Originally Posted by Imperator

Winning in terms of the rural pop. the viet cong started out as usual promising better gov. more organization better conditions etc...and early on they had that sppt. which told Diem that he had didn't have chance against that agitation to keep the county outside the Ho governmental sphere and consequently lose his power as well.

As time progressed, the hearts and minds battle took a turn, effective south gov. sppt. the tender mercies of the form of Northern gov. being displayed by forced induction into cong militias, confiscation of crops etc. etc. took hold and took its toal, not unlike AQ's loss of public sppt. in Iraq. The more northerners that came down as advisors convinced the rural viet. in the south that they maybe be trading one form of subservience for another.

The fact that Diem opted to not allow unification can be summarily seen as the vote came relatively quickly as after Bo Dai went down in 45, then the machinations of the soviets and even more so the Chinese etc. into 54. At the time, many saw Ho as a hero as he had defeated the French. 75% of the pop. probably would have voted for unification there fore Ho’s form of gov.


Dulles died 3 years before Lodge got to Vietnam. Lodge got there in early 63....he was convinced Diem wasn’t “ the guy”, and worked hard against him and was complicit against Kennedy’s orders in supporting the coup by back door sppt.