A fter Vietnam's partition in 1954, the fledgling republic in South Vietnam rece ived a new ruler, Ngo Dinh Diem. His rise to power and eventual overthrow is going to illustrate some of the key internal problems of Southern Vietnam and how its relationship to the US was strained and complex from the v ery beginning. In this forum, we are going to ev aluate the rule of Diem to see how it exemplifies the problems that Viet namese had among themselves, how West ern politicians were unable to fully fathom how politics was "done" in thi s part of the world, and how the re lationship between the US and the Rep ublic of V i etnam developed. .