CHAPTER 2

THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

Rural life in Vietnam in the early 1960s was much as it had been for centuries, despite almost continual domination by one foreign power or another. One enduring constant throughout Vietnamese history, a constant that would continually thwart government efforts at pacification, was the nature of both the village and the next lowest administrative unit, the hamlet. While an informal association , the village was a strong and viable organization. The vi1lage was largely self-sufficient with its own social, legal, economic, and political life.

During the 1950s and the early 1960s changes began occurring that altered the pattern of traditional village life. Strong forces were at work on the entire society of South Vietnam, and these forces drastically altered the way of life of the peasants, presenting them as the point of focus in the struggle for the control of the country.

GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE

Situated at the southeastern tip of the Asian mainland. Vietnam has two major geographic features. They are the deltas of the Red River and the Mekong River. The