This poster shows President Ngo Dinh Diem, first President of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1955 until a military coup and his assassination in 1963. After the 1954 Geneva Accords called for a temporary partition of Vietnam at the 17th Parallel (Communist in the North and French-backed non-Communist in the South) and an election to reunify the two zones in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower committed U.S. support to the new anti-Communist South Vietnamese government.
Diem inscribed the poster: “We must combine our hearts and spirits, our determination, and our abilities in order to defend the homeland and the people’s welfare in independence and unity.” But Diem faced multiple threats: some members of his inherited government and military were associated with the hated French; mobsters controlled much of Saigon; and French-supported armed religious sects and military officers challenged his leadership.
