6 America's Mandarin
Ngo Dinh Diem in a characteristic meditative pose in his palace irl Saigon. Aloof and
austere, he mingled poorly with people, preferring instead to isolate himself with his
family and close aides.
In June 1954, when Diem
returned to Vietnam as
prime minister, he was
met at the Saigon airport
by only a handfitl of
enthusiasts, most of them
Catholics like himself.
Though a veteran
nationalist, he was a
virtually unknown figure.
Nearly a million refitgees,
a large proportion of them
Catholic, fleeing from
northern Vietnam in late
1954 as the Communists
prepared their takeover. In
many instances, as here,
the evacuation was han-
dled by the U.S. navy.
Not long after his return to Vietnam as prime minister, Ngo Dinh Diem organized a
referendum to oust Emperor Bao Dai. Diem received almost all the votes, the result of
electoral devices contrived by his American advisers.
Ngo Dinh Diem consolidated his power by defeating the Binh Xuyen, a private gang
supported by the French. Diem's forces clashed with the Binh Xuyen in the streets of
Saigon, devastating the city.
Ngo Dinh Diem owed his
political survival largely to
Colonel Edward Lansdale
(near left), an air force
officer attached to the
CIA. Lansdale, a former
San Francisco advertising
man, was portrayed as
Colonel Hillendale in the
1965 best-seller The
Ugly American.
Ngo Dinh Diem posing
with his immediate family.
Behind him stands his
brother and chief adviser,
Ngo Dinh Nhu; the
woman in the center is
Madame Nhu, his
powerjUl sister-in-law.
The most influential
figure, however, is
Archbishop Thuc, the
oldest brother.
A meeting of the Lao
Dong in 1961, as the
North Vietnamese
Workers party called itself.
By the 1960s, the North
Vietnamese had decided to
step up the insurgency
against the Diem regime
in Saigon.
A peasant woman mourns
her husband, murdered by
Vietcong terrorists in the
Mekong delta. He was
selected for assassination
because he had informed
on the Vietcong, whose
terrorists tended to be
selective in eliminating
Saigon government
officials and sympathizers.
Nguyen Huu Tho (be-
low), head of the National
Liberation Front, as the
Vietcong was officially
called. The movement was
formed in 1960 on direc-
tives from Hanoi.
orNgo Dinh Diem on one
his early trips into the
South Vietnamese
cOl/ntryside. Despite his
cheerful expression, Diem
disliked such expeditions,
/I,hich were urged on him
"y his American advisers,
/I,ho thought he lacked the
"common touch."
Ngo Dinh Diem waves to
" New York City lunch-
lilll(' crowd as a parade in
"is IUlllor proceeds up
/lroadway in May 1957.
I 'rry few Americans could
1,"11'(' then found Vietllatr/
"11 a lIIap.
Soon after consolidating its power in Saigon, the Diem regime embarked on a massive
campaign to liquidate the remaining Vietminh elements in South Vietnam. Many were
imprisoned in re-education camps, as seen here. By 1958, almost all the residual insur-
gents had been wiped out.
Not long after establishing their government in North Vietnam, the Vietnamese Com-
mlmists launched a brutal land reform program in which thousands of landlords were
executed. Ho Chi Minh later apologized for the excesses of the episode. Here
"Nguyen Van Dinh, poor peasant," as his sign identifies him, attends a land reform
meeting with his family.