Sixty years ago, on October 26, 1955, the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on the territory of South Vietnam. To some extent, this decision predetermined the further development of events in the long-suffering Vietnamese land - for another twenty years, one of the bloodiest wars of the second half of the twentieth century continued on the long-suffering Vietnamese land.
The first three decades of Vietnamese independence in the twentieth century are the history of the continuous struggle between communists and anti-communists. Vietnam was destined to become the site of a collision of two "worlds" of that time - the communist, led by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist, led by the United States. It was along the line of ideology that initially the main division between the political forces of Vietnam took place. When, after the end of World War II, a real "parade of sovereignties" of the colonies of European powers in Asia and Africa began, Vietnam also did not fail to proclaim its political independence. This happened on August 19, 1945 and was the direct result of the defeat of the Japanese army in World War II. The Japanese entered the territory of Vietnam in 1940 and until the beginning of 1945 formally ruled Vietnam together with the French colonial administration, which sided with the collaborationist Vichy government. But after Vichy France fell, the Japanese no longer considered themselves obligated to recognize the formal rule of the French administration over Vietnam. Instead, they decided to create in Vietnam a completely controlled puppet state - like Manchukuo, putting at the head of it the Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai, who was crowned in 1925. On March 11, 1945, Bao Dai, under Japanese pressure, proclaimed the independence of the "Vietnam Empire". However, the history of this quasi-state formation was short-lived. Already in mid-August 1945, after the defeat of Japan, Bao Dai was actually overthrown from his throne. On August 30, 1945, he officially read out the act of abdication, after which he left the country. It seemed that Vietnam, freed from Japanese puppets, would begin the path of building an independent statehood. But independent Vietnam, especially under the leadership of the pro-Soviet communist party, in no way suited the former "masters" of the country - the French colonialists. Moreover, if in the north of Vietnam, near the Chinese border, the positions of the communists were very strong, then the south was traditionally considered anti-communist.
Cochin Khin - a special region of Vietnam
Despite the fact that historically the south was also part of the Vietnamese state, it became part of it relatively late. A significant part of the population here were not Vietnamese (Vietnamese), but representatives of the related Muong people, as well as the Mon-Khmer and Austronesian peoples (mountain Khmers and mountain Chams). Taking advantage of national contradictions and the relative weakness of the southern part of the country, France in the 19th century quite easily occupied the region and turned it into a colony of Cochin Chin. Note that North Vietnam (Tonkin) and Central Vietnam (Annam) had the status of protectorates, and Cochin Khin had the status of a colony. The French influence was strongest here. In Saigon, the capital of the colony, a large European diaspora gradually settled - merchants, sailors, former soldiers and sergeants of the French colonial forces and the Foreign Legion. In addition, among the inhabitants of South Vietnam, French cultural influence was gradually spreading - the number of mixed marriages increased, some Vietnamese and, in particular, representatives of national minorities, converted to Catholicism. Therefore, France has always considered South Vietnam as its fiefdom. South Vietnam, by the time of French colonization, had a number of specific features that significantly distinguished its political and economic development from North Vietnam. According to the candidate of historical sciences M. A. Sunnerberg, these included: 1) a simpler organization of the system of government and the priority of military leaders over civilian bureaucracy; 2) the weak influence of the Confucian teaching on the processes of managerial activity; 3) the weakness of communal traditions and the prevalence of private land ownership over communal; 4) a religious vacuum filled with the activities of various sects and borrowed religions; 5) the dynamism and openness of the population of South Vietnam to foreign cultural influences (See: Sunnerberg MA Formation and development of the first republic of Vietnam. Abstract of the thesis … Candidate of Historical Sciences. M., 2009.). Residents of South Vietnam had a less pronounced national identity, did not associate their own interests with general political and national ones. In many ways, it is these characteristic features of South Vietnamese society that have become one of the main obstacles to the rapid spread of communist ideology in the region. If in the north of the country communism quickly established itself and organically superimposed on the communal traditions of the North Vietnamese population, in the south the communists could not find large-scale popular support for a long time.
