| 1956 in the Vietnam War | |||
|---|---|---|---|
← 1955 1957 → | |||
 Ba Cụt in Cần Thơ Military Court 1956 | |||
| |||
| Belligerents | |||
 South Vietnam |
Anti-government insurgents: Viet Minh cadres[2]Hòa Hảo sect | ||
| Commanders and leaders | |||
| Ba Cụt | |||
| Strength | |||
| Viet Minh: 4,300 [1] | |||
| Casualties and losses | |||
| US casualties: 1 [3] | |||
Ngo Dinh Diem consolidated his power as the President of South Vietnam. He declined to have a national election to unify the country as called for in the Geneva Accords. In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh apologized for certain consequences of the land reform program he had initiated in 1955. The several thousand Viet Minh cadres the North had left behind in South Vietnam focused on political action rather than insurgency. The South Vietnamese army attempted to root out the Viet Minh.
France completed its military withdrawal from Vietnam. The United States expanded the number of its military advisers in South Vietnam. The first American killed in the Vietnam War died June 8 at the hand of another American soldier.
In 1956 the term Viet Cong came into use and gradually replaced the older term Viet Minh. The government-controlled Saigon press first started using the term referring to communists in South Vietnam as Viet Cong a shortening of Viet Nam Cong-San which means "Vietnamese Communist".[1]
- ^ a b c "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954-1960". Pentagon Papers. 1 Chapter 5 (Section 3). Beacon Press: 314–46. 1971. Archived from the original on 14 May 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
- ^ Thousands of Viet Minh cadres had stayed behind after Vietnam was split into North and South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government wanted a national referendum on unification as per the Geneva Accords. As such they forbid the southern Viet Minh cadres from anything but low level insurgency actions instead issuing directives to focus on political action and persuasion in preparation for the scheduled elections. The Diem government of South Vietnam refused to hold the elections.[1]
- ^ Tovo, Ken (18 March 2005). "From the ashes of the Phoenix: Lessons for contemporary counterinsurgency operations" (PDF). Air University. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2006. Retrieved 31 March 2010.