Vision, Power and Agency: The Ascent of Ngo Dinh Diem
Author(s)
Miller, Edward
Abstract
Who was Ngo Dinh Diem? In the decades since his 1963 assassination, historians and other writers have offered diverse interpretations of his life and career. That Diem was an important figure in the history of the Indochina Wars is not in dispute–after all, the conflict that became the ‘American war’ in Vietnam began as a revolt against Diem’s South Vietnamese regime–but there is no consensus about why and how he came to play such a key role. During Diem’s tenure in power (1954-63), many in Vietnam and elsewhere described him as an American puppet who had been installed and supported by Washington to serve US objectives in the Cold War. Accounts written since the 1960s, by contrast, have emphasized his notorious unwillingness to accept American advice and the fact that his alliance with the US eventually fell apart. Many scholars have thus come to reject the notion that Diem was merely a creature of US foreign policy, and have instead portrayed him as a product of premodern ‘traditions’ such as Catholicism or Confucianism.
