Staging democracy: South Vietnam's 1955 referendum to depose Bao Dai

Diplomatic History

Volumn 30, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 671-703

  Chapman, Jessica M ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33747433416     PISSN: 01452096     EISSN: 14677709     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7709.2006.00573.x     Document Type: Article

References (130)

1. See Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, vol. II, Vietnam at War (London, 1967), 889-93; Chester L. Cooper, The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam (New York, 1970), 148-52; Robert Scigliano, South Vietnam: Nation under Stress (Boston, 1964), 23-24; Howard R. Penniman, Elections in South Vietnam (Washington, DC, 1972), 20-21; DenisWarner, The Last Confucian (New York, 1963), 86; Bernard B. Fall, The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis, 2d rev. ed. (New York, 1963), 256-59; Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina (London, 1961), 398-99; Robert Shaplen, The Lost Revolution: The Story of Twenty Years of Neglected Opportunities in Vietnam and of America's Failure to Foster Democracy There (NewYork, 1965), 129-30; Anthony Trawick Bouscaren, The Last of the Mandarins; Diem of Vietnam (Pittsburgh, 1965), 56-57. Even Bouscaren writes, "There is no doubt that not only was South Vietnam not ready for democracy or able to adopt it, but that Ngo Dinh Diem himself was less attracted to it than he was to a vague mish-mash of ideas called personalism."
2. Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, 889.
3. Ibid., 891.
4. Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, 398.
5. Shaplen, The Lost Revolution, 129-30.
6. Cooper, The Lost Crusade, 151-52.
7. Ibid., 152.
8. David L. Anderson, Trapped by Success: The Eisenhower Administration and Vietnam, 1953-1961 (New York, 1991), 127.
9. Ibid., 128.
10. Seth Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia (Durham, NC, 2004), 224.
11. Ibid., 225.
12. Edward Garvey Miller, "Grand Designs: Vision, Power and Nation Building in America's Alliance with Ngo Dinh Diem, 1954-1960" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2004), 208.
13. Miller's overall argument is that Diem's vision of nation building was incompatible with Washington's plans for modernizing South Vietnam. It was not that Diem did not believe in democracy, then, but that his de.nition of democracy deviated substantially from that of the United States.
14. See David Elliott, The VietnameseWar: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta, 1930-1975 (Armonk, NY, 2003); Robert Brigham, Guerilla Diplomacy: The NLF's Foreign Relations and the Vietnam War (Ithaca, NY, 1998); Mark Philip Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000); Philip E. Catton, Diem's Final Failure: Prelude to America's War in Vietnam (Lawrence, KS, 2002); Miller, "Grand Designs."
15. Michael J. Hogan, "The 'Next Big Thing': The Future of Diplomatic History in a Global Age," Diplomatic History 28, no. 1 (January 2004): 1-21; Frank Ninkovitch and Liping Bu, eds., The Cultural Turn: Essays in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations (Chicago, 2001).
16. Fredrik Logevall, "Bringing in the 'Other Side': New Scholarship on the Vietnam Wars," Journal of Cold War Studies 3 (Fall 2001): 77-93.
17. Since the emergence of modernization theory as an explanation for political and ssocial change emerged in the 1950s, scholars have problematized the concept of tradition versus modernity. Whereas the architects of the theory saw modernization as a progressive, systematic, revolutionary process by which traditional forms would be replaced, revisionists have attacked the reductionistic equation of tradition with backwardness and modernity with economic progress and social virtue. Moreover, they have pointed out that modernity does not simply replace tradition, but combines with it to produce new political and social practices and institutions. For a thorough review of this literature see Samuel P. Huntington, "To Change to Change: Modernization, Development, and Politics," Comparative Politics 3, no. 2 (April 1971): 283-322; for more recent assessments see Ronald Inglehart and Wayne E. Baker, "Modernization, Cultural Change, and the Persistence of Traditional Values," American Sociological Review 65, no. 1 (February 2000): 19-51; David C. Engerman, Nils Gilman, Mark H. Haefele, and Michael E. Latham, eds., Staging Growth: Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War (Boston, 2003); see also Partha Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed: Re.ections on Popular Politics in Most of the World (New York, 2004), 6-8. Chatterjee refers to the coexistence of the traditional and the modern as "dense and heterogeneous time." In the case of South Vietnam at this time, the terms "inherited" and "borrowed" could be used to replace "traditional" and "modern" in order to avoid the impression of value judgments. I have chosen to use the terms "modern" and "traditional" because they appeared prevalently in twentieth-century Vietnamese anticolonial vocabulary, and are thus the terms that Vietnamese politicians would have used to understand their nation's ongoing process of social and political change.
