Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part IV. A. 5.djvu/206

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  "Expect general elections, but in prudence, anticipate their not being held, and prepare to take the South by force if necessary.

Move north the bulk of the Viet Minh forces in the South, and upgrade as a reserve.

Foster strong ties among the regroupees with families in the South.

Establish an effective political infrastructure in the South, and work to weaken the government as well as the position of foreign powers there."

In 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem, with patent U.S. backing, refused to open consultations with the DRV preliminary to the expected plebescite. There followed in rapid succession Diem’s own plebescite, the casting off of Bao Dai, and the withdravral of the French. When July, 1956, passed, hope that the Geneva Settlement might lead toward reunification waned in the North. It was thereafter increasingly clear that peaceable reunification was not in prospect for the foreseeable future. Ho Chi Minh, in a 1956 letter to the 90,000 to 130,000 regroupees who had gone North in the expectation of returning that year, explained the seeming inaction of the DRV on their behalf as follmvs: ""Our policy is: to consolidate the North and to keep in mind the South.

"To build a good house, we must build a strong foundation. To have a vigorous plant with green leaves, beautiful flowers, and good fruit, we must take care of it and feed the root.

"The North is the foundation, the root of the struggle for complete national liberation and the reunification of the country. That is why everything we are doing in the North i s aimed at strengthening both the North and the South. Therefore, to work here is the same as struggling in the South: it is to struggle for the South and for the whole of Viet-Nam.

"Struggle is always accompanied by difficulties. But your difficulties are our common difficulties. After fifteen years of devastating war, the newly liberated North is suffering many privavations ….

" ... our political struggle will...be a long and hard struggle, then the tendency to become impatient, pessimistic, and to succumb to other cares will disappear.

"The political struggle will certainly be victorious, national reunification will certainly be achieved." 69/" Rh