Despite billions in U.S. aid and an unrelenting war on internal enemies, Diem had failed to defeat the communist insurgency or build any legitimacy for himself. By the start of 1960 Diem’s regime, once held up as a model of Asian freedom and democracy, had become a brutal police state standing watch over a restive and seething people.18 None of these problems led to a reconsideration of America’s strategy in Vietnam. Eisenhower remained firm: the Diem regime must be given the tools to win its fight for freedom against communism. Since the start of his administration, Eisenhower had styled
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