Question 10

The Buddhist Crisis

Answer 10

• 1963

• Diem’s favour for Catholicism

• Diem was Catholic
• His brother, Ngo Dinh Thuc, became Archbishop of Hue after Diem lobbied the Vatican
• In May 1963, Buddhists were banned from flying flags in honour of Buddha’s birthday, while Catholics, the previous week, were encouraged to fly Papal flags celebrating Thuc

• Buddhist Crisis

• Military prevented Buddhists from hearing a speech by Buddhist anti-Diem leader, Tri Quang
• 9 people killed as result
• Buddhists protested across the country: hunger strikes, mass rallies, engaging with foreign press (especially US press)
• Quang secretly met with US officials in Saigon and urged them to put pressure on Diem to make reforms or to remove him from power
• In June 1963, elderly monk, Quang Doc, publicly burned himself in Saigon
• Madam Nhu commented, ‘Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands.’
• In August 1963, Nhu organises renewed assault on Buddhists

Question 11

When was the Buddhist Crisis?

Answer 11

• 1963

Question 12

What position did Diem help his brother gain?

Answer 12

• Diem helped his brother, Ngo Dinh Thuc, become Archbishop of Hue

Question 13

When and where did the Buddhist Crisis begin?

Answer 13

• In Hue in May 1963

Question 14

Who was the anti-Diem leader of the Buddhist Crisis?

Answer 14

• Tri Quang

Question 15

How many people were killed when the military prevented Buddhists from hearing a speech from Tri Quang?

Answer 15

• 9 people

Question 16

Which Buddhist monk publicly lit themselves on fire? When and where did this happen?

Answer 16

• Quang Doc
• June 1963
• Lit himself in Saigon

Question 17

What did Madam Nhu say in response to Diem’s lack of reforms after the Buddhist Crisis?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

The assassination of President Diem

Answer 18

• US wants change in leadership

• Roger Hilsman sent a telegram to Henry Cabot Lodge, the recently appointed US ambassador to South Vietnam
• Hilsman emphasised that Lodge should explore alternative leadership in South Vietnam and start planning for a replacement leader
• Kennedy approved this message
• In August 1963, Lodge sent Kennedy a message agreeing that the conflict in Vietnam could be resolved satisfactorily while Diem remained in office
• Kennedy concerned over being involved in removal of a sovereign state’s elected leader

• Attempts to sway Diem

• Diem not willing to stop repressing his people or to tame Nhu
• In August 1963, Nhu organised a renewed assault on the Buddhists
• Taylor and McNamara recommend significant reductions in US support to put pressure on Diem
• This encouraged South Vietnamese officials to plan a coup against Diem

• Assassination

• On 1 November 1963, South Vietnamese rebel generals activated a military coup against Diem and his regime
• On 2 November 1963, Diem and Nhu were assassinated
• US unable to manage coup but inititated it

Question 19

When did Kennedy receive a message expressing belief that situation in Vietnam could be resolved with Diem in power? Who wrote this message?

Answer 19

• August 1963

- Lodge

Question 20

When did Nhu organise a renewed assault on Buddhists?

Answer 20

• August 1963

Question 21

When was a coup launched and when were Diem and Nhu assassinated?

Answer 21

• On 1 November 1963, coup was launched

- On 2 November 1963, Diem and Nhu were assassinated