Meanwhile, as soon as Vietnam proclaimed its independence under the leadership of the Communists, British troops landed in the south of the country. It was the British who freed the French colonial officers and officials arrested by Vietnamese patriots from prison, after which the French colonial administration was restored in a significant part of the country. However, in 1946, France recognized the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as part of the Indochina Union. It was a cunning tactical move by the French leadership aimed at preserving France's political influence in the region. In parallel, the French command was preparing for revenge and restoring control over the territory of the former colony. When British troops left Vietnam, France began organizing armed provocations against Vietnam. The most large-scale and bloody provocation was the shelling of the city and port of Haiphong by the artillery of French warships, as a result of which several thousand people died. By the beginning of 17, the French troops managed to establish control over most of the territory of Vietnam, and in 1949 the creation of the independent State of Vietnam was proclaimed, the formal ruler of which was again proclaimed the Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai. However, in the same 1949, the forces of the Vietnamese communists, having received support from China, went on the offensive and were able to occupy part of the country where the DRV continued to exist - the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (or North Vietnam).
- the historical flag of the Vietnamese Nguyen dynasty (from 1890 to 1920), adopted as the state flag of the Republic of Vietnam.
After the Soviet Union and China recognized the government of North Vietnam as the only legitimate representative of the Vietnamese people, in response the United States and a number of other capitalist countries announced the recognition of the State of Vietnam under the leadership of Bao Dai. An armed confrontation began between the Vietnamese communists and the French colonial troops, on whose side the armed formations of the State of Vietnam fought. It should be noted that, despite the initial multiple superiority of the French troops in armament and combat training, already in 1953-1954. the turning point in the war in favor of North Vietnam became obvious. After the famous defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the siege of which lasted from March 13 to May 7, 1954, France hastened to sign the Geneva agreements, in accordance with which the French armed forces were withdrawn from the territory of Indochina, hostilities between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the State of Vietnam, the country's territory divided into two parts - the northern one remained under the control of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the southern one - the State of Vietnam itself - was part of the French Union as a sovereign state. In addition, it was planned to hold elections in July 1956 in North and South Vietnam in order to reunite the country and form a single government. However, the results of the Geneva conference were not recognized by the United States of America, which decided to replace France in the place of the organizer of anti-communist forces in Indochina. The American leadership was very much afraid that the Communist Party could come to power in the elections by legal means, so a course was taken to prevent the unification of the country. Moreover, in the south of Vietnam, local communists also became more active, hoping in the future to overthrow the pro-French regime and unite with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After the defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the State of Vietnam, which had not previously been distinguished by the effectiveness of government, turned into an even more loose entity. Bao Dai, re-appointed as the formal ruler of Vietnam in 1954, chose to leave the country and leave for Europe for good.
Confucian Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem
The de facto leader of South Vietnam was Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-1963), appointed by the decision of Bao Dai, the Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam. The candidacy of this man was quite suitable for France and the United States, since Ngo Dinh Diem was a representative of the hereditary Europeanized elite of Vietnam, a Catholic Christian by religion. His French full name is Jean-Baptiste Ngo Dinh Diem. Back in the 17th century, Portuguese missionaries preaching in Vietnam converted the family of the influential Vietnamese "mandarins" - the ancestors of Ngo Dinh Diem - to Catholicism. After that, for many generations, the ancestors of Ngo Dinh Diem suffered, like other Vietnamese Catholics, from the oppression of the Vietnamese emperors. When Ngo Dinh Diem's father Ngo Dinh Ha was educated in Malaya in 1880, another anti-Catholic pogrom broke out in Vietnam, as a result of which Ngo Dinh Ha's parents and all brothers and sisters were killed. However, this event further strengthened Ha in his faith. He continued his civil service, having made a successful career at court and rose to the position of chamberlain and minister of rituals. However, after the French deposed Emperor Thanh Tai, Ngo Dinh Ha retired and took up plantation agriculture. His son Ngo Dinh Diem was educated in a French Catholic school, was a novice in a monastery for a short time, but left the monastery, deciding that monastic life was too difficult for him. After leaving the monastery, Diem entered the School of Public Administration in Hanoi.
