An Analysis Of The Relationship Between America And The South Vietnam And The Strategic Hamlet Program Under Ngo Dinh Diem’s

After the Geneva meeting, there is a crisis appeared in the political situation in South Vietnam:The French colonial forces are still in there,and the number of the Communist activity is increasing.The United States needs a nationalist who is both anti-communist and anti-French to be the leader of the South Vietnam, which is Ngo Dinh Diem. After Diem came to power, he ended the chaos of the warlords and swept the Viet Cong forces, after that he gained the support of the United States. In order to further consolidate the control in the countryside of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem absorbed the tradition of the village-pacification-methods.,and has implemented his own plan,such as "Centers of Agglomeration","The Agroville program",which all ended in failure. Since Viet Cong has gained a lot of support in the countryside, the United Kingdom and the United States began to offer their counter-insurgency program. However, based on the nationalist, Diem government did not simply adopt the recommendations, he listened to the Thompson’s advice partly, and then put forward his own counter-insurgency plan:strategic hamlets program.The strategic hamlets program was officially declared to be start from 1962, on the initial, it was a fragmented plan,at last,it became a national program.By 1963, the problems of the Strategic hamlet were obvious.During the implementation process, the society lacked of political democracy, economic development and reforms. The strategic hamlets could not provide security, and there were a lot of Viet Cong infiltration and destruction. People have been complaining about the plan and the South Vietnamese government officials were dissatisfied with the dictatorship of the Ngo family. Although the United States had repeatedly asked Diem to reform the strategic hamlet, the government and the military command chain, however, Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Ninh were against US intervention, on the contrary, they insisted that,the plan should be acted on their own will. This attitude gradually increased the contradiction between the United States and Diem. With the outbreak of the Buddhist crisis, the conflict has been intensified considerably in the South Vietnam, the trust between the Ngo Dinh Diem regime and the United States gradually disappeared. American attitudes contributed to the downfall of the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, in November 1963, after a coup in South Vietnam, the strategic hamlet plans gradually moved towards the end. Overall, the internal problems of the strategic hamlets program, the destruction of the Viet Cong and the contradiction between the United States and Ngo Dinh Diem, all of which. contributed to the ultimate failure of the strategic hamlet program.The introduction part mainly discusses the background of the topic, literature review, and the paper framework.The first chapter briefly introduces the efforts which Diem has made when he took office.First, he has seized the military power,then he puts down the Cao Dai, Hoa Hao and Binh Xuyen as well as carried out the movement of clearing the Viet Cong and the land reform; second, this chapter tells that in order to strengthen effective control of the countryside,Diem has learned the history of traditional Vietnam and French colonial period, drawing the Malayan counterinsurgency experience, implemented his own plan.For the following strategic hamlet program, this chapter will clarify the historical background.The second chapter discusses the formation of a strategic hamlet program. This chapter includes two aspects. First, it discusses the Thompson plan, which includes the background, content and attitudes of the United States and Ngo Dinh Diem; Second, this chapter focuses on the US view on rural issues, and discusses the difference between the United States military and political on the Vietnam question. This chapter is intended to clarify that the strategic hamlet program is the South Vietnamese’own plan. This chapter makes theoretical preparation for the proposed strategic hamlet program.The third chapter analyzes the strategic hamlets program,it consists of two parts. The first part introduce the whole strategic hamlet program, followed by a detailed analysis of the Delta plan, Sunrise operation and Sea Swallow operation, and late the national plan. The second part summarizes the strategic hamlets internal problems, including political, economic and social dimensions. In addition, it also discussed the Viet Cong’s destruction to the strategic hamlets, the political crisis of South Vietnamese government and the changing attitude of the United States towards Ngo Dinh Diem regime.The conclusion part firstly summarizes the four chapters discussed above. I believe that the main reason for the failure of strategic hamlets program, are lying on the problems of the strategic hamlet program implementation process,the attack of strategic hamlet by Viet Cong attack and the The deepening contradiction between US and Diem government.