Vietnam War

==Transition period==
{{Main|Geneva Conference (1954)|Operation Passage to Freedom|Battle of Saigon (1955)||State of Vietnam referendum, 1955|Land reform in Vietnam|Land reform in North Vietnam|1954 in Vietnam}}
[[File:Gen-commons.jpg|thumb|The [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference]], 1954|left]]

At the [[1954 Geneva Conference]], Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the [[17th parallel north|17th parallel]]. Ho Chi Minh had wished to continue the war in the south, but was restrained by his Chinese allies who convinced him that he could win control by electoral means.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 January 2001 |title=China Contributed Substantially to Vietnam War Victory, Claims Scholar |language=en |work=Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-contributed-substantially-to-vietnam-war-victory-claims-scholar |access-date=20 May 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502013703/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-contributed-substantially-to-vietnam-war-victory-claims-scholar|archive-date=May 2, 2023}}</ref><ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|87–88}} Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, civilians were allowed to move freely between the two provisional states for a 300-day period. Elections throughout the country were to be held in 1956 to establish a unified government.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|88–90}} However, the United States, represented at the conference by Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]], objected to the resolution; Dulles' objection was supported only by the representative of Bảo Đại.<ref name=":7" /> Roughly one million northerners, mainly minority Catholics, fled south, fearing persecution by the Communists.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|96}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Prados |first=John |date=January–February 2005 |title=The Numbers Game: How Many Vietnamese Fled South In 1954? |url=http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060527190340/http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-date=27 May 2006 |access-date=11 May 2017 |publisher=The VVA Veteran}}</ref> This followed an American [[psychological warfare]] campaign, headed by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) under the command of CIA director [[Allen Dulles]], which exaggerated anti-Catholic sentiment among the Viet Minh and distributed propaganda material attributed to Viet Minh threatening an American attack on Hanoi with atomic bombs.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |title=The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War |date=2013 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-5352-8 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=LVb4-1l1gF4C|q=lansdale.+attache|p=194}} 195–196]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Patrick |first=Johnson, David |title=Selling "Operation Passage to Freedom": Dr. Thomas Dooley and the Religious Overtones of Early American Involvement in Vietnam |date=2009 |publisher=University of New Orleans |url=https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/950/ |language=en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409174806/https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1931&context=td|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref><ref name =Hastings/>{{Rp|96–97}} The exodus was coordinated by a U.S.-funded $93&nbsp;million relocation program, which included the use of the [[Seventh Fleet]] to ferry refugees.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murti |first=B.S.N. |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamdivided0000unse |title=Vietnam Divided |date=1964 |publisher=Asian Publishing House |url-access=registration}}</ref> The northern, mainly Catholic refugees gave the later [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] regime a strong anti-communist constituency.<ref name="Karnow">{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997}}</ref>{{Rp|238}} Diệm staffed his government's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

In addition to the Catholics flowing south, over 130,000 "Revolutionary Regroupees" went to the north for "regroupment", expecting to return to the south within two years.<ref name=Kolko/>{{Rp|98}} The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 [[Cadre (politics)|cadres]] in the south as a base for future insurgency.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|104}} The last French soldiers left South Vietnam in April 1956.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|116}} The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time.<ref name=Ang/>{{Rp|14}}

[[File:903aafd6079a3ed1 landing.jpg|thumb|upright|Anti-Bảo Đại, pro-French representatives of the State of Vietnam national assembly, Saigon, 1955]]

Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression. During the land reform, testimony from North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which when extrapolated results in an initial estimate of nearly 100,000 executions nationwide. Because the campaign was concentrated mainly in the Red River Delta area, a lower estimate of 50,000 executions became widely accepted by scholars at the time.<ref name="Turner">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development |date=1975 |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8179-6431-3}}</ref>{{Rp|143}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gittinger |first=J. Price |date=1959 |title=Communist Land Policy in North Viet Nam |journal=Far Eastern Survey |volume=28 |issue=8 |pages=113–126 |doi=10.2307/3024603 |jstor=3024603}}</ref><ref name="Courtois">{{Cite book |last1=Courtois |first1=Stephane |title=The Black Book of Communism |title-link=The Black Book of Communism |last2=Werth |first2=Nicolas |last3=Panne |first3=Jean-Louis |last4=Paczkowski |first4=Andrzej |last5=Bartosek |first5=Karel |last6=Margolin |first6=Jean-Louis |date=1997 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-07608-2 |display-authors=1}}</ref>{{Rp|569}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dommen |first=Arthur J. |title=The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans |date=2001 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-33854-9 |page=340}}</ref> However, declassified documents from the Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate that the number of executions was much lower than reported at the time, although likely greater than 13,500.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vu |first=Tuong |date=25 May 2007 |title=Newly released documents on the land reform |url=http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420044800/http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly%20released%20documents%20on%20the%20land%20reform%20.html |archive-date=20 April 2011 |access-date=15 July 2016 |website=Vietnam Studies Group |quote=There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954–1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954–1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953–1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper Moise (7–9) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however).}}<br />cf. {{Cite journal |last=Szalontai |first=Balazs |date=November 2005 |title=Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=395–426 |doi=10.1080/14682740500284630 |s2cid=153956945}}<br />cf. {{Cite book |last=Vu |first=Tuong |title=Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-48901-0 |page=103 |quote=Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China.{{Nbsp}}... Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign{{Nbsp}}... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.}}</ref> In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and restored a large amount of the land to the original owners.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|99–100}}

