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

Question 1

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

• 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

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
• Kennedv’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 initiated 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