A Letter From South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem to American
                                President John F. Kennedy

                                         December 7, 1961

Dear Mr President: Since its birth, more than six years ago, the Republic of Vietnam has enjoyed the close friendship and
co-operation of the United States of America.

Like the United states, The Republic of Vietnam has always been devoted to the preservation of peace. My people know only
too well the sorrows of war. We have honored the 1954 Geneva Agreements even though they resulted in the partitin of our
country and the enslavement of more than half of our people by Communist tyranny. We have never considered the
reunification of our nation by force. On the contrary, we have publicly pledged that we will not violate the demarcation line and
the demilitarized zone set up by the Agreements. We have always been prepared and have on many occasions stated our
willingness to reunify Vietnam on the basis of democratic and truly free elections.

The record of the Communist authorities in the northern part of the country is quite otherwise. They not only consented to the
division of Vietnam, but were eager for it. They pledged themselves to observe the Geneva Agreements and during the seven
years since have never ceased to violate them. They call for free elections but are ignorant of the very meaning of the words.
They talk of "peaceful reunification" and wage war against us.

From the beginning, the Communists resorted to terror in their efforts to subvert our people, destroy our government, and
impose a Communist regime upon us. They have attacked defenseless teachers, closed schools, killed members of our
anti-malarial program, and looted hospitals. This is coldly calculated to destroy our government's humanitarian efforts to serve
our people.

We have long sought to check the Communist attack from the North on our people by appeals to the International Control
Commission. Over the years, we have repeatedly published to the world the evidence of the Communist plot to overthrow our
government and seize control of all of Vietnam by illegal intrusions from outside our country. The evidence has mounted until
now it is hardly necessary to rehearse it. Most recently, the kidnapping and brutal murder of our Chief Liaison Officer to the
International Control Commission, Colonel Noang Thuy Nam, compelled us to speak out once more. In our October 24, 1961
letter to the ICC, we called attention again to the publicly stated determination of the Communist authorities in Hanoi to
"liberate the south" by the overthrow of my government and the imposition of a Communist regime on our people. We cited the
proof of massive infiltration of Communist agents agents and military elements into our country. We outlined the Communist
strategy, which is simply the ruthless use of terror against the whole population, women and children included.

In the course of the last few months, the communist assault on my people has achieved high ferocity. In October they caused
more than 1,800 incidents of violence and more than 2,000 casualties. They have struck occasionally in battalion strength, and
they are continually augmentating their forces by infiltration from the North. The level of their attacks is already such that our
forces are stretched to the utmost. We are forced to defend every village, every hamlet, indeed every home against a foe whose
tactic is always to strike at the defenseless.

A disastrous flood was recently added to the misfortunes of the Vietnamese people. The greater part of the three provinces
was inundated, with a great loss of property. We are now engaged in a nationwide effort to reconstruct and rehabilitate this
area. The Communists are, of course, making this task doubly difficult, for they have seized upon the disruption of normal
administration and communications as an opportunity to sow more destruction in the stricken area.

In short, the Vietnamese nation now faces what is perhaps the gravest crisis in its long history. For more than 2,000 years my
people have lived and built, fought and died in this land. We have not always been free. Indeed, much of our history and many
of its proudest moments have arisen from conquest by foreign powers and our struggle against great odds to regain or defend
our precious independence. But it is not only our freedom that is at stake today, it is our national identity. For if we lose the
war, our people will be swallowed by the Communist bloc, all our proud heritage will be blotted out by the "Socialist society"
and Vietnam will leave the pages of history. We will lose our national soul.

Mr President, my people and I are mindful of the great assistance the United States has given us. Your help has not been lightly
received, for the Vietnamese are proud people, and we are prepared to do our part in the defense of the free world. It is clear
to all of us that the defeat of the Viet Cong demands the total mobilization of our government and our people, and you may be
sure that we will devote all of our resources of money, minds, and men to this task.

But Vietnam is not a great power and the forces of international Communism now arrayed against us are more than we can
meet with the resources at hand. We must have furthur assistance from the United States if we are to win the war now being
waged against us.

We can certainly assure mankind that our action is purely defensive. Much as we regret the subjugation of more than half our
people in North Vietnam, we have no intention, and indeed no means, to free them by use of force.

I have said that Vietnam is at war. War means many things, but most of all it means the death of brave people for a cause they
believe in. Vietnam has suffered many wars, and through the centuries we have always had patriots and heroes who were
willing to shed their blood for Vietnam. We will keep faith with them.

When Communism has long ebbed away into the past, my people will still be here, a free united nation growing from the deep
roots of our Vietnamese heritage. They will remember your help in our time of need. This struggle will then be a part of our
common history. And your help, your friendship, and the strong bonds between our two peoples will be a part of Vietnam, then
as now.
 

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Letter from President Kennedy to President Diem

December 14, 1961

Dear Mr President:

I have received your recent letter in which you described so cogently the dangerous condition caused by North Vietnam's
efforts to take over your country. The situation in your embattled country is well known to me and to the American people. We
have been deeply disturbed by the assault on your country. Our indignation has mounted as the deliberate savagery of the
Communist program of assassination, kidnapping, and wanton violence became clear.

Your letter underlines what our own information has convincingly shown - that the campaign of force and terror now being
waged against your people and your government is supported and directed from the outside by the authorities at Hanoi. They
have thus violated the provisions of the Geneva Accords designed to ensure peace in Vietnam and to which they are bound
themselves in 1954.

At that time, the United States, although not a party to the Accords, declared that it "would view any renewal of the aggression
in violation of the Agreements with grave concern and as seriously threatening international peace and security." We continue to
maintain that view.

In accordance with that declaration, and in response to your request, we are prepared to help the Republic of Vietnam to
protect its people and to preserve its independence. We shall promptly increase our assistance to your defense efort as well as
help relieve the destruction of the floods which you describe. I have already given the orders to get those programs underway.

The United States, like the Republic of Vietnam, remains devoted to the cause of peace and our primary purpose is to help
your people maintain their independence. If the Communist authorities in North Vietnam will stop their campaign to destroy the
Republic of Vietnam, the measures we are taking to assist your defense efforts will no longer be necesary. We shall seek to
persuade the Communists to give up their attempts of force and subversion. In any case, we are confident that the Vietnamese
people will preserve their independence and gain the peace and prosperity for which they have fought so hard and so long.