Insia Saleh - Vietnam War 1955

After the Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel in 1954, the first military aid from U.S. arrived for the South Vietnam, in January 1955. The U.S. also offered help to South Vietnam Army in training their military. For 300 days after the Geneva Accord was signed, the borders between North and South Vietnam remained open and freedom of movement from either zone was allowed and some 850,000 refugees, mostly Catholics, fled from the North to the South. An election was also held in South Vietnam and Ngo Dinh Diem was elected Premier. On October 26, 1955, Diem declared independent Vietnam as the new Republic of Vietnam, with himself as president. Upon taking office, Ngo Dinh Diem quickly developed a reputation for using force rather than democratic means to initiate change. He used ARVN troops to reverse Communist land redistribution in South Vietnam and return landholdings to the previous owners. Fearful of Viet Minh popularity and activity in rural areas, Diem uprooted villagers from their lands and moved them to settlements under government or army surveillance. In general, Diem’s repressive policies, though designed to root out Communists from South Vietnam, actually increased sympathy for Communists in the South and rose the ranks of the southern Viet Minh. Although the southern Viet Minh were anxious to revolt against Diem, Viet Minh leaders in the North held back their southern forces because they feared that the United States might get involved in the conflict. In December, in North Vietnam, radical land reforms by Communists result in land owners being hauled before "people's tribunals". Thousands were executed or sent to forced labor camps during this period of ideological cleansing by Ho Chi Minh. In South Vietnam, President Diem rewarded his Catholic supporters by giving them land seized from Buddhist peasants, arousing their anger and eroding his support among them.

http://www.menziesera.com/vietnam/vietnam_diary.htm
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/vietnamwar/section4.rhtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War