Pacifism by Holmes Robert L

Author:Holmes, Robert L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2016-09-05T16:00:00+00:00

8.4 Beginning of the Vietnam War

What came to be known as the Vietnam War was thus basically a continuation of the Indochina War, as later the Iraq War was to be basically a continuation of the Gulf War. The brief pause following the collapse of French colonial rule was soon followed by gradually escalating guerilla warfare against the US-backed regime in Saigon.33 There had, however, been attempts to unseat the Diem government before guerrilla warfare began. Although he ruled at the sufferance of the United States, Diem was not a puppet and frequently resisted US pressures for reform. Repression by the Diem regime soon sparked armed resistance from both Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, noncommunist religious sects, as well as from the Binh-Xuyen, a nondescript organization of criminal elements, who formed A Unified Front of National Forces.34 Civil war broke out on March 31, 1955, with an attack on Diem’s palace. It concluded on June 30, 1955, with the defeat of the sects, an estimated 2,000 of whom joined the Vietcong in the Mekong.35 Bernard Fall wrote that with the March 31 attack: “The final battle for the control of South Viet-Nam, and hence, for all of Viet-Nam south of the 17th parallel, had begun.”36

In addition, South Vietnamese military pilots bombed the Presidential Palace in February of 1962, more than a year and a half prior to Diem’s assassination at the hands of other anticommunist South Vietnamese military. Buddhists, led by the monk Tri Quang, also opposed what they perceived as oppression by the Saigon government. The successful plot by South Vietnamese military to remove Diem was well known, and indeed encouraged by some in the US government, though there was strong disagreement among administration officials as to whether it was advisable. Kennedy, who was himself to be assassinated soon after the November 1, 1963, coup against Diem, was reportedly shocked to learn that Diem had been killed in the coup. In any event, it is worth noting that the initial uprisings against the US-backed Diem regime were not from communists, but from Buddhists, military officers and small religious sects.

It is disputed precisely when the Vietcong, as the Vietminh were now called, began armed hostilities against the Diem regime. They likely began in the late 1950s, possibly as early as 1957, in the Mekong Delta where 45 percent of the South Vietnamese population lived.37 An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 native southerners were reportedly left behind to engage in political organizing when Vietminh troops withdrew to north of the 17th parallel. Others eventually began filtering back to locales in the South from which they came.

The southerners who returned to the South were reportedly at first under strict orders from Hanoi to confine themselves to political organizing and garnering support from the peasants and not to engage in violent hostilities. The expectation was that the country would soon be unified under Ho Chi Minh following the elections mandated by the Geneva Accords. The southerners reportedly became impatient with this restriction in the

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