🎯 Its aims
To overthrow Diem's government and drive out American influence. It promised land for peasants, more freedom, and a neutral South Vietnam, with reunification of the country to follow.
US Policy and Intervention, 1954-64 » The NLF and the Ho Chi Minh Trail
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A4, Key topic 2
- Why Ho Chi Minh's government in the North decided to help the fight in the South
- What the National Liberation Front (NLF) was, what it wanted and who supported it
- What the Ho Chi Minh Trail was and why it mattered
- How to answer a 'Describe TWO features of EITHER ... OR ...' question
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Unlock This CourseHo's aim: one Vietnam
At the Geneva Conference in 1954 Vietnam was split at the 17th parallel, and elections to join the two halves were meant to be held in 1956. They never took place, because Diem refused to hold them. For Ho Chi Minh and the Communist leaders in Hanoi, this was a betrayal. They wanted reunification, one Vietnam under Communist leadership, and they were not willing to give up on it.
Key terms:
- Reunification: joining North and South Vietnam together again as one country.
- National Liberation Front (NLF): the organisation set up in 1960 to fight Diem's government in the South.
- Vietcong: the name Diem's government and the Americans gave to the NLF and its fighters. It is short for 'Vietnamese Communists'.
At first Hanoi hoped to win by peaceful means, and it was busy rebuilding the North. But in the South, Diem's government arrested and punished former Vietminh and other opponents. Many of these people begged Hanoi to let them fight back. In January 1959 the Communist leaders in Hanoi agreed that armed struggle in the South could begin. That decision, and the support that followed it, was the main way Ho's policy of uniting Vietnam hit South Vietnam.
The National Liberation Front
The NLF was formed in the South in December 1960. Its fighters were organised into an army, called the People's Liberation Armed Forces. The NLF was not made up only of Communists. It also brought in other people who were against Diem, such as peasants, teachers and some Buddhists. This helped it to say that it was a movement of the Vietnamese people, and not just an arm of Hanoi. In reality Communists held the key positions, and Hanoi gave help and guidance.
🌾 Its supporters
Many peasants who disliked Diem's land policy and his forced moves of peasants into new settlements, people angry at his harsh rule, and former Vietminh who had stayed in the South. Some Buddhists also backed it.
⚔️ Its methods
Guerrilla attacks on government troops and posts. The NLF also killed village officials who worked for Diem, and it set up its own local leaders in villages it controlled.
NLF fighters often lived among the peasants and looked like ordinary farmers, which made them hard to find. Many peasants fed and hid them, some willingly and some out of fear. The reasons for support differed. Some people believed in Communism. Many more were simply angry with Diem, and the NLF was the group that stood against him. By the early 1960s the NLF controlled large parts of the countryside.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
The NLF needed weapons, supplies and trained men, and these came largely from the North. To move them, Hanoi built a network of paths and roads leading south. In May 1959 it set up a special transport group, known as Group 559, to organise this. Westerners called the network the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Vietnamese called it the Truong Son Road, after the mountains it passed through.
Key term:
- Ho Chi Minh Trail: the network of jungle paths and roads that carried men and supplies from North Vietnam to the fighters in the South.
The Trail did not run along the border. It wound through the mountains and jungle of neighbouring Laos and Cambodia, which made it harder to attack and harder for South Vietnam to cut. At first it was a series of footpaths. Porters carried loads on their backs, and others pushed loaded bicycles. Over time Hanoi improved it with roads, bridges and hidden camps. Trees and jungle hid it from the air.
The Trail mattered for three reasons:
- It brought weapons and supplies to the NLF without having to cross the dividing line between the two Vietnams.
- It carried men south. Thousands of Southern-born Communists who had moved north after 1954 returned along it, and from 1964 North Vietnamese regular soldiers also began to use it.
- Its route through Laos and Cambodia made it difficult to stop, and this became a major problem for the USA. How the USA tried to stop it is covered in later lessons.
Why the NLF and the Trail mattered
Together, the NLF and the Trail turned the unrest in the South into a real war. The NLF gave Diem's opponents a leader and a plan, and the Trail kept them supplied. By 1963 Diem's government was losing control of large areas. How the USA responded is covered in the next lesson, Strategic Hamlets, the Fall of Diem and the Gulf of Tonkin.
Common mistakes
- Saying the NLF was part of the North Vietnamese army. It was a Southern organisation, though Hanoi supported and guided it.
- Saying all NLF supporters were Communists. Many were peasants who were angry with Diem.
- Thinking the Trail was one road inside Vietnam. It was a network of routes, much of it through Laos and Cambodia.
- Mixing up 'Vietminh' (the fighters against the French) with 'Vietcong' (the name for the NLF and its fighters in the 1960s).
Exam-style question
Describe TWO features of EITHER the National Liberation Front (NLF) OR the Ho Chi Minh Trail. [6 marks]
Model answer
I will describe two features of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
One feature of the Trail was that it was a network of routes through the jungle and mountains of Laos and Cambodia. This helped to hide it from the air and from South Vietnamese forces, and made it hard to cut. At first it was mostly footpaths used by porters and men pushing bicycles.
A second feature was that it carried men and supplies from North Vietnam to the fighters in the South. It was organised by a special transport group, Group 559, set up in 1959. It supplied weapons to the NLF, and from 1964 it was also used by North Vietnamese soldiers.
What lifts it to the top level: it gives two separate features, and each one is backed up with accurate extra detail.
Exam tip
You must choose only ONE of the two options, so do not describe both. Pick the one you know best, name two different features, and add two or three facts to each. A single feature, however detailed, can only earn half the marks.
Recap
- Ho Chi Minh wanted a reunified Vietnam. After Diem refused the 1956 elections and attacked his opponents, Hanoi agreed in 1959 to armed struggle in the South.
- The NLF was formed in December 1960. It wanted to overthrow Diem and remove American influence, and it drew support from many peasants and other opponents of Diem as well as Communists.
- The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a network of routes through Laos and Cambodia that carried supplies and men to the South.
- Together they turned discontent in the South into a war.