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The Ngo Dinh Diem presidential visit to Australia from 2 to 9 September 1957 was an official visit by the first president of the Republic of Vietnam.〔Ham, p. 57.〕 It was part of a year of travelling for Diem, who made official visits to the United States and other anti-communist countries.〔Jacobs, pp. 100–104.〕 As with his American trip, Diem was warmly and lavishly received during the height of the Cold War, garnering bipartisan praise from both the Liberal Party of Australia of Prime Minister Robert Menzies and the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP). Diem addressed the Parliament of Australia and was made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, one of the highest imperial honours that can be bestowed on a non-British subject—at the time, Australians were also British subjects. Diem did not engage in substantive political discussions with the Australian leaders and he spent most of his time at public functions. He was universally extolled by the media, which praised him for what they perceived to be a successful, charismatic, democratic and righteous rule in South Vietnam, overlooking his authoritarianism, election fraud and other corrupt practices. The Australian Catholic leadership and media were particularly glowing towards the South Vietnamese head of state. A member of Vietnam's Catholic minority and the brother of Vietnam's leading archbishop, Diem had pursued policies in Vietnam favoring his co-religionists. He exempted the Catholic Church from land redistribution, gave them more aid and job promotions, and allowed Catholic paramilitaries to attack Buddhists, who formed the religious majority. Diem's visit was a highmark in relations between Australia and South Vietnam. Over time, Diem became unpopular with his foreign allies, who began to criticise his autocratic style and religious bias. By the time of his assassination, he had little support. Australia later sent troops to support South Vietnam in the anti-communist fight, but the bipartisanship evaporated during the mid-1960s as the ALP began to sympathise with North Vietnam and opposition to the war grew. The ALP later withdrew support for and refused to accept refugees from South Vietnam after winning office, but on the return of the centre right Liberal-National coalition to power in 1975, Vietnamese refugees were allowed to resettle in Australia in large numbers. ==Background== In 1933, the devoutly Catholic Diem was appointed Interior Minister of Vietnam, serving under Emperor Bảo Đại. However, a few months thereafter he resigned and became a private citizen because the French colonialists would not give Vietnam any meaningful autonomy.〔Jacobs, pp. 20–21.〕〔Karnow, p. 231.〕 During World War II, Imperial Japan attacked Indochina and wrested control from France, but when they were defeated by the Allies in 1945, a power vacuum was created.〔Jacobs, p. 22.〕 The communist-dominated Viet Minh of Ho Chi Minh fought for Vietnamese independence, while the French attempted to regain control of their colony by creating the French Union-allied State of Vietnam under Bảo Đại. A staunch anti-communist nationalist, Diem opposed both and attempted to create his own movement, with little success.〔Jacobs, p. 23.〕 With both the French and the communists hostile to him, Diem felt unsafe and went into self-imposed exile in 1950.〔Jacobs, p. 25.〕 He spent the next four years in the United States and Europe enlisting support, particularly among Vatican officials and fellow Catholic politicians in America. The success of the effort was helped by the fact that his elder brother Ngo Dinh Thuc was the leading Catholic cleric in Vietnam and had studied with high-ranking Vatican officials in Rome a few decades earlier.〔Jacobs, pp. 26–33.〕〔Karnow, p. 233.〕 In 1954, the French lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Conference was held to determine the future of French Indochina.〔Jacobs, p. 37.〕 The Viet Minh were given control of North Vietnam, while the State of Vietnam controlled the territory south of the 17th parallel. The Geneva agreements, which the State of Vietnam did not sign, called for reunification elections to be held in 1956.〔Jacobs, pp. 40–42.〕〔Karnow, p. 235.〕 Bảo Đại appointed Diem as his prime minister, hoping that he would be able to attract American aid as the French withdrew from Southeast Asia.〔Jacobs, pp. 38–39.〕〔Karnow, p. 234.〕 Diem then deposed Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum and declared himself president of the newly proclaimed Republic of Vietnam.〔Jacobs, p. 85.〕〔Karnow, p. 239.〕 Diem received support from the U.S. and other anti-communist countries in the midst of the Cold War. He refused to hold the national elections and asserted that Ho Chi Minh would rig the ballots in the north, although he had done so himself in deposing Bảo Đại.〔〔Jacobs, pp. 98–99.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ngo Dinh Diem presidential visit to Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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