The Global War 1955-1963: Conflict in Asia - Kennedy's Policies Towards Indo-China and Die's Assassination Flashcards
Outline the main events in Kennedy’s policies towards Indochina and
Die’s assassination
• 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
• lune 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 Die 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
What did Kennedy think of the situation in Vietnam?
• 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
When did Kennedy express his belief that South Vietnam should remain a non-communist democracy?
• 1956
- Before his presidency
What strategies did Kennedy adopt in
Vietnam?
• 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
Report
• 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
• Kennedv’s response
• Committed to counterinsurgency rather than sending ground troops
• Saw value of strengthening Vietnamese Army
When was a report made assessing the situation in Vietnam? Who made the report? How many US ground troops were recommended to be sent?
• November 1961
• General Taylor
• Walt Roscow
• Up to 10,000 US ground troops
The Strategic Hamlet Program
• 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
By what point had over four million people been placed in strategic hamlets?
• By September 1962
How many hamlets were there by the end of
1962?
• Over 3000
The Buddhist Crisis
• 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
When was the Buddhist Crisis?
• 1963
What position did Diem help his brother gain?
• Diem helped his brother, Ngo Dinh Thuc, become Archbishop of Hue
When and where did the Buddhist Crisis begin?
• In Hue in May 1963
Who was the anti-Diem leader of the
Buddhist Crisis?
•Tri Quang
How many people were killed when the military prevented
Buddhists from hearing a speech from Tri Quang?
•9 people
Which Buddhist monk publicly lit themselves on fire? When and where did this happen?
•Quang Doc
•June 1963
• Lit himself in Saigon
What did Madam Nhu say in response to Diem’s lack of reforms after the Buddhist Crisis?
•’Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands.’
The assassination of President Diem
• 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 initiated it
When did Kennedy receive a message expressing belief that situation in Vietnam could be resolved with Diem in power? Who wrote this message?
•August 1963
- Lodge
When did Nhu organise a renewed assault on
Buddhists?
•August 1963
When was a coup launched and when were
Diem and Nhu assassinated?
• On 1 November 1963, coup was launched
- On 2 November 1963, Diem and Nhu were assassinated
