spartans_in_darkness

Tep SE€RETr'/€OMltHi'/)(1
EO 1.4. (c)
... Only known or suspected Communists
who have threatened public security since July
19.54 [Geneva Accords] are supposed to be
arrested and 'reeducated' under these decrees.
But many
non-communists have also been
detained. The whole machinery of security has
been used to discourage active opposition of
any kind from any source.
('fS//SI) Yet, during the same process of neutralizing
all opposition Diem sowed the seeds for
his future dmvnfall.1
(U) What was a verv leal outcome of DIem s
program was the increased number of imprisonments
of all of Diem's opponents, regardless of
their political leanings. The South Vietnamese
Ministry of Information claimed that over 48,000
people had been jailed between 1954 and 1960,
but other observers claimed far in excess of that. n
(U) Diem's regime also pursued policies
designed to antagonize a large portion of the ethnic
Montagnard tribes living in the central mountainous
region, often referred to as the Tay
Nguyen, or the western highlands, which include
the Provinces of Kontum, Darlac, Pleiku, Quang
Due, Tuyen Due, and Lam Dong. This portion of
South Vietnam often figured in the strategic planning
for both Saigon and Washington, who realized
that its control by the communists could
threaten to split the country.
(U) The Montagnard tribesman had been
granted a measure of autonomy by the French
during the earlier war against the Viet Minh. But
Diem moved to control the tribes more closely. In
March 1955, the Tay Nguyen region lost its
autonomy and was incorporated into the South
Vietnamese state. Diem moved to impose
Tefl SEeRETHeOMINTH)(1 Page 59