Assasination+of+Diem

The Overthrow of Diem (1963)

Everything started going downhill for Diem after the Buddhist suicide protest. In late August, American-trained special forces raided Buddhist pagodas across South Vietnam. 1,400 monks were arrested and countless shrines were vandalized. This happened after the U.S. Ambassador to Saigon, Nolting, tried to persuade Diem to make peace with the Buddhist. The United States publicly denounced these actions and blamed Diem’s brother Nhu for them and demanded he be thrown out of the government. Diem refused like earlier when Nhu made some controversial statements about the Buddhist suicides. This refusal turned some important Kennedy advisers against him. Later, a group of South Vietnamese generals approached the group of advisers and told them about the idea of an overthrow of Diem in a military coup and the group was on board with the idea. On October 6th, one of the ambassadors, Henry Lodge, talked with the White House who said they didn’t want to “stimulate a coup but also didn’t want “to leave the impression that the U.S. would thwart a change in government.” The White House was scared the coup would be unsuccessful. The generals went through with the coup on November 1st, 1963. They took control of key military installations in Saigon. While the battle was going on outside the presidential palace in Saigon, Diem called Lodge and Lodge acted like he didn’t know what was going on. Diem and his brother, Nhu, fled and took refuge in a Catholic Church where they were found, captured, and then murdered in the back of an armored personnel carrier. When Kennedy heard that Diem had been murder he left the room without a word. Kennedy wanted the generals to remove him from office but not assassinate him.

I am with Kennedy on this one, although Diem made some mistakes he did not need to be assassinated. Kennedy just wanted a need leader for South Vietnam, not Diem to be killed.



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Citations

Isserman, Maurice. __Vietnam War__ . Updated ed. America at War. New York: Facts On File-Infobase Publishing, 2003. __Infobase eBooks__ . Infobase Publishing..  http://ebooks.infobasepublishing.com/ View.aspx?ISBN=9781438100159&InstID=831 (accessed November 19, 2010).

 "The Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem." //History Net// . N.p., 12/6/ 2006. Web. 24 Nov 2010. .