Operation+Sunrise

Operation Sunrise (1962)

March 1962 marked the start of Operation Sunrise. The Strategic Hamlet Resettlement Program was apart of the operation and the program involved relocating South Vietnamese farmers from ancestral farmland to a fortified village to be protected by local soldiers. These hamlets weren’t very successful and over 50 were taken over and infiltrated by Viet Cong. Diem ordered some of the Hamlets that were suspected to be controlled by Viet Cong forces to be Free-Fire Zones and ordered bombing raids on them. These bombings increased civilian causalities greatly which decreased Diem’s support.

These Strategic Hamlets didn't seem like the greatest idea to begin with and the lack of success with them made it even worse. The farmers were removed from ancestral land just like the Indians and that situation never worked out too well, which proved similar in this case as well. Forcing to move people that have been on the same land for thousands of years is never a good idea especially if the place there moving could potentially be dangerous.



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Citations

"The History Place-Vietnam War 1961-1964." //The History Place// . N.p., 1999. Web. 22 Nov 2010. .