In 1921 he completed his studies and began serving as a staff member of the Royal Library in Hue. For modern Russia, and many other countries, the beginning of a civil servant's career as a librarian looks rather unusual, but in the countries of Confucian and Buddhist culture - China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, etc., this is quite an honorable position, with due diligence ensuring further career advancement. And so it happened with Ngo Dinh Diem.
Soon he was appointed head of the district, which included 70 villages. Siem was not yet 25 years old when he became the head of a province of 300 villages. Ngo Dinh Diem's further rapid career growth was facilitated by his marriage to the daughter of a Catholic - the head of the Council of Ministers Nguyen Huu Bai. However, many officials of the French colonial administration were rather cool about Diem, since the young official demanded that Vietnam be given more autonomy in resolving internal issues. In 1929, Ngo Dinh Diem became acquainted with the communists. After he got his hands on a communist leaflet, the content of which angered the young Mandarin to the core (he was an ardent opponent of revolutions and people's self-government), Ngo Dinh Diem turned into an active anti-communist and participated in activities to suppress communist organizations in Vietnam. In 1930, Ngo Dinh Diem became governor of Binh Thuan province, where he was able to effectively suppress peasant uprisings, and in 1933, under the patronage of Nguyen Huu Bai, a thirty-two-year-old official was appointed Minister of the Interior at the court of Bao Dai. However, upon reaching this post, Ngo Dinh Diem continued to insist on increased autonomy for Vietnam, including the introduction of Vietnamese legislation, which the French administration did not like very much. In the end, just three months after his appointment as Interior Minister, Ngo Dinh Diem resigned. From that time and for 21 years, Ngo Dinh Diem did not have an official occupation. For the first ten years he lived in Hue, under the supervision of the colonial authorities.
In 1945, the Japanese occupation authorities offered Diem the post of prime minister, but he refused. However, Diem soon changed his mind and turned to the Japanese with a statement that he agreed to the role of head of the Vietnamese government, but the Japanese had already found another candidate by that time. So Ngo Dinh Diem kept a "clean" biography and avoided possible accusations of collaboration and collaboration with the occupation authorities. After the end of World War II, Ngo Dinh Diem continued his political activities and advocated the "third way" of Vietnam's development, different from the communist model proposed by Ho Chi Minh, and from the status of a colony in which Vietnam wanted to be mothballed by the French colonial administration. It was by the beginning of the 1950s. Ngo Dinh Diem's establishment of strong contacts with the US political elite also applies. During a trip to the United States, Diem met the American political scientist Wesley Fishel, who advised the United States government and advocated the creation of an anti-communist and anti-colonial "third force" in Asian countries. By this time, anti-communist Asian politicians had become very popular in the United States - fearing a repetition of the "Korean scenario", American leaders were ready to provide all-round support to political figures opposing communist influence. It was the support of the ruling circles of the United States, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, that determined the further political future of Ngo Dinh Diem. On June 26, 1954, he took over as Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam.
