1956 in the Vietnam War
Ngo Dinh Diem consolidated his power as the President of South Vietnam. He declined to have a national election to unify the country as called for in the Geneva Accords. In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh apologized for certain consequences of the land reform program he had initiated in 1955. The several thousand Viet Minh cadres the North had left behind in South Vietnam focused on political action rather than insurgency. The South Vietnamese army attempted to root out the Viet Minh.
| 1956 in the Vietnam War | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Ba Cụt in Cần Thơ Military Court 1956 | |||
| |||
| Belligerents | |||
| South Vietnam |
Anti-government insurgents: Viet Minh cadres Hòa Hảo sect | ||
| Commanders and leaders | |||
| Ba Cụt | |||
| Strength | |||
| Viet Minh: 4,300 | |||
| Casualties and losses | |||
| US casualties: 1 | |||
France completed its military withdrawal from Vietnam. The United States expanded the number of its military advisers in South Vietnam. The first American killed in the Vietnam War died June 8 at the hand of another American soldier.
In 1956 the term Viet Cong came into use and gradually replaced the older term Viet Minh. The government-controlled Saigon press first started using the term referring to communists in South Vietnam as Viet Cong a shortening of Viet Nam Cong-San which means "Vietnamese Communist".