Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the genesis of the Special Commissariat in a plan developed by
Ngo Dinh Diem and Kieu Cong Cung to garner support for the government in preparation for the 1956 elections mandated by the Geneva Accords and its restructuring in the wake of the former's consolidation of power in late 1955.
Caption: A step in Vietnam's downfall: Dulles and Eisenhower basically forced Bao Dai, the emperor of South Vietnam, to name the unpopular
Ngo dinh Diem to run his government.
A dashing champion of counterinsurgency who helped thwart a rebellion in the Philippines and plotted to oust Fidel Castro, Lansdale was present at the creation of South Vietnam in 1954 as an important adviser to Prime Minister (and later President)
Ngo Dinh Diem. His influence would fade, but not his belief that the struggle for Vietnam had to be won -- and could be, provided American strategists employed the right combination of political and military measures.
South Vietnamese leader
Ngo Dinh Diem was arrested and killed just weeks before Kennedy during a US-backed coup.
Vietnam was separated at the 17th Parallel with the northern half governed by the Viet Minh and headed by Ho Chi Minh, while the remainder to the South becoming the State of Vietnam led by Emperor Bao Dai and Prime Minister
Ngo Dinh Diem.
For yet others, it took hold in 1961 with Kennedy's expansion of military aid to President
Ngo Dinh Diem. Officially, the war began in 1965, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
His mastery of the Vietnamese language and extensive work in both American and Vietnamese archives resulted in path-breaking studies on the
Ngo Dinh Diem regime.
On an historical level, the novel examines the complexities of South Vietnamese history: the assassination of
Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, the self-immolation of the Buddhist monk Venerable Thich Quang Duc as an act of protest against the Diem government's religious oppression, Diem's successors, the Tet Offensive of 1968, the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, the fall of Saigon, and the boat-people experience.
Misalliance:
Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam, by Edward Miller.
Fearing arrest, Sary fled to South Vietnam, where he was welcomed by the
Ngo Dinh Diem regime and the anti-Sihanouk Khmer Serei movement.
"Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President
Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally.
In the mid-50s,
Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic anti-Communist nationalist, "enjoyed the backing of (Democratic) Senators John Kennedy and Mike Mansfield, Cardinal Francis J.