Referendum and establishment of the Republic of Vietnam
Interestingly, Bao Dai had a negative attitude towards Ngo Dinh Diem and instructed him to head the government of the State of Vietnam solely because the main flow of American military and financial aid to South Vietnam was directed through Diem, who had connections in the United States. As it turned out, the appointment of Ngo Dinh Diem played a fatal role in the political career of the Vietnamese ex-emperor himself. Of course, as a politician, Ngo Dinh Diem was much stronger than Bao Dai, and even the authority of a representative of the imperial dynasty could not help the latter. Ngo Dinh Diem managed to pacify the former enemies - the armed formations of the largest sects "Hoa Hao" and "Cao Dai", the Vietnamese mafia "Binh Xuyen", which controlled Saigon. After gaining a strong position, Ngo Dinh Diem began an agitation campaign against Bao Dai. On October 23, 1955Ngo Dinh Diem called a referendum on the proclamation of the State of Vietnam as a republic. At the referendum, the citizens of Vietnam had to make a choice between Ngo Dinh Diem and the republican way of developing the country and Bao Dai and preserving the State of Vietnam in its former form. Since Ngo Dinh Diem possessed resources incomparable with Bao Dai, he won an absolute victory in the referendum - 98.2% of voters voted for the Ngo Dinh Diem line. However, the referendum was characterized by massive falsifications. So, in Saigon, 600 thousand people voted for Ngo Dinh Diem, while the entire population of the South Vietnamese capital did not exceed 450 thousand people. In addition, the supporters of Ngo Dinh Diem actively used the methods of "black PR", trying in every possible way to discredit the former emperor Bao Dai in the eyes of the Vietnamese. Thus, pornographic cartoons of Bao Dai were disseminated, articles with "compromising evidence" on the former emperor were published. After the votes were counted, the State of Vietnam ceased to exist. On October 26, 1955, the creation of the Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed. On the same day, the former Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, took over as President of the Republic of Vietnam, where he was destined to remain for eight years.
- Saigon City Hall building in 1956
It was during the reign of Ngo Dinh Diem that South Vietnam had its own political and ideological face, trying to translate into practice the main political ideas of its first president. It was subsequently the republic that finally turned into a puppet state of the United States, the whole raison d'être of which was reduced to an armed confrontation between the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese communists. But at the beginning of the existence of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem tried to turn it into a developed state, acting from his own ideas about the ideal form of the political system. To begin with, the political views of Ngo Dinh Diem were formed under the influence of two main sources - the European Christian (Catholic) tradition and the Sino-Vietnamese Confucian philosophy. Confucian philosophy had the greatest influence on the formation of Diem's ideas about how the state should be arranged and what the figure of an ideal ruler is. The strong power of an enlightened ruler is the ideal of political governance for Ngo Dinh Diem. A staunch supporter of Confucian philosophy, Ngo Dinh Diem was negative about the possibility of ruling the country by the high military command, because he believed that in terms of political literacy, military officers were inferior to civilian officials. Therefore, during the reign of Ngo Dinh Diem, the positions of the military elite in South Vietnam were still weak, although the president invested heavily in the modernization of the republican army. Note that, in general, the military model of government was much more typical for South Vietnam, but Ngo Dinh Diem, a native of Annam (the center of the country), tried to implement the political principles that were traditional for his native places. Perhaps this was one of the main reasons for the misunderstanding of the essence of his policy on the part of not only ordinary residents of the Republic of Vietnam, but also the top leadership, especially from among the army officers.
