Ngo Dinh Diem Regime Photos

So under the noses of government officials and a major army force, the Communists have established their own government in the Mekong Delta. It has almost eroded away the authority of the anti-Communist Saigon regime, and, perhaps more significantly, has taken major steps toward replacing it with an authority of their own.

The growing devastation and depopulation of the countryside sharpened the contrast between rural Vietnamese women and the wealthy Saigon housewife. Because women usually but quietly managed the family finances, as well as much of the retail trade in shops and market stalls, the rich Saigon housewife worried about the price of rise and milk; the rural woman had rice but was worried about how long she could hold it before being forced to use it to pay off Viet Cong or government troops.

“Throughout the war Vietnamese women remained largely nameless, with several exceptions. One notable exception was Madame Nhu…”

“Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, the beautiful, razor-tongued sister-in-law of the president. She soon worsened the already strained government-press relations by declaring Western correspondents in Vietnam were worse than Communists because they believe whatever the Communists say and speak for them – but in a Western tone. ‘That is why it is worse.’ No U.S. official ins Saigon or Washington countered her explosive remarks.”