THE COLD WAR 1950 1973
THE VIETNAM WAR
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Diem discriminated against his country’s Buddhist population
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Diem was a nationalist, but was not a very capable administrator.
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Diem dismantled the strategic hamlets, thus uprooting the peasant population
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Diem refused to introduce even limited democratic reforms to help the peasants
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Detailed explanation-1: -Diem, assisted by U.S. military and economic aid, was able to resettle hundreds of thousands of refugees from North Vietnam in the south, but his own Catholicism and the preference he showed for fellow Roman Catholics made him unacceptable to Buddhists, who were an overwhelming majority in South Vietnam.
Detailed explanation-2: -The Buddhists in particular resented the fact that he was trying to limit their freedom of cult and not allowing them to celebrate their festivity or having their ceremonies. The worst was that he used his brother’s “secret police” (basically, thugs) to harass and persecute the Buddhists.
Detailed explanation-3: -Diem was a corrupt leader who refused to give peasants land. He did not like Buddhism and treated the majority Buddhist population badly. As a result, much of South Vietnam’s population was rebelling against him.
Detailed explanation-4: -The Fall of the Diem Regime: Under the highly author-itarian “Mandarin rule” of President Diem the South Vietnamese government became increasingly plagued by corruption, nepotism, and administrative ineptitude. Promised reforms were not carried out and political opposition was ruthlessly suppressed.