18. Struggles over modernization versus the return to traditional values and practices marked the Vietnamese anticolonial movement throughout the twentieth century. One of the most relevant examples for this study is the debate between traditionalist Phan Boi Chau and modernizer Phan Chau Trinh over the relative merits of monarchy versus democracy. See William J. Duiker, "Phan Boi Chau: Asian Revolutionary in a Changing World," Journal of Asian Studies 31, no. 1 (November 1971): 77-88. Duiker demonstrates that even Phan Boi Chau, the more conservative of these two anticolonial leaders, was torn between his longing for a return to traditional forms and his understanding of the need to modernize to ensure national survival and independence in a changing world.
19. Tony Smith, America's Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, NJ, 1994), 4. Smith identifies the greatest ambition of United States foreign policy since the Spanish-American war as follows: "To promote democracy abroad as a way of enhancing the national security."
20. Kathryn Statler, "The Diem Experiment and Franco-American con.ict over South Vietnam, July 1954-May 1955," Journal of American-East Asian Relations 6, 2-3 (Summer-Fall 1997); Daniel P. O'C. Greene, "John Foster Dulles and the End of Franco American Entente Indochina," Diplomatic History 16, no. 4 (Fall 1992). Both Statler and Greene have demonstrated that the United States largely succeeded in eliminating the remnants of French influence in Saigon through a series of talks in mid-May 1955. Nonetheless, the French government retained an interest in in.uencing the political future of its former colony and especially in preventing violence and injustice toward French citizens still living in Vietnam. Indeed, it was not until after the referendum and Diem's proclamation of the Republic of Vietnam on 26 October that Diem moved to demand the immediate withdrawal of the French Expeditionary Corps from South Vietnam.
21. See Miller, "Grand Designs," 194.
22. Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, 880-84; Robert G. Scigliano, "Political Parties in South Vietnam under the Republic," Paci.c Affairs (September 1960): 328-29; U.S. Department of State Memorandum of Conversation, "Brie.ng on Conditions in Vietnam," 2 May 1955, National Archives and Records Administration (hereafter NARA), Record Group 59 (hereafter RG), C0008, Reel 3, 751G.00/ 4-3055.
23. Robert R. Nathan, "The Consequences of Partition," in Problems of Freedom: South Vietnam since Independence, ed. Wesley R. Fishel (New York, 1961), 16.
24. Miller, "Grand Designs," 197.
25. Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, 257; Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, 884.
26. "Ban Tuyen Cao cua Phu Ton Nhon Luc 15 Gio Ngay 15-6-1955,7quot; Vietnamese National Archives 2 (hereafter VNA2), Phu Tong Thong De Nhat Cong Hoa (hereafter PTTDICH), Folder 18091.
27. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 27 June 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 4, 751G.00/6-2755.
28. Telegram from Secretary of State to U.S. Embassy Saigon and U.S. Embassy Paris, 29 June 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 4, 751G.00/6-2955.
29. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 7 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-755; Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Department of State, "The Government's Case against Bao Dai," 18 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-1855.
30. See Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, 398.
31. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Paris to Secretary of State, 14 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-1355; "Bao Dai Condemns Diem Referendum," New York Times, 14 October 1955; "Diem and Bao Dai," New York Times, 15 October 1955.
32. See Telegram from U.S. Embassy Paris to Secretary of State (contains text of mmessage addressed by Bao Dai to the Vietnamese people), 19 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-1955. Bao Dai did deliver a message to the Vietnamese people, but there is no evidence that it was broadcast widely, if at all, within the borders of South Vietnam.
33. "La Revocation de Ngo Dinh Diem Par Bao Dai - Extrait du Bulletin des Ecoutes du Haut Commissariat de la Republique Francaise au Vietnam no. 2849 du 20 Octobre 1955," VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18092; "Bao Dai 'Removes' Vietnam Premier," New York Times, 19 October 1955; Telegram from U.S. Embassy Paris to Secretary of State (containing text of Bao Dai's letter), 18 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-1855.
34. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Paris to Secretary of State, 20 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-2055.
35. Lua Song, 27 October 1955; "Ket Qua Cuoc Trung Cau Dan Y Ngay 23 Thang 10 Nam 1955," 26 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 639. Official election returns show 5,721,735 of 5,828,907 ballots cast in favor of removing Bao Dai from office and charging Ngo Dinh Diem with the responsibility to establish a republican government.
36. "Ban Tuyen Cao Cua Quoc Truong Viet Nam," 26 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18097.
37. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America; Mark Philip Bradley, "Becoming Van Minh: Civilizational Discourse and Visions of the Self in Twentieth-Century Vietnam," Journal of World History 15, no. 1 (2004): 65-83.
38. Catton, Diem's Final Failure, 37.
39. Edward Miller, "Vision, Power and Agency: The Ascent of Ngo Dinh Diem, 1945-1954," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 35, no. 3 (October 2004): 433.
40. Catton, Diem's Final Failure, 40-41.
41. Cao Van Luan, Ben Giong Lich Su, 1940-1965 (Glendale, CA, 1986) 282-87.
42. Lee H. Yearley, "Toward a Typology of Religious Thought: A Chinese Example," Journal of Religion 55, no. 4 (October 1975): 428; see also Robert Petit, La Monarchie Annamite (Paris, 1931), especially 37-47.
43. Stephen B. Young, "The Mandate and Politics in Vietnam," in Electoral Politics in South Vietnam, eds. John C. Donnell and Charles A. Joiner (Lexington, MA, 1974), 13-34; see also Nguyen The Anh, "From Indra to Maitreya: Buddhist In.uence in Vietnamese Political Thought," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 33, no. 2 (June 2002): 225-41. Nguyen points out that the notion of a virtuous ruler was also an important element of Vietnam's Buddhist tradition.
44. John T. McAlister, Jr. and Paul Mus, The Vietnamese and Their Revolution (New York, 1970), 67-69.
45. Ibid., 114.
46. D. Howard Smith, "The Significance of Confucius for Religion," History of Religions 2, no. 2 (Winter 1963): 248.
47. Peter R. Moody, Jr., Political Opposition in Post-Confucian Society (New York, 1988), 1.
48. Young, "The Mandate and Politics in Vietnam," 13-34.
49. Gerald Cannon Hickey, Village in Vietnam (New Haven, CT, 1964), xv.
50. K. W. Taylor, "Vietnamese Confucian Narratives," in Rethinking Confucianism, eds. Benjamin Elman, John B. Duncan, and Herman Ooms (Los Angeles, 2002), 337.
51. R. B. Smith, "The Development of Opposition to French Rule in Southern Vietnam, 1880-1940," Past and Present 54 (February 1972): 95.
52. For one popular example of this, see Frances FitzGerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (New York, 1972).
53. Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, 237. Fall writes, "It was perhaps out of faithfulness to the mystique of the monarchy as such that Diem decided in 1955 to oust its unworthy representative, Bao-Dai."
54. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 21 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-2155.
55. "Mot Tai Lieu Dac Biet Chua Bao Nao Noi Toi: Cuoc Doi cua Bao Dai," Thoi Dai, 4 August 1955.
56. For a brief description of KhaiDinh's apparently unremarkable and often criticized reign see Oscar Chapuis, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai (Westport, CT, 2000), 27; Bruce McFarland Lockhart, The End of the Vietnamese Monarchy (New Haven, CT, 1993).
57. "Cuoc Doi Tinh Ai Ly Ky cua Bao Dai: Bao Dai la Con Mot... Thang Mu An Luong cua Tu Cung Thai Hau," Thoi Dai, 5 August 1955.
58. Anticolonialism and anti-French sentiments were, of course, nothing new to Vietnam by this time. Up until Diem's appointment, however, leaders of the State of Vietnam had been relative Francophiles. For discussion of earlier anticolonial movements see Peter Zinnoman, The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 (Berkeley, CA, 2001); McAlister and Mus, The Vietnamese and Their Revolution; David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945 (Berkeley, CA, 1981); Hue-Tam Ho-Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution (Cambridge, MA, 1992); William J. Duiker, The Rise of Nationalism in Vietnam, 1900-1941 (Ithaca, NY, 1976). For discussion of Diem's anti-French background see Denis Warner, The Last Confucian; Miller, "Vision, Power and Agency," 433-58.