Political and economic miscalculations of Ngo Dinh Diem
An adherent of the Confucian doctrine, Ngo Day Diem was alien to populism, although he tried to carry out reforms aimed at improving the well-being of the population. But he was unable to position himself correctly, to win the sympathy of the masses. "Uncle Ngo", unlike "Uncle Ho" - Ho Chi Minh, did not work out of Ngo Dinh Diem. Always aloof, in the traditional attire of a Confucian official, Ngo Dinh Diem did not enjoy popular love. He behaved very arrogantly, and his messages were written in a florid language that most ordinary people did not understand. There was a colossal gap between the Confucian ideal and the real needs of practical politics, but Ngo Dinh Diem and his entourage did not realize this gap. Another reason for the relative failure of Ngo Dinh Diem as head of the Vietnamese state was the initial narrowness of the social base of the ruling regime. Despite his faithfulness to the postulates of Confucian ideology, Ngo Dinh Diem remained a staunch Christian - Catholic and also sought to rely on Catholics. As you know, the spread of Catholicism in Vietnam began in the 16th century. - from the activities of Portuguese missionaries who entered the country. Later, the French took over from the Portuguese, who for several centuries were engaged in preaching work in all regions of the country and by the beginning of the 19th century managed to convert at least three hundred thousand Vietnamese to Catholicism. Attempts were made to Christianize the imperial family of Vietnam, but to no avail. But the local population did not like the newly converted Catholics, considering them traitors to their people and conductors of foreign influence. Every now and then, anti-Christian pogroms broke out, in one of which, as we told above, the family of Ngo Dinh Diem also perished. And, nevertheless, Catholicism managed not only to gain a foothold in Vietnam, but also to gain a significant number of followers. Currently, Vietnam is home to over 5 million Catholics, and this despite the fact that many Catholics emigrated to the West after the defeat of South Vietnam. During the reign of Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam received about 670 thousand refugees - Catholics from the territory of North Vietnam. Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuk - the president's brother - gained great political influence in the country, although the president himself did not want South Vietnam to turn into a purely Catholic, theocratic state. However, the reliance on Catholics testified to the shortsightedness of Ngo Dinh Diem, since he strives to build a state, turning a small and not loved by the majority of the population confessional minority into the ruling class - this means laying a time bomb in the form of religious contradictions and grievances.
- Saigon slums. 1956.
The situation in the economic sphere was not very successful either. The first five years of the existence of the Republic of Vietnam were relatively successful for it, since the country's budget remained in surplus, but since 1961 the budget has acquired a deficit character. Back in 1955, immediately after the proclamation of the republic, Ngo Dinh Diem canceled the action on the territory of the country of the old currency - the piastres of French Indochina and established a new currency, "dong". To develop the country's economy, an agrarian reform was undertaken, according to which unused land was redistributed among Vietnamese farmers. According to the law, every Vietnamese was given the opportunity to own a land plot of no more than 1 square kilometer, the rest of the land was subject to redemption by the state. Peasants and landowners entered into land-use contracts that provided for the payment of rent. But since the peasants did not have the means to rent land, huge plots were transferred to landowners who had the opportunity to pay rent to the state. Thus, 2/3 of Vietnamese agricultural land ended up in the hands of landowners. In order to overcome the negative consequences of the first reform, Ngo Dinh Diem had to carry out a second reform.
Strengthening the army and strengthening the military elite
Ngo Dinh Diem paid much attention to the modernization of the country's armed forces. After the conclusion of the Geneva Agreements of 1954, the Vietnamese National Army was disbanded, which necessitated the creation of new armed forces. Ngo Dinh Diem began to form the Vietnamese army on January 20, 1955, when he served as the country's prime minister. An agreement was concluded with the United States and France on assistance in creating the army of the Republic of Vietnam with a total strength of 100 thousand servicemen and 150 thousand reservists. General of the French army Paul Ely was appointed responsible for the creation and leadership of the army, military advisers and weapons came from the United States. After the proclamation of the Republic of Vietnam, on the same day, October 26, 1955, the creation of the country's armed forces was announced, despite the fact that this was contrary to the requirements of the Geneva agreements. By the end of 1955, the number of American military advisers in the South Vietnamese army had reached 342. Seeing the South Vietnamese army as a counterweight to the communist North, the United States has been generous with weapons for the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. If initially the South Vietnamese army consisted of poorly trained infantry units, then already in 1956 the creation of armored and artillery units began. Four units were created, armed with tanks, self-propelled