Knowing who is fighting whom during the Vietnam War is sometimes difficult. Many Individuals and organizations involved on both sides of the 17th parallel fought for control of the country. In the context of the Vietnamese society, the wars in Vietnam are better understood by taking a look at the leaders of North and South Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem. Learning more about the two different styles of leadership will help to understand how they gained support from the Vietnamese people and other nations for their cause. The Democratic Republic of North Vietnam consisted of the land in Southeast Asia located north of the 17th parallel, as defined by the 1954 Geneva Agreements. The Soviet Union and China supported the DRV in its fight against the Republic of Vietnam in the south, which was supported by the United States. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Vietnamese nationalist movement that opposed French colonial rule, and president of the DRV from 1945 until he died in 1969. Ngo Dinh Diem served as prime minister and then was the first president of the RVN from 1945-1963. The DRV was based on the communist model and the RVN was based on a democratically elected government modeled after the U.S. Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem both gained support for their initiative, but with a very different approach.
The details of Ho Chi Minh’s life are vague causing much speculation about how his worldview was shaped. It is believed that Ho’s father was a strong Vietnamese nationalist who passed along to him the belief that Vietnam belonged to the Vietnamese (Frankum, 2011). Ho left the Lycee Huoc-Hoc before graduation and his journeys took him to Europe, the U.S. and Asia where he began developing his philosophy for Vietnamese independence. Ho worked in Europe during World War I and the effects of the war helped shape his vision of the West and the role he played in Vietnam (Moss, 2010). According to Kirkpatrick (2006), “Ho Chi Minh was the great contradiction: a dedicated communist who was also a fervent nationalist”.
Ho Chi Minh wanted Vietnam’s Independence first, free from colonial or foreign interference and he was determined to achieve his goal while gaining support from other nations for his independence movement. After WWI he traveled to Versailles to represent Vietnam in the peace talks, but he was not taken seriously and failed to gain a meeting with President Wilson. Ho became a member of the French Communist Party to work from within, but when the French failed to meet his expectations Ho traveled to the Soviet Union in disapproval of Western communism while showing a preference for the philosophies in Russia (Kirkpatrick, 2006). Ho also traveled to China where he became familiar with Chinese anticolonial revolution. Ho supported the U.S. effort during WWII because he wanted to develop a relationship with the country capable of aiding in Vietnam’s independence movement and influencing France. Ho actively resisted France, Japan, China, and the U.S. when doing so meant advancing the Vietnamese independence, but by the same token, he actively supported them for the same reason.
Ho Chi Minh (He Who Enlightens) projected his image as a man of the people. For example, he was often photographed in peasant clothes among the North Vietnamese people and was viewed as a simple man who required little and wanted only to see his country through to independence. Ho was a political activist committed to the unification of Vietnam. He was a very driven and determined leader who never lost sight of his goal of an independent Vietnam and whose leadership afforded the admiration of the Vietnamese. He truly cared for the oppressed Vietnamese people and their struggles exemplifying a true Marxist. He made several attempts to seek out a compromise in order to avoid war. Often referred to as Uncle Ho, Ho Chi Minh stood in contrast to his South Vietnamese rival, Ngo Dinh Diem.
Unlike his counterpart in the North, Ngo Dinh Diem was an anticommunist and devout Catholic, a religion he took with him to the South. Diem’s rise to power took a different path from that of Ho. Emperor Bao Dai appointed him to office. Diem had his mind set on power and prestige and he did not negotiate. Diem believed that only he could bring order back to Vietnam and he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Diem refused to be a “puppet” and constantly rejected advice from the U.S (Moss, 2010). According to Frankum (2011), Diem adopted the philosophy of personalism in an effort to create a viable democratic state. He combined this philosophy with Catholicism and anticommunism. Personalism emphasizes human dignity or individualism instead of being part of the masses, the opposite of communism. However, Diem’s personalism was weak compared to the communist ideology and failed to rally the South Vietnamese to his cause. Diem proved his worth to the U.S. by defeating the Binh Xuyen and rallying the Vietnamese people to his side, which was deemed a “miracle” (Moss, 2010). Eventually the number of people who did not like him grew, in part, due to his poor land reform programs, failure to promote industrialization, and his attacks on the people who did not support him. According to Moss (2010), Diem’s obsolete political philosophy and authoritarian methods of governance prevented him from ever achieving a broad base of support.
The vast difference in leadership styles between Ho and Diem was the degree to which they relied on their allies for strength and growth. Ho accepted aid from other nations to help industrialize and strengthen North Vietnam, but due to the long history of foreign rule in Vietnam he was committed to helping his country become unified and self-sufficient instead of becoming dependent on China or the Soviet Union. Diem on the other hand became totally reliant on the U.S. to finance its operations. In the end it is clear that of the two conflicting ideologies, Diem’s would never have been able to unite South Vietnam against communism.