bribery. It has been practiced long before Diem and long before the communist. It is a part of Vietnam life. Khiem explains: “The Americans and people who do not live in Vietnam see bribery as corruption. But, let me tell you something. Vietnam is a country of poverty. And in countries of poverty, bribery is common. It is not a good thing, but relative to Vietnam it is not a shocking, appalling thing that the Americans have made it to be. People can hardly feed themselves here. So they take what they can get in order for their family to survive. We have a word for it. It is called Than Nhung. It is as common as free speech in America. We just accept it. The election for Diem in 1955 was the same way. No one was nave to believe that it was fair. We all knew that it was rigged, but no one here really cares. It is just how things are done in Vietnam. The Diem Regime was corrupt, but so is every regime that has ever ruled Vietnam. The Americans look at it as a major problem then, and even now. But they don’t live there and the only thing that the American criticizing of corruption did was help the Viet Cong in their propaganda. The Americans have to understand Vietnam before they can make quality judgements.” According to Khiem, the people took the corruption of the Diem government as common practice. They disliked it, but, more or less, were indifferent. From 1954-1956 almost one million Catholics living in Bac, or the north, migrated to the south with the help of the US. This group was an enormous new supply of loyal supporters of Diem, mainly because Diem and his family were Catholic and held a long history of Catholic roots. Vietnam, however, was predominantly Buddhist, and problems arose. Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Ngu believed Buddhist leaders were Viet Cong in disguise. Problems had occurred between the Buddhist and Diem since 1955, but the escalation of the problem to unprecedented terms occurred on May 8, 1963...
