General Nguyễn Ngọc Lễ was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam

Army of the Republic of Vietnam

The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...

. He was also the head of the National Police in the 1950s. Lễ strongly advocated the assassination of President Ngô Đình Diệm and his younger brother and advisor Ngô Đình Nhu

Ngo Dinh Nhu

Ngô Ðình Nhu was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Ðình Diệm. Nhu was widely regarded as the architect of the Ngô family's nepotistic and autocratic rule over South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963...

 after they were arrested at the end of an army coup

1963 South Vietnamese coup

In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong.The...

. Although his army colleagues did not agree with his proposal, the brothers were shot anyway, believed to have been on the orders of General Dương Văn Minh

Duong Van Minh

Minh was born on 16 February 1916 in Mỹ Tho Province in the Mekong Delta, the son of a wealthy landowner who served in a prominent position in the Finance Ministry of the French colonial administration...

 against consensus.

See also

• Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
  Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
  The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, then president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d’état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963...
  
  
• 1963 South Vietnamese coup
  1963 South Vietnamese coup
  In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong.The...