"DSK" wrote in message
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Vito wrote:
First, the Viet Cong didn't need to infiltrate because many never left.

I guess that explains why, according to Viet Nam's own version of
events, they sent 10,000+ infiltrators to the South.

When you say "Viet Nam's version" do you mean Diem's version or Ho's
version?

.... They
controlled both the Mecong Delta region AND the North when the country
was
partitioned.

No they didn't. Ho Chi Mihn's gov't didn't even 'control' all of the
North, there were serious revolts & uprisings against him right through
the 1950s and most of the 1960s too.

Which were quickly and savagely put down. I call that "control". YMMV


... Those who'd whipped France simply hid their weapons awaiting
the election.

With orders to disrupt same, since it was obvious that nobody... nobody
at all... was going to vote to "unite" under Ho's gov't.

On the contrary. Given a choice between Diem and Diem's Catholics CIA polls
showed commies by a landslide. That's why we got involved militarily - to
buy time to turn that around.


... Then Diem & Co set up a government similar to Saddam's
Baathists. Only family were allowed any national authority and only
Catholics were allowed to hold even local village offices.

While I'm not going to claim the Diem gov't wasn't corrupt & ineffective
at the end, it certainly didn't start out that way.

Oh?
Diem began appointing his family only after a few years of "disloyalty" by
others.

Yup they were so 'disloyal' that some wanted a say in the government and
others a cut of the US money.

I don't know where you get the idea that only Catholics could hold
office, there weren't enough Catholics in the country.

Sue their were. It wasn't so much a religious thing as a cultural one.
Catholics reflected the French values of the old colonial regime but, like
people outside the family, Buddists couldn't be trusted to support Diem.


Diem won a legitimate election as Prime Minister, then engineered a
gov't changeover that left him with more power and the emporer with
less, then engineered another election.

Of course, according to your version of "history" this never happened.

In my version Diem's election was less than legitimate. Hitler was elected
too - the same way.

... If an "isolated
village" of Buddists elected a Buddist leader Diem sent a squad to kill
the
electee and install a Catholic.

I got it from some SEALs who were there to terrorize the Cong - but you know
how them sailors lie (c:

....That led some Viet Cong to dig up their guns
and indeed disrupt Diem's plans by murdering those appointed 'Government
Officials'.

Yeah, somewhere between a thousand and ten thousand.

'bout right.


... until the South Vietnamese Government refused to abide by the
agreement and hold reunification elections.

yeah yeah, you will not ever grasp the fact of this matter, will you?


That's because your "facts" are in fact faith-based and without
foundation -
except of course in Diem's notes (c:

Funny thing about that... my facts are from people who were there when
it all happened.

Sure - and unbiased as well (c: Per ozzies post
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedst...ndex-1945.html

The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi
Minh's Communists ceded the North, while Bao Dai's regime is granted the
South. The accords also provide for elections to be held in all of Vietnam
within two years to reunify the country. The U.S. opposes the unifying
elections, fearing a likely victory by Ho Chi Minh. .....

In the South, Bao Dai has installed Ngo Dinh Diem as his prime minister. The
U.S. now pins its hopes on anti-Communist Diem for a democratic South
Vietnam .....

The deadline passes for the unifying elections set by the Geneva Conference.
Diem, backed by the U.S., had refused to participate.