[donozark]

We will never know for certain how elections would have turned out. Most felt the communists would not permit fair elections. Have they ever? The massive influx of so many anti-communists (Catholics mainly) from the N. could have tilted elections in a positive manner.

So fearful was the N. over loss of so many people to the S. (10 to 1 ratio) that they actually stationed troops at key intersections to head off this flight.

The ICC (India, Poland, and Canada) agreed with the perception that free elections were impossible. And in 1959 the N. proceeded to proceed...with war.

[KantianBurke]

Regardless of the Catholic migration, remember the vast majority of the population, both North and South, was Buddhist and grateful to Ho Chi Minh for his defeating the French (being idiot farmers who didn’t know the first thing about the differences btwn communism and freedom didn’t help matters). Again, to borrow a phrase from Al Santoli; we were building castles on quicksand from the start. Sorry, we’re going to have to agree to disagree.