State visit by Ngo Dinh Diem to the United States

Diệm arrived by plane in Washington, D.C., on May 8, and was personally greeted at the airport by President Dwight D. Eisenhower—an honor Eisenhower accorded to only one other visiting head of state.

He was presented with several honors by the city council and given a civic reception, before attending several functions with business leaders, marketing his country as a favorable location for foreign investment.

Diệm's success with the latter group was helped by the fact that his elder brother Ngô Đình Thục was the leading Catholic cleric in Vietnam and had studied with high-ranking priests in Rome.

After a series of disagreements, Diệm deposed Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum on October 23, 1955, and declared himself president of the newly-proclaimed Republic of Vietnam three days later.

[21] Diệm addressed these issues by crushing the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate in the Battle of Saigon in May 1955, and then deposed Bảo Đại and proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam after his brother Ngô Đình Nhu rigged a referendum that made him head of state.

A memorandum from the Office of Protocol (OP) of the State Department gave its personnel detailed information on ceremonial intricacies, such as the correct pronunciation of Diệm's name.

"[27] Various papers favourably commented on Diệm's overt opposition to communism, juxtaposing it to the position of non-aligned Asian leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Sukarno of Indonesia.

[27] Diệm arrived at noon on May 8 at the National Airport in Washington, D.C., aboard the plane of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower,[28] the Columbine III, a silver Constellation.

"[29] Attempting to put a positive spin on Diệm's lack of emotion towards the crowd, Andrew Tully of The Washington Daily News informed his readers that the president's "air of modest solemnity was far more impressive than any grinning, arm-waving performance could have been.

"[29] Diệm's failure to respond to the greetings of the masses was not new; when he returned to Vietnam from exile to become prime minister in 1954, he did not bother to wave to well-wishers at Tan Son Nhut Airport.

[26] He compared the million-strong exodus of refugees from communist North Vietnam into the South to that of the Pilgrims who had left the British Isles aboard the Mayflower and sailed to Massachusetts to escape religious persecution.

[26] AFV advisers had inserted the Pilgrims reference into the speech, as the flight of the North Vietnamese refugees had received a great deal of attention in the US due to the statements of Catholic activists.

Senator Mansfield said, "The chief credit for holding back the communist aggression not only in Vietnam, but, because of that, in Southeast Asia as well, lies in the determination, the courage, the incorruptibility, and the integrity of President Diệm, who has shown such great ability and has accomplished so much against tremendous odds.

The Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs Walter Robertson said, "Asia has given us in President Diệm another great figure, and the entire Free World has become the richer for his example of determination and moral fortitude.

"[35] At the time the Commercial Import Program (CIP) appeared to be working successfully and North Vietnam had not decided to attack the South after Diệm had canceled the planned 1956 reunification elections.

[35] The glowing press coverage of the period contrasted to that of the 1960s and 1970s, in which the American media engaged in investigative journalism that undermined the official line presented by Washington in relation to Vietnam,[28] particularly during Diệm's downfall in 1963.

[41] Diệm asked the US for a guarantee of continuing aid; at the time, two-thirds of South Vietnam's budget came from the CIP, which was mainly abused by the urban elite to buy consumer goods.

[42] Diệm knew that the Eisenhower administration and Congress wanted to make budget savings and implored them to refrain from cutting the CIP expenditure, fearing a deterioration in the Vietnamese economy.

[43] Eisenhower said that Vietnamese security was ensured by the South East Asian Treaty Organization, but Diệm remained anxious, believing that the other member states were too weak and lacking in resources to stand by their pledges to defend his country.

[45] He then went to South Orange, New Jersey, where he was conferred with an honorary law degree from the Catholic Seton Hall University, on the grounds that he, "more than anyone else, stopped the communists in their hour of partial conquest of Vietnam.

[48] The AFV had been formed by Joseph Buttinger, an IRC member who had worked in Saigon in assisting with Operation Passage to Freedom, the mass evacuation of North Vietnamese refugees to the south after the partition of Vietnam in 1954.

[28] Spellman delivered the speech and the dignitaries included Senators Mansfield and Kennedy, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and William Randolph Hearst Jr. Diệm thanked America generally and Luce and his media operations in particular for its support of Vietnam.

The dinner was also attended by IRC chairman Leo Cherne, who read a telegram from Eisenhower, extolling Diệm for exhibiting "the highest qualities of heroism and statesmanship.

"[48] The day after, Diệm attended mass with Spellman and was the guest of honor at a business lunch hosted by the Far East-America Council of Commerce and Industry at the Waldorf Astoria.

Diệm promoted South Vietnam as a business opportunity for American entrepreneurs, saying that the populace was pro-American, unlike other countries, and that they welcomed foreign investment.

Stump reiterated Washington's opinions that nuclear weapons would be used to defend any anti-communist country that was attacked by communists, in accordance with public statements made by Eisenhower and Dulles.

The Americans began to place increasing pressure on Diệm to carry out democratic reforms and liberalize the political system, particularly during the ambassadorship of Elbridge Durbrow.

Although Diệm eventually organized for loyalists to put down the coup, he was angered by Durbrow's calls for him to try to negotiate a settlement, regarding the lack of support for his zero tolerance policy as a betrayal.

The US began to lose confidence in Diệm's ability to run the country effectively and prevent the growth of the communist insurgency, and concluded that he was an obstacle to religious and thus national stability.

[56] During this time, the American press corps wrote unvarnished stories about the South Vietnamese government's policies and actions, in contrast to the supportive pieces of the 1950s, and Diệm's attempts to physically intimidate correspondents backfired.