59. "Cuoc Doi Tinh Ai Ly Ky cua Bao Dai: Tu Cung Thai Hau So Con Lau Ay Vo Dam de Con Tay Lai," Thoi Dai, 8 August 1955.
60. "Cuoc Doi Tinh Ai Ly Ky cua Bao Dai: Bao Dai Lay Vo voi Cai Ten Tay," Thoi Dai, 9 August 1955.
61. Ibid.
62. "Cuoc Doi Tinh Ai Ly Ky cua Bao Dai: Co Marie Jeanne Henriette la Con Nao ma Quyen Ru Noi Bao Dai," Thoi Dai, 11 August 1955.
63. "Cai An Tinh Ai Lich Su cua Bao Dai: Vua Co The Lay Vo Ngoai Quoc co Nhieu Vo, Nhieu Con Khong?" Thoi Dai, 27 August 1955.
64. "Cuoc Doi Tinh Ai Cua Bao Dai: Mot Cuoc Chay Dua Chinh Tri Bang ... Ai Tinh Giua Nam Phuong Henriette va Co Gai Hop Dem Evelyn Riva," Thoi Dai, 16 August 1955.
65. "Truat Phe Bao Dai la Y Nguyen cua Nhan Dan," Thoi Dai, 21 October 1955.
66. "Tuyen Cao cua Uy Ban Nhan Dan Trung Cau Dan Y Goi Dong Bao Toan Quoc," Tieng Chuong, 8 October 1955; see also "Bao Dai Con Mua Roi Den Bao Gio," Lua Song, 30 September 1955; "Bao Dai: Tru Danh Bu Ninh Dang Dao Ho Chon Minh Trong Am Muu Tay Sai Cho Viet Cong," Lua Song, 10 October 1955; "Bao Dai va Viet Cong," Dan Chu, 26 September 1955; "La Collusion de Bao Dai avec les Communistes et les Colonialistes," Vietnam Presse, 11 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18092. These are just a few examples of the barrage of articles in the South Vietnamese press in the month prior to the referendum that identified Bao Dai as a puppet emperor and accused him of colluding with the Communists and the French to sell Vietnam to outside forces.
67. "Chung Quanh Vu Bao Dai Bi Mat Lien Lac Voi Viet Cong Tron Trach Nhiem," Lua Song, 30 September 1955.
68. For several examples of these formulaic petitions, see VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder
69. Hinh was the son of former State of Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Van Tam, and there was some speculation that he sought to overthrow Diem to make room for his father's return to power in South Vietnam.
70. For more on the roots of Bao Dai's relationship with the sects see Jayne Susan Werner, Peasant Politics and Religious Sectarianism: Peasant and Priest in the Cao Dai in Viet Nam (New Haven, CT, 1981), 53; See also Archimedes A. Patti, Why Vietnam? Prelude to America's Albatross (Berkeley, CA, 1980), 445.
71. "Biet Xu Dung La Phieu Nghia la Biet Bao Ve Quyen Loi Cho Chinh Minh," Lua Song, 20 October 1955.
72. Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, 382-97.
73. "Chung Quang Vu Bao Dai Bi Mot Lien Lac Voi Viet Cong," Saigon oi, 30 September 1955; "Bu Nhin Bao Dai Lien Lac voi Doc Tai V.C. de Du Dinh No Le Hoa Nhan Dan Viet Nam Mot Lan Nua," Lua Song, 1 October 1955; "Bao Dai va Viet Cong," Dan Chu, 26 September 1955; Petitions to depose Bao Dai, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18091.
74. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, 27.
75. Miller, "Grand Designs," 204-10. In his dissertation, Miller uses Vietnamese sources to provide a more nuanced interpretation of Diem's goals surrounding the referendum. He notes that Diem intended the referendum to be "an initial exercise in democracy which would pave the way for the early establishment of a directly elected National-Assembly." He does not, however, delve into the details of Diem's efforts to disseminate his notions of democracy within Vietnam.
76. "Tuyen Bo Cua Ong Tong Tuong Noi Vu Phat Ngon Nhan Chinh Phu ve Trung Cau Dan Y," VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18094.
