Transcript Review: The Viet Cong

Review: The Viet Cong
Communists of South Vietnam
• Diem’s regime horrified many
Vietnamese and Communists in the
South fed on this
• Despite (in spite of?) Diem’s ruthless
anti-communist crackdown, a communist
movement emerged
• This movement strongly threatened the
South Vietnam ‘domino’
Read the resource on page 40.
Contact with the North
• Communists who weren’t arrested or killed by
Diem had contact with the Communist Party in
North Vietnam
• Fighters, weapons and supplies moved along
jungle trails from the North:
the Ho Chi Minh trail
Look at the map of the trail on page 43. What
does the trail tell you about the communists?
Viet Cong & the North
• VC was directed by Viet Minh in the
North
Read Ho Chi Minh’s quote on page 38.
• VC launched a guerilla war against Diem
and his supporters and a social
revolution (sometimes using propaganda,
persuasion, and terror)
Why were they fighting?
• Reunification of Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh calls struggle against ‘US
imperialism’ and its puppet (Diem) a
“sacred duty”
• They wanted the support of the people
of South Vietnam
Who fought for the VC?
• While many were communists, most were
villagers who were angry at landlords, taxgatherers, and Diem’s government
Read the quote on page 39.
• By 1961, it was estimated that the VC
controlled 80% of the countryside and had
19,000 troops
Who did they fight?
• The VC fought the South Vietnamese
Army (ARVN)
• In 1961, 600 US soldiers began arriving
as ‘advisors’ to the ARVN
• The US describes them as ‘outside
agitators,’ ‘killers and looters’ who used
terror to manipulate the people
How did they fight?
• The VC built tunnels throughout the
jungle
Look at last lesson’s handout and Resource
B on page 41. With a partner, discuss
the questions.
Some of these tunnels still exist…
Terrorists or Liberators?
• Many peasants saw the NLF as liberators
because:
• They redistributed land amongst the peasants
(the landlords fled to the cities)
• They established hospitals and schools
If you were a Vietnamese peasant, how would
you view the VC coming in to your village?
The Decline & Fall of Diem
• His regime was destined to end in
violence…
• His own military rebelled in 1960
(though this was quashed)
• Diem stopped trusting the Americans
when he found out that they knew about
the rebellion
• When they asked for democracy, he
said it was a “Western disease”
…but they needed each other….
• US & Diem: ‘love-hate’ relationship
• Dec 1961: John F Kennedy supplies training,
transport, intelligence, weapons and
equipment to the ARVN
• From 2000 advisors in 1961 to 16,700 at the
end of 1963
• American military almost like a second
government
• US ‘assisting’ SV government, not
‘Americanising’ the war
Strategic hamlets
• Diem makes peasants move from their
villages to live and work in a farm
community protected by a fortification
(stockade)
• Americans call this strategy ‘progress’
and ‘countering subversion’
• This converts peasants into VV
sympathisers though…
Even the Buddhists rebel…
• Resented Diem’s favouritism for
Catholics
• Diem saw them as an association, not a
religion
• In 1963, Diem’s brother bans Buddhist
flags and Buddha’s Birthday festival
• Buddhist monks protest and Diem’s
troops kill 9
• Buddhists had rallies (protests), hunger
strikes, daily news bulletins
• 11 June 1963: elderly monk Quang Duc sets
himself on fire in protest
Read quote on page 44. (Photos)
• Madame Nhu calls them ‘barbequed monks’:
“Let them burn and we shall clap our hands.”
• The Americans are shocked, and
questioning their support for Diem
• On 1 Nov 1963 ARVN generals plot a
coup, and shoot Diem and his brother
Nhu as they flee from the Presidential
Palace
Read quote on page 45.
Summary
• Write 5 key facts you learned in today’s
lesson.
• Rank them 1-5.
• Compare your top 3 with your partner’s
top 3.