I Will Stage A Coup D’état - Chapter 184



Only Noblemtl

EP.184 Indochina War (1)

In December 1953, a coup took place in the French-installed puppet regime of the Empire of Southern Vietnam.

“An incompetent royal family cannot represent the Vietnamese people.”

As a result of the coup, the empire led by Emperor Bao Dai was immediately abolished.

However, because Ngo Dinh Diem was not a leader with a strong foundation, the political situation remained unstable for a while.

If I lead, you follow me.

Ngo Dinh Diem set out to reorganize the country under the banner of Korean-style democracy.

“Those guys, they still look confused, so I guess I can just push them away in one go?”

North Vietnam, seeing the political chaos in South Vietnam, sensed an opportunity for communist unification.

Finally, the North Vietnamese Politburo decided to go to war.

“The lines drawn on the map by imperialists are as good as non-existent. Do not miss the opportunity to unify the fatherland.”

The Vietnamese People’s Army immediately launched an offensive.

However, the People’s Army unexpectedly failed to push South Vietnam out all at once.

“These red bastards, where do they dream of communist unification?”

During the struggle against France, groups such as the Hoa Hao Cult and Cao Dai Cult, who had collaborated with the Viet Minh but were later defeated, and 900,000 North Korean refugees stood in the South Vietnamese camp and put up a fierce resistance.

The military, which had seized power, also resisted fiercely, using the large amount of weapons left behind by France and the 200,000-strong South Vietnamese army.

As the war dragged on longer than expected, the United States took an interest in the issue.

McCarthy, to be exact, barked.

“Rather than stand by and watch Vietnam become communist, we should intervene. What is the Stevenson administration doing?”

Although everyone was fed up with McCarthy’s anti-communist rhetoric, they all agreed that the communists could not be allowed to gain power.

“First, let’s significantly increase aid.”

The United States first began sending massive amounts of financial and military supplies to South Vietnam.

“Now, just print it out and your money will be copied!”

The military-industrial complex, which wanted a new war, cheered.

If it had been the original location, the military-industrial complex would have received a proper education at the hands of Eisenhower, but this was not the case.

Stevenson didn’t know as much about the military as Eisenhower.

Naturally, there was less of a need to check the military-industrial complex.

A president with a powerful military-industrial complex + anti-communist logic + lack of military experience.

If these three factors had not been in place, there would have been no reason for the United States to intervene so quickly.

Ho Chi Minh was embarrassed by this situation.

“Oh, so, the world’s number one country is sending support to the opposing side?”

As I experienced when dealing with France, it was really painful to stand on the opposite side of the United States.

“Mr. Ho, this won’t do. We should also ask the Soviet Union for support.”

Of course, even with Soviet support, the quantity was not guaranteed.

If it had been a remote area, it would have received strong support from the communist camp through China, but here it had to go through the sea.

Unfortunately, the sea was dominated by Korea and the United States.

“First, sound out Moscow for their willingness to support you.”

Ho Chi Minh made the decision.

When the request for assistance from North Vietnam arrived, Moscow immediately convened a meeting of the Politburo.

Following typical camp logic, the Soviet leadership decided to initially help North Vietnam.

Since the Americans were causing trouble in Türkiye, it was only right that the Federation show them a lesson.

“It seems like everyone agrees that we should help North Vietnam. The question is how to help. Will the Americans just sit by and watch us help them?”

“Then it’s war.”

The military is talking about war again.

The Soviet government may have feared nukes, but the Soviet military, with its overwhelming conventional military power, had little fear of nukes.

What if they fire a hundred nukes?

If one front-line force was blown away, all that was needed was to deploy a follow-up force.

Malenkov put the brakes on this appalling story.

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

Khrushchev agreed.

“The talk of going to war because the US is interfering has gone too far. Let’s just provide support and watch how things go.”

The Soviet Union first put the fleet to sea.

The Soviet fleet that had set sail was soon detected by the United States and Britain.

From the moment it entered the Suez Canal, a major waterway, it could not avoid surveillance.

“It looks like the communists are trying to bring supplies into Vietnam. Can we just leave it like that?”

The U.S. government has been struggling with this issue.

“If you touch that, the communists will surely go crazy. Is there a need to make a fuss in Europe because of one Asian periphery country?”

“Well, if Europe becomes noisy because of the Asian problem, it won’t be profitable.”

Anyway, if the communists provide the supplies, the US can provide more too.

That’s how the traffic was organized within the Stevenson administration.

