Dating from the time of the Kennedy Administration, this newsreel shows American military advisors working in Indochina to prop up the South Vietnamese Army, and portrays the South as a freedom-loving country deserving of support. It also shows Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch anti-Communist, who became president in 1955. He later imprisoned and murdered hundreds of Buddhists, causing the U.S. to remove its support. He was assassinated, along with his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu by Nguyễn Văn Nhung, the aide of ARVN General Dương Văn Minh on 2 November 1963, during a coup d’état that deposed his government.

The newsreel starts with a short history of the region, beginning with the French struggle to control its colonies in Indochina – Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos following WWII. Despite financial assistance from the United States, nationalist uprisings against French colonial rule began to take their toll. On May 7, 1954, the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam fell after a four month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh. After the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the French pulled out of the region. Concerned about regional instability, the United States became increasingly committed to countering communist nationalists in Indochina. The United States would not pull out of Vietnam for another twenty years.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com