The south, meanwhile, constituted the State of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as Emperor and Ngô Đình Diệm (appointed in July 1954) as his prime minister. Neither the United States government nor Ngô Đình Diệm's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. With respect to the question of reunification, the non-communist Vietnamese delegation objected strenuously to any division of Vietnam, but lost out when the French accepted the proposal of Viet Minh delegate [[Phạm Văn Đồng]],<ref name="PP">{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 3 |date=1971 |publisher=Beacon Press}}</ref>{{Rp|134}} who proposed that Vietnam eventually be united by elections under the supervision of "local commissions".<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|119}} The United States countered with what became known as the "American Plan", with the support of South Vietnam and the United Kingdom.<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|140}} It provided for unification elections under the supervision of the United Nations, but was rejected by the Soviet delegation.<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|140}} The United States said, "With respect to the statement made by the representative of the State of Vietnam, the United States reiterates its traditional position that peoples are entitled to determine their own future and that it will not join in any arrangement which would hinder this".<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|570–571}}
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote in 1954:

{{Blockquote|I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly eighty percent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bảo Đại. Indeed, the lack of leadership and drive on the part of Bảo Đại was a factor in the feeling prevalent among Vietnamese that they had nothing to fight for.{{Sfn|Eisenhower|1963|p=[https://archive.org/details/mandateforchange00eise/page/372 372]}}}}

According to the ''Pentagon Papers'', which commented on Eisenhower's observation, Diệm would have been a more popular candidate than Bảo Đại against Hồ, stating that "It is almost certain that by 1956 the proportion which might have voted for Ho - in a free election against Diem - would have been much smaller than eighty percent."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-A-5.pdf |title=Evolution of the War. Origins of the Insurgency |page=6 |date=January 15, 1969|website=National Archives |access-date=October 8, 2023}}</ref> In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the [[International Control Commission]] (ICC) stated that fair, unbiased elections were not possible, with the ICC reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement.<ref>{{Harvnb|Woodruff|2005|p=6}} states: "The elections were not held. South Vietnam, which had not signed the Geneva Accords, did not believe the Communists in North Vietnam would allow a fair election. In January 1957, the International Control Commission (ICC), comprising observers from India, Poland, and Canada, agreed with this perception, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement. With the French gone, a return to the traditional power struggle between north and south had begun again."</ref>

[[File:Ba Cut Trial.jpg|thumb|[[Ba Cut]], commander of the [[Hòa Hảo]] religious movement, in Can Tho Military Court 1956]]

From April to June 1955, Diệm eliminated any political opposition in the south by launching military operations against two religious groups: the [[Cao Đài]] and [[Hòa Hảo]] of [[Ba Cụt]]. The campaign also focused on the [[Bình Xuyên]] [[organized crime]] group, which was allied with members of the communist party secret police and had some military elements. The group was ultimately defeated in April following a [[Battle of Saigon (1955)|battle]] in Saigon. As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diệm increasingly sought to blame the communists.<ref name=Tucker/>

In a [[1955 State of Vietnam referendum|referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam]] on 23 October 1955, Diệm [[electoral fraud|rigged]] the poll supervised by his brother [[Ngô Đình Nhu]] and was credited with 98.2 percent of the vote, including 133% in Saigon. His American advisors had recommended a more "modest" winning margin of "60 to 70 percent." Diệm, however, viewed the election as a test of authority.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|224}} Three days later, he declared South Vietnam to be an independent state under the name Republic of Vietnam (ROV), with himself as president.<ref name=Hastings/> Likewise, Ho Chi Minh and other communist officials always won at least 99% of the vote in North Vietnamese "elections".<ref name=Turner/>{{Rp|193–194, 202–203, 215–217}}

The [[domino theory]], which argued that if one country fell to communism, then all of the surrounding countries would follow, was first proposed as policy by the [[Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower administration]].<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|19}} [[John F. Kennedy]], then a [[United States Senate|U.S. senator]], said in a speech to the [[American Friends of Vietnam]]: "Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam."<ref>{{Cite web |title=America's Stakes in Vietnam Speech to the American Friends of Vietnam, June 1956 |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626125802/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx |archive-date=26 June 2012 |access-date=26 June 2012 |publisher=JFK Library}}</ref>