Chapter 185
Chapter 185
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Indochina War (2)
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Ngo Dinh Diem was born in 1901 into a devout Catholic family in Quang Binh Province, Vietnam.
“My loyalty is to Vietnam, not the Governor-General of Indochina.”
Diem had a father named Ngo Dinh Kha, who was so upright that he quit his government post to oppose the French. Diem was influenced by him.
At one point, he had faithfully walked the path of a French colonial bureaucrat, but at some moment, Diem rebelled against French colonial rule, abandoned the guaranteed career of a bureaucrat, and took the path of a resistor.
Then, an event occurred that would change Diem’s life.
“The Korean military has occupied Indochina!”
During the World War, the Korean military had crushed the French forces.
Diem quickly approached the Korean military and demanded their help in rebuilding the Vietnamese Empire with Bao Dai as emperor.
“If you help us, Vietnam will remain a friendly nation and support Pyongyang.”
“We have no intention of staying here long. Take that up with the French.”
Disappointingly, Korea had no interest in ruling Vietnam.
No, it was worse than that.
The Koreans handed the weapons they had taken from the French to the communists, then left Indochina.
From this experience, Diem learned one fact.
Even if seeking foreign support, you needed at least a minimum level of capability.
Like Ho Chi Minh’s reds.
Under French colonial rule, Diem began quietly building his power base.
‘If you’re going to do it, you have to do it like Lee Sung-jun.’
He needed to write books and propagate his claims on the radio to show he could be an alternative.
“Sir, can Vietnam really stand as a sovereign nation right away?”
“It’s possible. Every people has the right to their own nation.”
Diem gradually became famous.
He was one of the most prominent figures among Vietnam’s independence activists.
As his fame grew like this, Diem came to have one thought.
‘Do we really need to establish an empire with Bao Dai at the head?’
He acknowledged the imperial family’s resolve shown in the Great Anti-French Uprising, but separately from that, they were too incompetent.
Had they ever achieved any proper results against the French?
Diem harbored negative thoughts about Bao Dai’s empire.
But he didn’t talk openly about it.
‘There are still many who support the monarchy.’
Diem’s such conduct drew favorable views from conservatives.
Finally, as France was pushed back by the anti-French groups and decided to cede half of Vietnam and retreat south, Diem also headed to South Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh proposed that he join a coalition government, but he rejected it outright.
‘Anything but living under the reds.’
Since Ngo Dinh Diem was such a highly respected figure, South Vietnam’s monarch, Emperor Bao Dai, proposed the prime minister position to him to stabilize the regime.
Diem gladly accepted the position Bao Dai offered.
But Diem had no intention of working under Bao Dai.
‘An anachronistic monarchy is no help at all in the coming battle against the reds.’
The emperor didn’t even have that much popular support anyway.
Diem faithfully performed his duties as prime minister for a while, then staged a coup as soon as the French troops withdrew.
“No, Diem, how could you do this? I’m the one who put you in that position!”
“Your Majesty, the Vietnamese nation and people no longer want you as emperor. So, step down from your seat before things get ugly.”
After ousting Emperor Bao Dai, Diem abolished the empire.
But succeeding in the coup didn’t mean everything was settled.
Far from it.
South Vietnam’s military, which held real power, was fundamentally not favorable toward Ngo Dinh Diem.
Even so, the military had joined the coup out of a sense of crisis that leaving the incompetent Emperor Bao Dai in place would mean getting swallowed by North Vietnam.
The military still had no intention of submitting to Diem.
The problem wasn’t just the military.
Some border regions were controlled by militarized anti-French religious factions, and the back alleys of the capital Saigon were dominated by criminal organizations.
South Vietnam was a country with no properly ordered corner.
“To rebuild this pseudo-nation into a proper one, we need Lee Sung-jun’s leadership. I will become Vietnam’s Lee Sung-jun.”
It wasn’t unreasonable for Ngo Dinh Diem to champion Korean-style democracy.
Of course, the Korean-style democracy Ngo Dinh Diem championed was the ‘original Korean-style democracy’ before the Yushin era.
It was advantageous for placating the military that held the vested interests.
“Make the military enjoy power legally? I thought Lee Sung-jun abolished that system?”
“Well, Vietnam has its own unique circumstances, doesn’t it?”
Ngo Dinh Diem secured the military’s support by providing a pseudo Yushin Council that allocated a quarter of the parliamentary seats to them.
“That Diem guy knows to check with us too—commendable.”
The military shifted to a favorable stance toward Diem, who willingly offered to share power.
Diem also reached out to the anti-French religious groups.
