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U.S. Ambassador Elbridge Durbrow and the heads of other U.S. government agencies in South Vietnam gave a negative assessment of the Diem government to Washington. They stated that discontent with the Diem government in rural areas was growing and a growing problem with internal security was anticipated.
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Troubled by reports of oppression in South Vietnam, Socialist Norman Thomas resigned from the American Friends of Vietnam, a prominent lobbying group which supported the Diem government.
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A South Vietnamese army truck was ambushed by insurgents and all occupants were killed. This was one of several attacks in February on government and military personnel in the Mekong Delta region of southernmost South Vietnam.
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Three hundred Bình Xuyên insurgents attacked the Minh Thanh Rubber Plantation north of Saigon.
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As part of their efforts to advance the Unification referendum North Vietnam sent messages to the Government of South Vietnam. These letters proposed loosening of economic restrictions between the two countries and preparations for a "free general elections by secret ballot,". The messages were either rebuffed or ignored by the South Vietnamese government.
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Prime Minister of North Vietnam, stated at a communist party meeting that the North should pursue reunification of North and South Vietnam by using peaceful means.
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The CIA estimated that the Viet Cong numbered 1,700 armed men
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To defend themselves against the offensives of the South Vietnamese army the Viet Cong, contrary to the wishes of North Vietnam, began to organize themselves into military units.
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Communist party leaders met with representatives of the highland Montagnard people in Quang Ngai province of South Vietnam to plan an uprising against the Diem government
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The U.S. Embassy in Saigon reported to Washington that "in many remote areas the central government of South Vietnam has no effective control."
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An insurgent force of 400 men raided the Michelin Rubber Plantation north of Saigon
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General Williams, the head of MAAG, opposed the use of the South Vietnamese army to respond to the growing number of Viet Cong attacks.
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Chinese leader Mao Zedong introduced his "noose strategy" in a speech to Supreme State Council of China.
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The Ugly American, an anti-communist novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, was published and serialized in The Saturday Evening Post.
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The Diem government of South Vietnam, by the end of 1958, had killed 12,000 persons and arrested 40,000 in its campaign to repress the communists and other opposition in South Vietnam.