guns, armored personnel carriers. On November 1, 1957, with the help of American military advisers, training began for the first South Vietnamese commando unit. In 1958, the commando unit already numbered 400 soldiers and officers. The number of the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam by the end of 1958 reached 150 thousand servicemen, in addition, there were also paramilitary armed units - 60 thousand civil defense corps, 45 thousand police and 100 thousand rural guard detachments. The structure of the South Vietnamese army was based on the model of the American armed forces, and emphasis was placed on preparations for repelling a possible invasion of the country's territory by the army of the communist North Vietnam. The number of American military advisers has doubled in several years and in 1960 reached 700 people. In 1961, US assistance to the South Vietnamese army increased. On December 11, 1961, two US helicopter squadrons arrived in Saigon - the first American regular units in the country. By 1962, South Vietnam came out on top among the countries receiving American military aid (until 1961 it was in third place after the Republic of Korea and Taiwan). For 1961-1962 the size of the armed forces was increased by 20 thousand people, reaching 170 thousand servicemen, and the civil defense doubled - from 60 thousand to 120 thousand people. By the end of 1962, the number of the country's armed forces was increased by another 30 thousand soldiers and officers and reached 200 thousand people. In April 1962, the first two mechanized companies on M113 armored personnel carriers appeared in the South Vietnamese army. For the convenience of exercising command, the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam were divided into four corps. The first corps was based on the border with North Vietnam and had its headquarters in Da Nang. The second corps was located in the central mountainous regions and had its headquarters in Pleiku. The Third Corps was responsible for the defense of Saigon, and the Fourth Corps was responsible for the defense of the Mekong Delta and the southern provinces of the country (the headquarters of this corps was in Can Tho). At the same time, the massive arrival of American troops on the territory of South Vietnam continued - initially as military advisers, and then as specialists to strengthen the Vietnamese armed forces. By the end of 1963, 17,000 American military specialists were stationed in South Vietnam. These were not only military advisers, but also unit instructors, pilots, signalmen, engineers, and representatives of other military specialties.
As the size of the armed forces grew, the influence of military personnel on the political processes taking place in the Republic of Vietnam grew. The division of the armed forces into four corps created additional conditions for the growth of the real capabilities of the military elite, since the corps commander was, at the same time, the head of the civil administration on the territory of the corps responsibility. It turns out that the military and civilian power in the regions of Vietnam were united in the hands of the generals. The politicization of the generals and officer corps of the South Vietnamese army also gradually increased. Top military leaders got their hands on significant financial resources, established contacts with the American military circles and special services, bypassing President Ngo Dinh Diem and representatives of his administration. Naturally, in the circles of the military elite there was also a growing conviction that power in the country should belong to generals who could more effectively cope with the threat of a North Vietnamese invasion and the intensified guerrilla movement. In late 1962 - early 1963. The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, which is waging a guerrilla war against the central government, has stepped up its activities. On January 2, 1963, the South Vietnamese guerrillas for the first time won a victory over the army of the Republic of Vietnam in an open battle at Albaka. Meanwhile, dissatisfaction with the policies of the Ngo Dinh Diem government grew in the country. The situation was aggravated by the so-called. "Buddhist crisis", when on May 8, 1963 in the city of Hue, a Buddhist demonstration was fired at and pelted with grenades. Buddhists protested against discrimination by the Catholic Church, which has consolidated its position in South Vietnam under President Ngo Dinh Diem. As a result of the attack on the peaceful demonstration, 9 people died, Buddhists blamed Ngo Dinh Diem for the tragedy, although the latter tried to shift the responsibility onto the Viet Cong, partisans of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. In this situation, dissatisfaction with the activities of Ngo Dinh Diem on the part of the military also increased.
The overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem as the beginning of the end of the Republic of Vietnam
The United States of America, which did not like the excessive independence of Ngo Dinh Diem, as well as the low effectiveness of countering the communist partisans, actually "gave the go-ahead" to overthrow the country's first president. The first attempt to eliminate Ngo Dinh Diem took place back in 1962. On February 27, 1962, First Lieutenant Pham Phu Quoc and Second Lieutenant Nguyen Van Cu, pilots of the South Vietnamese Air Force, launched an unsuccessful air raid on the residence of the country's president. However, despite the fact that the pilots managed to drop bombs on the Palace of Independence, the President was not injured.
