Australia in the Vietnam war era
Part A: Personal background info
Ho Chi Minh
Ho chi minh was born as Nguyen Sinh Cung on May 19th, 1980 in Kim Lien, Vietnam. His father was a Confucian scholar and teacher. At the age of ten, Ho chi Minh’s mother died while giving birth. Ho chi minh had three siblings a sister and two brother, which one died at birth. He mastered the art of Chinese writing along with Vietnamese writing. Between the ages of 14 and 18 he was able to study at a grammar school in Hue. Ho to attain French education, He is known to have been a schoolmaster in Phan Thiet and then was apprenticed at Cao Thang Technical College in Saigon. Leaving school, His first stop was at the Duc Thanh School in Phan Thiet for about six months, after which he travelled to Sai Gon. Ho’s disagreement to colonialism began at the age of nine, when he worked as a messenger for an anticolonial organisation. Ho went on to attend the National Academy in Hue, Vietnam. Dismissed from the academy after taking part in protests against the French in 1908, he traveled to southern Vietnam in 1909 and worked briefly as a schoolteacher. In 1911, he found work as a cook on a French steamer. He was a seaman for more than three years, visiting African ports and the American cities of Boston and New York and began to develop his language skills, eventually learning Chinese, French, Russian, English, and Thai After living in London from 1915 to 1917, he moved to France, where he worked, as a gardener, sweeper, waiter and oven stoker. During his stay in France from 1919 until 1923, Ho Chi Minh decided to take politics seriously. His friend Marcel Cachin, comrade of the Socialist Party helped him in the progression. He led the Vietnamese nationalist group and became the founding member of the Parti Communiste Francais. Ho left for Moscow to get himself enrolled at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1923. Ho Chi Minh was a communist, groundbreaking leader and leader and founder of Viet minh and was so important to Vietnam because he who fought to free Vietnam and the people from colonial influence.
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem was born on January 3rd, 1901 in Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. His full name was Jean Baptiste Ngo Dinh Diem. His father, Ngo Dinh ka, became a mandarin and counselor to Emperor Thanh Thai during the French colonisation. Diem had six brothers and three sisters. In 1907, the French deposed the emperor because of his complaints about the colonisation. Diem’s father retired in protest and became a farmer. Diem worked in the family’s rice fields while studying at a French Catholic school, and later entered a private school started by his father. At age fifteen he followed his elder brother, into a monastery. After a few months he left, finding it too difficult. In 1919 At the end of his secondary schooling, He moved to Hanoi to study at the School of Public Administration and Law. In 1921, Diem followed in the footsteps of his eldest brother joining the civil service as a junior official. Diem was promoted to be a provincial chief at the age of 28. During his career as a mandarin, Diem was known for his workaholism and incorruptibility, and as a Catholic leader and nationalist in 1925, he first encountered communists distributing propaganda. Appalled by calls for violent socialist revolution contained in the propaganda leaflets, Diem involved himself in anti-communist activities for the first time, printing his own pamphlets. In 1929, he was promoted to the governorship of Binh Thuan Province and was known for his work ethic. In 1930 and 1931, he helped the French suppress the first peasant uprisings organised by the communists. Diem also conducted extensive nationalist activities and engaging in meetings with his friend, Phan Boi Chau, a Vietnamese anti-colonial activist. Ngo Dinh Diem was an anti-communist and was so important to Vietnam and its people because he freed them from being colonial ruled by the French. Ngo Dinh Diem became the first president of South Vietnam in 1955 and remained in this position until his assassination in 1963.
Part B: leadership style and how this impacted Vietnamese people
Ho Chi minh
Ho Chi Minh was a Communist leader, and Confucian humanist, who led the country’s struggle for independence in the 1940s and was a major figure in the war between North and South Vietnam in the 1960s. Ho chi minh sacrificed his own life for his people and country, he had a strong belief about Vietnams independence and aligned himself with other nationalists. Ho chi minh had an ability to relate to the common Vietnamese people. Vietnam admired him for his integrity and determination, he knew the way of the Vietnamese life, philosophy and religion. He didn’t adjust to the European cultures or religions. “He was so passionate about Vietnams independence that he explained patriotism not communism was what inspired him”, said Stanley Karnow in 1998. He was intellectual, and his background help him succeed in making in the lives of the Vietnamese people.
Ngo Dinh dDem
Ngo Dinh Diem being wealthy and catholic may have created distress for the Buddhist Vietnamese people. Diem didn’t relate to the common people, him also working for the colonial for the French government caused many Vietnamese people to distrust him. Diem was intelligent and hardworking but did not have the compassion and kindness for the common people who mad up most of south Vietnam. Ngo Dinh Diem saw the Vietnamese people as possible enemies who must be kept under surveillance. He engaged in religiously cruel policies. An example of this is when nine Buddhist civilians were killed as they protested Diem’s government on flying the Buddhist flag in honor of Buddha’s birthday. Diem’s imprisoning and, often, killing of those who expressed opposition to his command further isolated the South Vietnamese population, mostly the Buddhists who protested Diem’s discrimination against them. He is an autocratic leader and uses his propaganda against communists, religious beliefs and influences to get what he wants. Ngo Dinh Diem was a paranoid and ruthless dictator whose use of terror and his unfair polices, such as his refusal to hold elections and the destruction of Buddhists in South Vietnam, gave rise to fear and hatred of the South Vietnamese people and contributed to the rise of the guerrilla army known as the Viet Cong.
Part C: Leader you would prefer
The leader I would prefer is Ho Chi Minh because
Bibliography
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/southeast-asia-history-biographies/ngo-dinh-diem
http://movies2.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0519.html
