The Strategic Hamlet Program was a plan by the governments of South Vietnam and the United States during the Vietnam War to combat the Communist insurgency by means of population transfer.
In 1961, U.S. advisors in South Vietnam, along with the Diem regime, began the implementation of a plan attempted to isolate rural peasants from contact with and influence by the National Liberation Front (NLF). The Strategic Hamlet Program, along with its predecessor, the Rural Community Development Program, played an important role in the shaping of events in South Vietnam during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Both of these programs attempted to separate rural peasants from Communist insurgents by creating concentration camps. The program led to a decrease in support for Diem’s regime and an increase in sympathy for Communist efforts.
Read more about Strategic Hamlet Program: Background and Precursor Program, Strategic Hamlet Program, Problematic Implementation, Eventual Failure
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