'Sinking in the Swamp': An American Journalist's Perspective on the Ngo Dinh Diem Administration

“No American can return from Vietnam with his head held high and his conscience clear… The American defeat in Indochina was a futile, costly, and bloody ordeal.”

That is what American writer and journalist David Halberstam wrote in his book “The Development and Collapse of the Ngo Dinh Diem Regime - Drowning in the Swamp.”

On July 31, the National Political Publishing House Truth introduced the book of, aiming to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day September 2.

David Halberstam reported directly from the Vietnam battlefield in the early 1960s - the peak of the political crisis in the South. With more than a year in Saigon, he not only observed but also analyzed and sharply criticized the US intervention policy and the corruption of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime.

Through the book, Halberstam presents a straightforward view: Ngo Dinh Diem's government was not only unpopular but also a distorted product of blind support from Washington. While American policymakers still harbored the illusion that they could control the situation with aid, military and advisers, in reality, the revolutionary forces were increasingly expanding their influence, while the Saigon government was sinking deeper into crisis and repression.

The author does not hesitate to expose the dependence and nepotism of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. Detailed descriptions of the manipulative role of Mrs. Tran Le Xuan (Mrs. Nhu), the incompetence of the Saigon army, or the suppression of the Buddhist movement in 1963 showed that this was not a government representing the people, but a closed power apparatus, far from reality and incapable of self-existence without the "umbrella" of the United States.

Halberstam even clearly describes the cold attitude of American officials in Vietnam, when they chose to save face rather than honestly reflect on the serious decline of the puppet government.

On the morning of April 30, 1975, hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and infantry surrounded the Presidential Palace of the Saigon government. (Photo: Tran Mai Huong/VNA)

What is special about the book is the critical spirit of the author himself, an American citizen and a reporter working for Time Magazine. Halberstam sees the American war in Vietnam as an unjust war, justified by false arguments and "painted" statistics.

According to information from the publisher, although some of Halberstam's assessments are still heavily emotional and do not fully understand the role and stature of the Vietnamese revolutionary forces, it cannot be denied that he contributed a strong voice of reflection in the heart of America during the war.

Not all works written by Americans about the Vietnam War are correct, but when an American journalist admits defeat and speaks out against his own government, it is proof of the righteousness of the Vietnamese revolution and people.

In the current context, when the work of fighting against distorted arguments is increasingly focused on, the presence of the book has a particularly important meaning./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/ngap-giua-vung-lay-goc-nhin-cua-nha-bao-my-ve-chinh-quyen-ngo-dinh-diem-post1052979.vnp