A war between the North and South regions of Vietnam had developed following the 1954 battle at Dien Bien Phu. The North was being run by communist and national leader Ho Chi Minh, who had the majority of public support, but the United States’ fear of communism led them to terminate the elections which were meant to take place in 1956. They instead placed their own leader in the South of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem. The Diem regime, ultimately controlled by America, was corrupt and repressive. A counter-movement developed in the South called the Viet Cong. This was a strongly nationalist group which was also supported by the Viet Minh, the communist army in the North. The surge against Diem’s government was seen by America as a communist threat, and President John Kennedy committed 8,000 men to support the South Vietnamese Army. The war lasted from 1959, to 1975 with the fall of Diem. Approximately 1.5 million soldiers and 2 million civilians were killed during the conflict. Under Keith Holyoake’s National Government, New Zealand sent a total of around 3,500 men between June 1964 and December 1972 to support the USA in backing the South Vietnamese Army. However, New Zealand’s involvement in Vietnam was subject to much controversy and many chose to express their anti-war sentiments in protest during the 1960s and 1970s. Much of the public was disillusioned with government policy and felt that the war was a horrifyingly violent one with so many deaths, a war in which New Zealand should not be contributing.