Ngo Dinh Diem (shown right) was a Catholic, unlike the majority of the Vietnamese. He was educated by the French, worked for them as an administrator, and at the age of 25, became a provincial governer. Dinh Diem spent some of the French Indo-China War, between 1946 and 1954, in the United States meeting influential Americans and convincing them that he should be a future leader of the South. His efforts were so effective that the USA nominated him as South Vietnamese President at Geneva in 1954. If the Americans backed Dinh Diem because they thought that they could control him, they were mistaken. He often ignored their advice - but they kept up their support because there was no alternative.
In October, 1955, Dinh Diem was elected president of South Vietnam in elections that were vioent and hardly fair. Shortly afterwards, he made a grave error. Having received a reminder from the North that under the Geneva Agreement, a general election for the whole of Vietnam was duie in July 1956, he refused to accept the elections. As many as 100,000 people from a variety of political and religious groups protested, and they were imprisoned or killed. The Americans now found themselves supporting a president who was becoming increasingly unpopular with the people in a situation where violence was escalating.
Throughout Vietnam, communist supporters of Ho Chi Minh and many others were horrified at the refusal of Dinh Diem to hold a general election. Some resorted to a violent terror campaign and in 1959, 1,200 government officials were murdered. Ho Chi Minh disliked this approach, and in 1960 brought all the different groups together as the 'National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam', the NLF, or 'Vietcong' as the Americans called it. Their aim was to remove the Diem government by any means, including violence, and replace it with a government representing all the people of Vietnam. Just as important was their promise to the peasants that they would give them land. This promise made it certain that, from now on, most of the peasants would support the Vietcong in the war which was about to begin. Thus, in 1960, the battle lines were being drawn up. The NLF or Vietcong, the Chinese and, if necessary, Russian support, were preparing to fight a war against the Diem government in the South, backed by the Americans.
John F. Kennedy, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. John was educated at Choate School, Harvard University and the London School of economics. He entered politics when th war ended and sat as a Democratic Congressman
from 1946. In 1952, he was elected senator for Massachusetts. In January 1961, he became the first Roman Catholic president in America's history, and at the age of 43, the youngest. He began his presidency with high ideals and the promise of a 'new
frontier' for the American people - civil rights and a better life at home and more opportunities to serve underdeveloped countries abroad. He was a strong believer in the 'Truman Doctrine' (which President Harry Truman had set out in 1947 stating what
the United States should do to stop communism spreading. It also stated that Americans must help any country fighting communism by sending them money and weapons and, if necessary, soldiers to fight with them) and the 'Domino Theory' (which was closely
connected to the Truman Doctrine, which stated that if communism took over one particular country then those nearest to it were immediately at risk, and likely to fall next). According to President J. F. Kennedy, the USA would be willing to 'pay any price,
bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty'.
Consequently, Kennedy was happy to continue American involvement in Vietnam and to increase it if victory was a possibility. In 1961, he sent money to the South Vietnamese to increase their army from 150,000 to 170,000 soldiers, plus
another 100 advisers to train them. This decision was kept from the American public because it broke the Geneva Agreement.
On November 22nd 1963, in Dallas, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy assasinated.