You were in an area whose population generally supported the US presence, then .... montagnards had always experienced friction with ethnic vietnamese, right .... distinct culture, language, darker skin than the viets as well, easily distinguishable .... also, they'd collaborated with the french to greater degree than lowland viets?
There were likely differences in land tenure, as well ..... the system under which farmers hold land is absolutely basic to a lot of struggles in agrarian societies - nobody likes paying taxes or rent or whatever you call it to absentee landlords, who are all foreigners even if they live in a town ten clics away .... the french had done very well for themselves by imposing a land tenure system under which they and their local allies held the titles and collected rent and taxes ...... after Geneva in 1954 the viet cong made a very smart move, in areas under their control, however temporarily, they immediately gave farmers security of tenure, and kept taxes solidly below those of the Diem regime .... it was in these areas that the scorched earth programmes were conducted, the Speedy Express, Phoenix, My Lai sort of thing .... the Michelin company had a huge rubber plantation surrounded by such areas, and for each rubber tree damaged by US fire, an indemnity had to be paid to the company, who then turned around and paid the viet cong protection money to avoid damage as much as possible ... or so it is alleged, anyway
Those who farm should own the land, there's the fundamental principle, imho .... toward the end of the Thieu regime they discovered that idea for themselves, but it was too little too late, and clear to all that their hearts weren't in it .... if you get the food-producing hinterland on your side, you tend to win, cities can't be fortified to hold out long-term against that .... in a sense acres do indeed vote larger, this is definitely true in the g.w.n., where rural ridings have much less population than urban, so a farmer's vote weighs more .... also in the US electoral college system, where the red states swing more heft per capita |
