Transcript South Vietnam - St. Roch's Secondary School

South Vietnam
Diem Regime
Emperor Boa Dai
Playboy lifestyle
Had 5 wives and a lot
of mistresses
Prime Minister
Ngo Dinh Diem removed
Emperor using a
referendum widely thought
to be fraudulent
Ngo Dinh Diem
• Referendum was rigged, with Diem gaining
98% of the vote.
• Diem’s rule was authoritarian and
nepotistic (favouring his family)
• Ngo Dinh Nhi was his brother and trusted
official.
• He was an opium addict and admired Hitler.
• Secret Police was styled on the Gestapo
Family Corruption
• Widely believed to be involved in
smuggling rice to North Vietnam and
Opium throughout Asia.
Madame Nhu
• Vietnams first lady, Dragon Lady of
Vietnam
• Enjoyed power, “Power is wonderful, total
power is totally wonderful”
• Catholic values formed the policy
• Brothels, opium dens closed, divorce and
abortion illegal and adultery laws
strengthened.
Religious Sects
• Under the Diem
Regime the Hoa Hao
and Cao Dai Sects
were crushed
• Discrimination
• Ban on flying the
Buddhist Flag
Protests against the Government
• Quang Duc, 73 year
old monk
• Protesting the antiBuddhist policies
• Madame Nhu hoped
for more “barbecues”
• Ngo Dinh Nhi
“offered to supply the
gasoline”
Anti-Communist
• Tortures and killings of
"communist suspects"
were committed on a daily
basis
• The death toll was put at
around 50,000 with
75,000 imprisonments,
and Diệm's effort
extended beyond
communists to anticommunist dissidents and
anti-corruption
whistleblowers