Changes

Unwilling to accept or even consider free elections, and with the South's economy growing rapidly and its prospects looking brighter by the day, Ho Chi Minh was up against a wall.  A unity government was established in Laos, and the US was firmly committed to defending South Vietnam from conquest.  Huge numbers of North Vietnamese desperately fled to the South for freedom.  Cambodia was neutral and united behind the rule of [[Sihanouk]].  Despite repeated diplomatic efforts by the US to bring about a peaceful regional settlement; Hanoi became increasingly convinced that the revolution could be spread throughout Indochina only by force.

Unwilling to accept or even consider free elections, and with the South's economy growing rapidly and its prospects looking brighter by the day, Ho Chi Minh was up against a wall.  A unity government was established in Laos, and the US was firmly committed to defending South Vietnam from conquest.  Huge numbers of North Vietnamese desperately fled to the South for freedom.  Cambodia was neutral and united behind the rule of [[Sihanouk]].  Despite repeated diplomatic efforts by the US to bring about a peaceful regional settlement; Hanoi became increasingly convinced that the revolution could be spread throughout Indochina only by force.

From 1956 to 1959, the North Vietnamese Communists (who would ultimately kill at ''least'' a million of their own people<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM</ref>) embarked on a ruthless "land reform" in which upwards of 50,000 people were slaughtered in a series of violent killings and purges by the state.<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>  In addition to these executions, untold tens of thousands were worked to death in concentration camps.  Although most scholars estimate the deaths were in the tens if not scores of thousands; President [[Nixon]] claimed that, based on US intelligence (which may have been faulty), up to 500,000 had been executed and 500,000 worked to death in these three years alone.<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>  Domestic repression escalated dramatically, and the only free paper in North Vietnam was shut down after writing:  'If somebody tells me to keep my mouth shut in case the Americans and Diem should make capital out of what I say, I reply: "Diem has a very good case when he refuses to hold joint consultations with us on the ground that there is no freedom in North Vietnam."'<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>

From 1956 to 1959, the North Vietnamese Communists (who would ultimately kill at ''least'' half a million and as many as 1.5 million North Vietnamese citizens<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM</ref>) embarked on a ruthless "land reform" in which upwards of 50,000 people were slaughtered in a series of violent killings and purges by the state.<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>  In addition to these executions, untold tens of thousands were worked to death in concentration camps.  Although most scholars estimate the deaths were in the tens if not scores of thousands; President [[Nixon]] claimed that, based on US intelligence (which may have been faulty), up to 500,000 had been executed and 500,000 worked to death in these three years alone.<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>  Domestic repression escalated dramatically, and the only free paper in North Vietnam was shut down after writing:  'If somebody tells me to keep my mouth shut in case the Americans and Diem should make capital out of what I say, I reply: "Diem has a very good case when he refuses to hold joint consultations with us on the ground that there is no freedom in North Vietnam."'<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>

In 1959, Hanoi's politburo received a series of reports indicating that even though the North had been directing a phase one guerrilla insurgency in the South for two years, the South was socially and economically out-pacing the North. "By Tet of 1959," William Colby writes in his book, Lost Victory, "it was plain that a nationalist and non-Communist Vietnam was firmly established. It was also becoming apparent that its future was, if anything, more promising than the gray and regimented society in the North."<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>  

In 1959, Hanoi's politburo received a series of reports indicating that even though the North had been directing a phase one guerrilla insurgency in the South for two years, the South was socially and economically out-pacing the North. "By Tet of 1959," William Colby writes in his book, Lost Victory, "it was plain that a nationalist and non-Communist Vietnam was firmly established. It was also becoming apparent that its future was, if anything, more promising than the gray and regimented society in the North."<ref>http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>