77. Ibid.
78. "Translation of the Governmental Declaration October 19, 1955," VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18094.
79. "Loi Tuyen Bo Truyen Thanh Cua Thu Tuong Chanh Phu," 22 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 639.
80. "Tai Lieu Hoc Tap Ve Cuoc Trung Cau Dan Y Ngay 23-10-1955," VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 639.
81. "Muc Dich va Y Nghia Truat Phe Bao Dai," VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 639. This educational pamphlet explains Diem's reasons for deposing Bao Dai at the current time and the potential bene.ts of doing so.
82. "Quan Niem Doc Tai va Quan Niem Dan Chu," Thoi Luan, 20 August 1955.
83. See Carlyle A. Thayer, War by Other Means: National Liberation and Revolution in Viet-Nam 1954-1960 (Boston, 1989), especially 26-45.
84. "Cuoc Dau Phieu Dan Chu Nhat tu Xua Toi Nay o Viet Nam," Lua Song, 15 October 1955.
85. For a discussion of the international response to this see Ilya V. Gaiduk, Confronting Vietnam: Soviet Policy toward the Indochina Conflict, 1954-1963 (Washington, DC, 2003), especially 69-83.
86. "Telegram from the Ambassador to Vietnam (Reinhardt) to the Department of State, June 29, 1955," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955-1957 (Washington, DC, 1985), 1:470; Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 29 June 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 4, 751G.00/6-2955. Ambassador Reinhardt reported to Secretary Dulles that Vu Van Mau informed him in strictest con.dence that Diem's cabinet was considering holding a referendum to depose Bao Dai at this time.
87. See Gaiduk, Confronting Vietnam, 69. This announcement was a response to Pham Van Dong's June statement that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was willing to hold a consultative conference on elections. By taking this step, Diem defied American advice to pursue consultations with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in hopes the Communists would balk at numerous provisions for free elections and thus assume the blame for breaching the Geneva agreements.
88. "Loi Tuyen Bo Truyen Thanh cua Ngo Thu Tuong Ngay 16-7-55," Thoi Dai, 18 October 1955; Nguyen Van Minh, Lich Su Khang Chien Chong My Cuu Nuoc, 1955-1975 (Tap II) (Hanoi, 1996), 63; Patti, Why Vietnam?, 447.
89. Ngon Luan, 8 August 1955.
90. See Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, 270.
91. "Lam The Nao Mot Cuoc Tong Tuyen Cu Tu Do o Viet Nam," Thoi Luan, 15 August 1955
92. "Tuyen Bo Cua Ong Tong Tuong Noi Vu Phat Ngon Nhan Chinh Phu ve Trung Cau Dan Y," VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18094.
93. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 27 September 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/9-2755.
94. "Vietnamese National Assembly and Other Political Reforms," Memo from Kenneth T. Young to Mr. Robertson and Mr. Sebald, 5 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-555.
95. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 29 September 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/9-2955.
96. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 17 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-1755.
97. Telegram from Secretary of State to U.S. Embassy Paris, U.S. Embassy London, and U.S. Embassy Saigon, 20 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-2055.
98. "Diem Makes Plea on Today's Vote," New York Times, 23 October 1955.
99. "Nhung Dieu Quan Trong ve Viec Trung Cau Dan Y Ngay 23-10 Toi Day," Tieng Chuong, 12 October 1955; see also "Organization du Referendum," 10 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18093.
100. Ballot for 23-10-1955 referendum to depose Bao Dai, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18093; "Background of Plebiscite," New York Times, 23 October 1955; "Les Electeurs du Sud-Vietnam Vont Choisir sur Photographie Entre le Bon Ngo Dinh Diem el le Vilain Bao-Dai," Liberation, 11 October 1955; "Mr. Diem's Lucky Color," Economist, 29 October 1955.
101. Edward Geary Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars: An American's Mission to Southeast Asia (New York, 1972), 333-34.
102. "A Review of Election Processes in South Vietnam," Directorate of Intelligence, 9 March 1966, NARA, CREST, CIA-RDP79T00826A000400010040-7.
103. "A Review of Election Processes in South Vietnam," Directorate of Intelligence, 9 March 1966, NARA, CREST, CIA-RDP79T00826A000400010040-7.
