Vietnam President diem and us reaction to his election - 1955 to 1963
South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem was born in 1909. Diem was born to a strong catholic family and attended Catholic school as a child and later attended a privet school started by his father. Diem graduated top of his class in 1921 and followed the footsteps of his eldest brother by joining the civil service. He served at the royal library in Hue and within a year was the district chief. Diem was promoted to be a provincial chief at the age of 25, overseeing 300 villages. During the late 1940’s Diem travelled to America where he met with powerful men like the President at the time John F. Kennedy. He came to power in 1955 with help from the United States, However after this rise to power the United States realized that he was not willing to work with them and he rejected most of their support. There was another vote between Diem and Bo Dai, the outcome of this election was not completely fair due to the methods used by Diem to get votes such as the use of threats at the voting stands to force citizens to vote for him. Due to these tactics Diem won with a 98.2% vote. Diem was later informed that he had to win the general election as well so he started arresting the opposition going for the communists and socialists. The United States began with a position of protection over Diem but they soon realized that he was unpopular and began to stop the protection over him. Without the protection of the United States Diem was overthrown in November of 1962. Diem was elected into office prior to the Vietnam War and due to what transpired he helped set in motion the events that lead into the involvement of the United States in Vietnam and the Vietnam War.