[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.To ratchetup the anxiety already produced by Cold War indoctrination the domino theory was formulated, claiming that if Indochina fell then 192 WAR AND EMPIREall of southern Asia would topple into the hands of communists.Revelations later showed that even the CIA did not believe thisassertion but it served to frighten the public.44France defeated: The US steps into the breachIt is often believed that, as in Korea, the US intervened in an ongoingcivil war.In fact, after France s defeat the US created the civil war.The minority of Vietnamese who took the side of France, and thenthe US, did so primarily because their collaboration with foreignersbenefited them, and they feared the loss of special privileges under acommunist regime.Ultimately most lost everything.Had the GenevaAccords been followed there would have been no war, and also nocasualty list numbering in the millions.The Geneva mandated elections were perverted when the USmoved to make the division of Vietnam permanent by handpickingNgo Dinh Diem to be president of South Vietnam and held riggedelections in which the only candidate claimed to win by 98 per centof the vote.Diem had lived in Washington for years, was largelyunknown to southern Vietnamese and was Catholic, unlike mostVietnamese.To provide the political base Diem did not possess,the CIA stirred rumors in the North of a coming persecution ofCatholics by the communists.The agency then aided a boatlift ofnearly 1 million northern Vietnamese Catholics to the south to settlearound Saigon where they received privileged status and came intoconflict with local Buddhists.In immediate response to the imposition of what they consideredanother foreign puppet regime, communist leaders urged popularrebellion.Viet Minh who had gone north when the Geneva Accordstemporarily divided Vietnam, had by now returned to their ancestralsouthern villages en masse and established the National Front forthe Liberation of Vietnam (NLF) basing this in the pre-existingvillage organization that had undone the French.One reason the Viet Minh had won popular support was thefact that they had expropriated landlords and redistributed land topeasants.The Diem regime confiscated these lands and gave themback to landlords who had largely sided with the French.Diemconscripted villagers into a new Army of the Republic of Vietnam(ARVN) and attempted to repress the rebellion of the very peoplehis government claimed to represent democratically.When villagerscontinued to aid the NLF he imprisoned them in strategic hamlets ,guarded compounds where individuals were monitored closely.TheNLF, whom Diem derisively called the Viet Cong , mounted a fierce COLD WAR/HOT WAR: SAVAGE WARS OF PEACE? 193resistance despite the advantages the ARVN possessed in terms ofadvanced weapons and American special forces who trained themand accompanied them on operations.Diem, in turn, stepped uphis repression, jailing all dissidents, most of whom were Buddhists,and was soon seen in Washington as a liability, since his rule couldno longer be construed as democratic.In early October 1963, onlyweeks before his own assassination, President John F.Kennedyapproved a coup by Diem s own generals in which Diem and hisbrother were murdered.They were shortly replaced by a series ofmilitary dictatorships, each of which Washington tried to portrayas representing South Vietnamese democracy.In fact popularrevolution led by the NLF intensified against the perceived puppetregime.Despite every conceivable military advantage the ARVNenjoyed in weapons provided by the US the South Vietnamesegovernment was about to fall to the people it falsely claimed torepresent.To prevent this Washington employed a pretext to insertAmerican armed forces.No change in personnel could alter the fact that the governmentof South Vietnam was a creation of foreigners that was clearlydesigned to thwart Vietnamese independence and was opposed bythe majority of the people it claimed to rule.Although PresidentLyndon Johnson and his advisers claimed the southern insurgencywas orchestrated in Hanoi, all intelligence agencies agreed that itwas overwhelmingly indigenous [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.To ratchetup the anxiety already produced by Cold War indoctrination the domino theory was formulated, claiming that if Indochina fell then 192 WAR AND EMPIREall of southern Asia would topple into the hands of communists.Revelations later showed that even the CIA did not believe thisassertion but it served to frighten the public.44France defeated: The US steps into the breachIt is often believed that, as in Korea, the US intervened in an ongoingcivil war.In fact, after France s defeat the US created the civil war.The minority of Vietnamese who took the side of France, and thenthe US, did so primarily because their collaboration with foreignersbenefited them, and they feared the loss of special privileges under acommunist regime.Ultimately most lost everything.Had the GenevaAccords been followed there would have been no war, and also nocasualty list numbering in the millions.The Geneva mandated elections were perverted when the USmoved to make the division of Vietnam permanent by handpickingNgo Dinh Diem to be president of South Vietnam and held riggedelections in which the only candidate claimed to win by 98 per centof the vote.Diem had lived in Washington for years, was largelyunknown to southern Vietnamese and was Catholic, unlike mostVietnamese.To provide the political base Diem did not possess,the CIA stirred rumors in the North of a coming persecution ofCatholics by the communists.The agency then aided a boatlift ofnearly 1 million northern Vietnamese Catholics to the south to settlearound Saigon where they received privileged status and came intoconflict with local Buddhists.In immediate response to the imposition of what they consideredanother foreign puppet regime, communist leaders urged popularrebellion.Viet Minh who had gone north when the Geneva Accordstemporarily divided Vietnam, had by now returned to their ancestralsouthern villages en masse and established the National Front forthe Liberation of Vietnam (NLF) basing this in the pre-existingvillage organization that had undone the French.One reason the Viet Minh had won popular support was thefact that they had expropriated landlords and redistributed land topeasants.The Diem regime confiscated these lands and gave themback to landlords who had largely sided with the French.Diemconscripted villagers into a new Army of the Republic of Vietnam(ARVN) and attempted to repress the rebellion of the very peoplehis government claimed to represent democratically.When villagerscontinued to aid the NLF he imprisoned them in strategic hamlets ,guarded compounds where individuals were monitored closely.TheNLF, whom Diem derisively called the Viet Cong , mounted a fierce COLD WAR/HOT WAR: SAVAGE WARS OF PEACE? 193resistance despite the advantages the ARVN possessed in terms ofadvanced weapons and American special forces who trained themand accompanied them on operations.Diem, in turn, stepped uphis repression, jailing all dissidents, most of whom were Buddhists,and was soon seen in Washington as a liability, since his rule couldno longer be construed as democratic.In early October 1963, onlyweeks before his own assassination, President John F.Kennedyapproved a coup by Diem s own generals in which Diem and hisbrother were murdered.They were shortly replaced by a series ofmilitary dictatorships, each of which Washington tried to portrayas representing South Vietnamese democracy.In fact popularrevolution led by the NLF intensified against the perceived puppetregime.Despite every conceivable military advantage the ARVNenjoyed in weapons provided by the US the South Vietnamesegovernment was about to fall to the people it falsely claimed torepresent.To prevent this Washington employed a pretext to insertAmerican armed forces.No change in personnel could alter the fact that the governmentof South Vietnam was a creation of foreigners that was clearlydesigned to thwart Vietnamese independence and was opposed bythe majority of the people it claimed to rule.Although PresidentLyndon Johnson and his advisers claimed the southern insurgencywas orchestrated in Hanoi, all intelligence agencies agreed that itwas overwhelmingly indigenous [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]