What was ngo dinh diem

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He left the United States a year later and took up residence in a Belgian monastery. Following the fall of Dien Bien Phu in , Diem returned to Vietnam to accept the premiership, which he assumed on July 7, two weeks before the Geneva Accords divided the country.

Long opposed to Emperor Bao Dai, Diem defeated him in a noncontested election in , declaring South Vietnam a republic and becoming its first president. Diem at first displayed outstanding leadership, building new schools and roads and surprisingly quickly rehabilitating a badly shattered economy.

He refused to acquiesce in the reunification elections set by the Geneva Accords, however. The Communists subsequently inaugurated a strategy of armed revolt. Diem became more autocratic as the war years progressed.

His family had always been clannish, and he became increasingly dependent on the advice of his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, whose attractive and assertive wife also played a major role in his government. Diem's lack of judgment was particularly evident in , when government forces fired on Buddhist demonstrators in Hue, killing eight and precipitating a crisis in which several monks subsequently burned themselves to death.