After Vietnams partition in 1954the fledgling republic in South Vietnam received a new ruler Ngo Dinh Diem. His rise to power and eventual overthrow is going to illustrate someof the key internal problemsofSouthernVietnamand howits relationship to the US was strained and complexfrom the very beginning.In this forum we are going to evaluatethe ruleof Diem to see how it exemplifies theproblems that Vietnamese had among themselves howWestern politicians were unable to fully fathom how politics was done in thispart of the world and how the relationship betweenthe US and the Republic of Vietnamdeveloped.