Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
Ngo Dinh Diem (Vietnamese: Ngo Dinh Diem (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of South Vietnam (1955–1963). In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diem led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam.<br/><br/> Accruing considerable US support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a 1955 plebiscite that was widely considered fraudulent. Proclaiming himself the Republic's first President, he demonstrated considerable political skill in the consolidation of his power, and his rule proved authoritarian, elitist, nepotistic, and corrupt.<br/><br/> He was assassinated by an aide of ARVN General Duong Van Minh on November 2, 1963, during a coup d'état that deposed his government.
After the end of the French rule in 1954s, Catholicism declined in the North, where the Communists regarded it as a reactionary force opposed to national liberation and social progress. In the South, by contrast, Catholicism was expanded under the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, who promoted it as an important bulwark against North Vietnam.<br/><br/> Diem, whose brother was Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, gave extra rights to the Catholic Church, dedicated the nation to the Virgin Mary and preferentially promoted Catholic military officers and public servants while restricting Buddhism and allowing Catholic paramilitaries to demolish temples and pagodas.<br/><br/> In 1955 approximately 600,000 Catholics remained in the North after an estimated 650,000 had fled to the South in Operation Passage to Freedom.
Vietnamese refugees board LST 516 for their journey from Haiphong, North Vietnam, to Saigon, South Vietnam during Operation Passage to Freedom, October 1954. This operation evacuated thousands of Vietnamese refugees from the then newly created Communist North Vietnam to pro-American South Vietnam.<br/><br/> By the end of the operation, the Navy had carried to south more then 293,000 immigrants including many Catholic refugees.
Ngo Dinh Diem (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of South Vietnam (1955–1963). His rule proved authoritarian, elitist, nepotistic, and corrupt. A Catholic, Diem pursued policies that oppressed the Republic's Montagnard natives and its Buddhist majority. Amid religious protests that garnered worldwide attention, Diem lost the backing of his US patrons and was assassinated on November 2, 1963, during a coup d'etat that deposed his government.
Ngo Dinh Diem, accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, arrives at Washington National Airport in 1957. Diem is shown shaking the hand of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Ngo Dinh Diem (Vietnamese: Ngo Dinh Diem (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of South Vietnam (1955–1963). In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diem led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam.<br/><br/> Accruing considerable US support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a 1955 plebiscite that was widely considered fraudulent. Proclaiming himself the Republic's first President, he demonstrated considerable political skill in the consolidation of his power, and his rule proved authoritarian, elitist, nepotistic, and corrupt.<br/><br/> He was assassinated by an aide of ARVN General Duong Van Minh on November 2, 1963, during a coup d'état that deposed his government.
Ngo Dinh Diem (Vietnamese: Ngo Dinh Diem (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of South Vietnam (1955–1963). In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diem led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable US support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a 1955 plebiscite that was widely considered fraudulent. Proclaiming himself the Republic's first President, he demonstrated considerable political skill in the consolidation of his power, and his rule proved authoritarian, elitist, nepotistic, and corrupt. He was assassinated by an aide of ARVN General Duong Van Minh on November 2, 1963, during a coup d'état that deposed his government.
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van 'Bay' Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh. During its heyday, Binh Xuyen funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces. Binh Xuyen was located in Nha Be, in the marshes and canals along the southern fringes of Saigon-Cholon.<br/><br/> In 1949 Bay Vien, a former brigand and a revolutionary, was given the rank of major general of the Vietnamese National Army and his troops became the Binh Xuyen. The Binh Xuyen was a self-funded army with revenues from legally-run brothels and casinos. General Vien made arrangements with Emperor Bao Dai giving them control of their own affairs in return for their nominal support of the regime. The Binh Xuyen's military forces were mostly wiped out by the Vietnamese National Army under Big Minh's command in Operation Rung Sat in 1955. Bay Vien, the leader of the organization, was exiled to Paris after his unsuccessful attempt to take power from Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem in May 1955.
The Second Indochina War, known in America as the Vietnam War, was a Cold War era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and other anti-communist nations. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and part of their wider strategy of containment.<br/><br/> The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive.<br/><br/> U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973. The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese army in April 1975 marked the end of the US-Vietnam War.