As the Indochina War gradually heated up, the eyes of each country began to turn to the Far East.

“Is there another war right after the war ends?”

The world was reeling from the outbreak of yet another large-scale war.

And the repeated proxy war crises once again gave the Germans a sense of crisis.

“This is not going to work. How can we entrust the fate of our country to a weak regime like Adenauer? As Germany faces the threat of a proxy war, we need a stronger party and leadership. Who will it be?”

“Yushinhoe!”

The Yushin Party took advantage of the war crisis and finally showed off its prowess by overtaking the Democratic Party in approval ratings.

It was a foregone conclusion that the Yushin Party would take power in the next election.

This confirmed the Soviet Union’s suspicion that the West was preparing a proxy war in Germany.

“So, we need to strengthen our military.”

The head of the Soviet military, Marshal Zhukov, spoke on behalf of the military in a strong tone and demanded an increase in military spending.

“But if we use military spending like that, what about economic growth?”

“Security is a problem right now, so why worry about the economy? Think about the war against Germany.”

The German-Soviet War, the Great Patriotic War.

For the Soviet Union, the German-Soviet War was a kind of trauma.

European Russia was devastated and over ten million people were killed.

The aftereffects still lingered throughout the Federation.

Something like that should never happen again.

The bureaucrats were unable to offer any rebuttal to the military’s powerful security logic.

“What do you think, Comrade Khrushchev?”

“I agree to increase military spending.”

If Khrushchev had been the absolute leader, he would have suppressed Zhukov’s words.

But the current Khrushchev did not have that kind of status.

It was impossible for Khrushchev to act as he pleased, with Malenkov holding the power to represent the country and Zhukov holding military power.

The Soviet Union began to rapidly increase its military spending in the wake of the Indochina conflict.

Then, the United States also responded.

“The Reds’ military buildup is a ploy to test our resolve. We must never give in.”

America couldn’t lose either.

As the leader of the free world, it was necessary to make clear to the communists that he could not give up Western Europe.

“Augment.”

The arms race of smiles seemed to have paused for a while after the end of the Italian War, but soon flared up again.

The only power free from the arms race was Korea.

South Korea continued to invest the remaining capital from the peace dividend in technology.

I knew that Smile would come up with this kind of picture.

Smile was clearly watching Korea grow while continuing to suck honey.

We also understood that Korea was growing into a formidable competitor.

However, the reason the arms race could not be stopped was because there was an irreconcilable divide between communism and capitalism.

Basically, Anglo-American capitalists did not trust the communists.

What can we believe about the communists who are ready to start a revolution and rob people of their property at the slightest opportunity?

The same was true for the Soviet proletariat.

“What do you believe in, imperialist capitalists who try to exploit and oppress at every opportunity?”

Since neither of them trusted each other at all, the promise was meaningless.

Even so, I thought it was used to buy time to hit the back of the opponent’s head.

Khrushchev also understood that this picture was not good.

‘If we continue to compete like this, only Korea will be the one smiling.’

Before that happens, we have to stop this mad arms race.

Khrushchev believed the answer was nuclear.

A weapon of destruction that can wipe everything out.

If you have hundreds or thousands of nuclear weapons, you can eliminate conventional military forces to some extent, right?

Nuclear weapons will eventually replace all military power.

Khrushchev really thought so.

The problem was the Soviet military’s resistance to disarmament.

Considering the already high status of the Soviet military, arms reduction was not something to be done hastily.

It was a task that could only be dreamed of after becoming the number one person and holding absolute power.

It took Khrushchev a lot of time to make that happen.

Because it’s not something we can run after Korea right away.

‘I wish we could receive a peace dividend like Lee Seong-jun.’

But the Federation couldn’t do that.

How can we emulate Pyongyang’s position when we are completely at odds with the West in terms of security?

It was truly a dream come true.

The Soviet Union, although fully aware of South Korea’s pursuit, again made a strong move.

“If the US is strengthening its military, we too must strengthen our military even more vigorously.”

The same goes for foreign intervention.

North Vietnam also needed to shift from traditional military and financial aid to more direct intervention.

“Send a military advisory group to North Vietnam.”

Khrushchev, unable to withstand the military’s hard-line stance, entered the quagmire of Vietnam.

The Vietnam War is no longer a simple civil war.

Misora ​​was an international war involving two superpowers.

Just six months after the end of the Italian War.

The mild air of the post-Cold War era was replaced by the cold, crisp air of the Cold War.