Diem’s popularity was superficial and orchestrated by his brother.

Evidence

Diem was not well known to ordinary Vietnamese then, and these peasants and provincial townsfolk could not have had the faintest idea who he was. They were bored, extremely bored, by all the years of isolation from the outside world. — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 384

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 384