Aviation lieutenants later said that they carried out the action because President Ngo Dinh Diem focused more on the problems of power and its preservation than on the fight against the communist threat. After the air raid, Ngo Dinh Diem, who suspected him of organizing the US CIA, began to oppose the further expansion of the American military presence in the country. The most likely rival of Ngo Dinh Diem by this time was General Duong Van Minh (1916-2001), who was nicknamed "Big Minh" by the people (Duong had an unusual height of 183 cm for a Vietnamese). Unlike Ngo Dinh Diem, Duong Van Minh (pictured) was a professional soldier with experience of participation in hostilities and a completely heroic biography. Unlike Diem, a native of Central Vietnam, Duong Van Minh was born in the very south of Vietnam - in the Mekong Delta, in the family of a landowner who collaborated with the French colonial administration. In his youth, Duong entered service in the native units of the French colonial troops. He graduated from military school just before the outbreak of World War II. Zyong was captured by the Japanese and tortured. His teeth were knocked out, after which he always smiled, exposing one remaining tooth, which he considered a symbol of his strength. After his release from captivity, Duong continued to serve in the army of the State of Vietnam, in 1954 he was captured by the communists, but escaped, strangling a guard. In May 1955, it was Duong who commanded government troops during the defeat of the armed formations of Binh Xuyen, a criminal syndicate that controlled parts of Saigon. Duong also led operations to defeat the armed detachments of the Hoa Hao sect, which also claimed power in South Vietnam.
After the defeat of the Binh Xuyen bandits who terrorized the inhabitants of Saigon, Duong Van Minh gained great popularity among the population of the Vietnamese capital. He was also noticed by American military advisers, who sent the officer to study at Leavenworth Military College in Kansas. It was General Duong Van Minh who was ideally suited for the role of the new ruler of the Republic of Vietnam, instead of Ngo Dinh Diem, who was not going to follow in the wake of American plans and start a war against North Vietnam. The general began to prepare a military coup, having previously requested the United States and received an affirmative answer to the question whether the United States would continue to provide military and financial assistance to South Vietnam after Ngo Dinh Diem left the political scene. At 1.30 pm on November 1, 1963, the presidential residence was surrounded by rebel soldiers. Diem called the US ambassador in Saigon Lodge, but he replied that "it is now four thirty in the morning in Washington and the US government does not yet have an established point of view on this issue." Then Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were able to escape from the Palace of Independence unnoticed and hide in a safe house. But the location of the president and his brother became known to the rebels, at about 6 a.m. Ngo Dinh Diem was able to agree on the phone with the generals about surrender in the Catholic Church. The soldiers put the President and his brother into an armored vehicle and drove to the city center, but on the way, Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were killed in the rear compartment of the armored vehicle.
The first stage of the existence of the Republic of Vietnam ended with a military coup. It was the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, by the way supported by the majority of Saigon residents, that ultimately became the starting point for the transformation of the Republic of Vietnam into a completely puppet state, existing at the expense of the United States and devoid of a coherent ideology and ideas about the development of the country and its economy. The raison d'être of South Vietnam after the overthrow of Diem was reduced exclusively to the anti-communist war. The political history of South Vietnam over the next decade of its existence is a series of military coups. Already two months after coming to power, in January 1964, General Duong Van Minh was overthrown by Major General Nguyen Khanh, who commanded one of the corps of the Republican army. In February 1965, he, in turn, was overthrown by General Nguyen Van Thieu, who was to lead South Vietnam until its actual end in 1975. In March 1975, DRV troops invaded South Vietnam. On April 21, 1975, President Nguyen Van Thieu transferred powers to Vice President Tran Van Huong, and on April 30, the Republic of Vietnam surrendered.
