Ngo Dinh Diem and the Fate of South Vietnam

In the book “False Alliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, America and the Fate of South Vietnam”, author Edward Miller clearly and multi-dimensionally sketched the image of Ngo Dinh Diem and gave his own explanation of the relationship between Ngo Dinh Diem and America.

The book “False Alliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, America and the Fate of South Vietnam” was published in English by Harvard University Press in 2013, then the National Political Publishing House bought the copyright, organized the translation and published it in Vietnamese for the first time in 2016 with the support of the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City.

Introducing the book — Author Edward Miller and Mr. Le Nguyen Long (Researcher, translator, lecturer at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi) interact with readers. Photo: dangcongsan

The book opens on a day in June 1954, when Ngo Dinh Diem set foot on the bustling land of Saigon with a welcoming ceremony for the new prime minister of the South Vietnamese government and ends on November 1, 1963, with the event of Diem and his younger brother, advisor Ngo Dinh Nhu, being killed in an M-113 armored vehicle.

With a time lag of 60 years, based on rich sources of documents about Vietnam in the period from 1954 - 1963, especially Vietnamese documents of the Republic of Vietnam government from the archives of Western countries, author Miller pointed out that between Diem and the US, although they shared the same goal of "fighting communism", there were still frequent disagreements between these two allies, creating conflicts and competition.

According to Miller, the conflict in different visions and strategies between the Americans and Ngo Dinh Diem for the fate of South Vietnam in the post-colonial period was an important factor causing the ups and downs of the US-Diem relationship and the fate of the Republic of Vietnam government, leading to the collapse of the US-Diem alliance in 1963.

Based on his own viewpoints, positions and exploited sources, the author has some interpretations and assessments of some events and characters that are different from the assessments of Vietnamese historical researchers, such as assessments of President Ho Chi Minh; of communism, the Southern revolution, the Dong Khoi movement; of Ngo Dinh Diem personally; of the reasons leading to the failure of the Saigon government... Respecting the author's opinions and for the convenience of readers in researching and referring to them, the Publishing House tries to keep the content as original, and at the same time affirms that this is the author's personal opinion.

This is a book well worth reading, as Larry Berman, author of Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Correspondent and Vietnamese Communist Spy commented when the book was first published in 2013 in the US: “A great contribution to our understanding of America’s misguided intervention in Vietnam. Great books advance historical knowledge and debate, and that is exactly what Miller has achieved. Misalignment could easily be the best new book of the year.”

In addition, when the book was published in the US, it created a "fever" in both the US and Vietnam. Professor Keith Weller Taylor - a researcher on Vietnamese history at Cornell University, a veteran who fought in Vietnam, commented on this book: "...not only is it a big step forward in our understanding of Ngo Dinh Diem and the US-Vietnam relationship, but it will also fundamentally change the direction of academic research on the Vietnam War".

Speaking at the Seminar and book introduction, Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Branch of the Truth National Political Publishing House, said that in this edition, the book has added a research work by the author on religious revival and the political aspect of the nation-building process - another perspective on the "Buddhist Incident" in 1963 in South Vietnam, placed in the Appendix to provide more information and documents from foreigners about a difficult historical period of the Vietnamese people, serving the needs of learning and research of scholars, lecturers, researchers, students majoring in history and politics, ... as well as readers interested in this topic.

At the Book Introduction Seminar, readers listened to two speakers share valuable and interesting information about the content, compilation, translation and publishing process of the book. At the event, the author of the book, Edward Miller, signed the book for readers who attended and bought the book at the Seminar.

PV (t/h)

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