“I know we have differences, but isn’t there one thing we agree on?”
“What’s that?”
“Anti-communism.”
Diem wooed the religious warlords with an anti-communist ideology.
While Diem was desperately pulling the country together behind the scenes like this, North Vietnam invaded from the north.
“Diem already looks strained just handling internal affairs, and now war too. The Diem regime is done for.”
The U.S. embassy predicted the Diem regime’s lifespan at two months at most.
Such mayflies weren’t worth supporting.
The U.S. embassy judged thus, but Washington’s attitude was unexpectedly hardline.
“Anyone fighting communism is worth supporting, even if it’s a mangy son of a bitch. Support Diem with full force.”
The U.S. government’s aid opened a lifeline for the Diem regime, which had been gradually being pushed back.
“The tide has turned, you red bastards.”
North Vietnam, lacking the crucial backing of ‘Red China,’ began losing its initial momentum and getting pushed back.
North Vietnam’s leader Ho Chi Minh took the situation seriously and sought aid from Moscow, but things didn’t improve drastically.
If the Soviets put in 1, the Americans sent 10, 20.
No matter how well North Vietnam fought, with such a gap in aid, there was no answer.
“Support us properly too.”
Faced with North Vietnam’s strong protests, Moscow couldn’t just sit back and watch.
“Double the fleet.”
In response to Moscow’s stance, the U.S. also increased aid.
Unable to endure, the Soviets sent a large-scale military advisory group.
“3,000 men?”
To fill the shortages with the military advisory group, the Soviets sent an enormous number of officers and NCOs.
“If those bastards are coming out so blatantly, we have our plans too.”
The U.S. openly provided Diem’s regime with destroyers and aircraft slated for scrapping.
Military aid also doubled compared to before.
The Soviets wanted to increase supplies too, but had no way.
To do anything on a truly large scale, they needed to provide aid over land.
Over land.
That route was held solely by China.
“Chiang Kai-shek is a staunch anti-communist—can we sway him?”
“Chiang Kai-shek is impossible. But warlords?”
The Soviet foreign military intelligence agency GRU proposed support through warlords.
“Give it a try.”
Thus, the Vietnam War sparked over to China.
*
Chiang Kai-shek was nominally the ruler of all of the Republic of China, but his actual control fell far short.
Having once fallen from power, Chiang had wasted precious time to solidify his rule.
The warlords didn’t miss the opportunity and firmly entrenched their control over their territories.
Chiang was trying in his own way to recover by infiltrating central control, but his power hadn’t yet reached the provinces.
The Soviets targeted exactly this point.
The reds adopted a method of providing funds to the warlords in exchange for weapons they produced, then passing them to North Vietnam.
It was a simpler strategy than producing and transporting weapons directly.
‘They used their heads to avoid Western eyes, at least.’
But they couldn’t avoid our eyes.
We had connections with the warlords and ran an extensive intelligence network inside the Republic of China.
Figuring out the Soviets’ movements through various channels wasn’t difficult.
“So, the final conduit supplying weapons to the reds is Long Yun in Yunnan, the pro-army guy?”
“Yes. He’s at the end of the warlord belt crossing central China.”
China’s provincial governments supplying weapons to North Vietnam, transcending ideology.
Hearing it, it was so absurd it made me laugh.
Anyway, it was a perfectly formal transaction.
North Vietnam paid money, Long Yun provided weapons.
Even if the West found out and tried sanctions, it wouldn’t be easy.
‘Pressuring Chiang Kai-shek wouldn’t make Long Yun yield easily.’
Doing business like that must cost quite a bit.
“The reds put in effort.”
Lee Kyung-ho hesitated for a moment before offering his opinion.
“Your Excellency. Now that they’re getting weapons directly from China, the reds might advance more than expected. If they end up winning as a result, it could become a headache. How about leaking the info to the West before that happens?”
The Minister of Central Affairs, who seemed ruthlessly cruel, was more timid than he looked.
If the reds were that powerful, the original reds who communized even Red China would have dominated the world.
But that hadn’t happened.
I had firm conviction in the limits of communism, so I saw the reds merely as tools, not objects of fear.
“You.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“Things won’t get that tangled. I guarantee it.”
I was convinced that North Vietnam would not win.
Even if they did win, their victory would end there.
I wanted the U.S. and Soviets to take a hit enough to stagger them this time.
‘Fighting for about 10 years would be good.’
That way, Daehan—my nation under Lee Sung-jun—would have a chance to surge upward.
“So, just watch.”
“Understood.”
I dropped the remaining cigarette butt onto the Vietnam map.