104. Telegram from U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 25 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-2555.
105. "Phieu Tin Tuc Hoat Dong Quoc Gia Hoa Hao Tran Van Soai," 4 November 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 4320.
106. "New Leader in Asia," Missourian, 25 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096; "South Vietnam and the Saar," Desert News (Arizona), 25 October 1955, PTTDICH, Folder 18096; "Diem Gives South Vietnam Rallying Point and a Chance," Journal (Milwaukee, WI), 26 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096. This folder at the Vietnamese National Archives 2 (PTTDICH, Folder 18096) includes clippings from several American and French newspapers regarding the Vietnamese referendum.
107. "Vietnam Sticks with Diem," News (Dayton, OH), 25 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096.
108. Henry R. Lieberman, "Diem Moves to Strengthen an Independent Vietnam," New York Times, 30 October 1955.
109. "South Viet-Nam Voters Repudiate Ex-Emperor," Los Angeles Times, 24 October 1955.
110. "Diem Sees Delay on Unity Upheld," New York Times, 26 October 1955.
111. Lieberman, "Diem Moves to Strengthen an Independent Vietnam."
112. "Retired by Request: Bao Dai Joins the Exes," Item (New Orleans), 26 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096; "The Boot for Bao Dai," News (Snyder, TX), 26 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096.
113. Assorted articles from the Luce Press Clipping Bureau, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder
114. U.S. Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, 20 October 1955, NARA, RG59, C0008, Reel 5, 751G.00/10-1955.
115. "La Signi.cation Politique du Referendum du 23 Octobre au Sud-Vietnam," La Tribune des Nations, 21 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096.
116. "Les Electeurs Choisissent Entre Diem et Bao Dai," France-Soir, 24 October 1955, VNA2, Folder 18096.
117. "Le Vietnam de M. Diem se Prononce Demain Pour ou Contre Bao Dai," Combat, 22 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096; "Le Cirque Diem Organise le Referendum Anti-Bao Dai," Le Populaire, 22 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096.
118. "Vietnam: Succes de Diem Assure, Mais 50% d'Abstentions," L'Express, 24 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096; "Sud-Vietnam: 50% d'Abstentions au 'Referendum Diem,' "L'Humanite", 24 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 18096.
119. Nathan, "The Consequences of Partition," 13-14. Some historians, on the contrary, have argued against the political relevance and sincerity of Diem's critics. Nathan claims that, as a consequence of America's replacement of France as the predominant foreign influence on Vietnamese political affairs, there was "a burst of democratic and pseudo-democratic ideas and propaganda across the political spectrum. Pious democratic credos were uttered by men who had till then been considered power-hungry political scoundrels." Such uses of democratic rhetoric by Cao Dai and Hoa Hao generals and their allies was, according to Nathan, insignificant because none of these men ended up rising to power.
120. Cao Van Luan, Ben Giong Lich Su, 282-87.
121. Nguyen Van Minh, Lich Su Khang Chien Chong My Cuu Nuoc, 73; see also Gabriel Kolko, Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience (New York, 1985), 89. Kolko estimates that twelve thousand were killed during 1955-1957 in South Vietnam.
122. Vietnamese nationalists in France and the United States did raise some objections to Diem's handling of the elections, but they did not gain hearing in South Vietnam.
123. "Communication du General Hoa Hao Tran Van Soai au sujet des elections," 22 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 4312.
124. "Ngo Dinh Diem Dang Lam Gi???,7quot; 3 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, FFolder 4321; see also "Chung Toi Phan Doi Ngo Thu Thuong," 3 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 4321. A South Vietnamese government document in this same. le regarding the activities of Ba Cut's forces identi.es the source of these documents as Ba Cut's Hoa Hao.
125. Letter from the Commander of the Army of the Vietnamese Socialist Party to the various branches of the Army, 14 October 1955, VNA2, PTTDICH, Folder 4321.
126. See Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, 258.
127. Miller, "Grand Designs," 10.
128. Michael E. Latham, Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and "Nation Building" in the Kennedy Era (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000); see also Lucian W. Pye, "Political Modernization: Gaps between Theory and Reality," Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science 442 (March 1979): 28-39.
129. Anderson, Trapped by Success, xiii.
130. Miller, "Vision, Power and Agency," 457; Miller, "Grand Designs," 10-12.