Xa Loi Pagoda raids
Encyclopedia
The Xa Loi Pagoda raids were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagoda
s in the major cities of South Vietnam
shortly after midnight on August 21, 1963. The raids were executed by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
under Colonel Le Quang Tung
, and combat police, both of which took their orders directly from Ngo Dinh Nhu
, the younger brother of the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem
. The Xa Loi Pagoda
, the largest in the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, was the most prominent of the temples raided. Over 1,400 Buddhists were arrested, and estimates of the death toll and missing
ranged up to the hundreds.
In response to the Hue Vesak shootings
and a ban on the Buddhist flag
in early May, South Vietnam's Buddhist majority rose in widespread civil disobedience and protest against the religious bias and discrimination of the Catholic-dominated Diem government. Buddhist temples in major cities, most prominently the Xa Loi Pagoda, became focal points for protesters and assembly points for Buddhist monks
from rural areas.
In August, several Army of the Republic of Vietnam
(ARVN) generals proposed the imposition of martial law, ostensibly to break up the demonstrations, but in reality to prepare for a military coup. However, Nhu—who was already looking to arrest Buddhist leaders and crush the protest movement—used the opportunity to pre-empt the generals and embarrass them. He disguised Tung's Special Forces in army uniforms and used them to attack the Buddhists, thereby causing the general public and South Vietnam's US allies to blame the army, diminishing the generals' reputations and ability to act as future national leaders.
Soon after midnight on August 21, Nhu's men attacked the pagodas using automatic firearms, grenades, battering rams and explosives, causing widespread damage. Some religious objects were destroyed, including a statue of Gautama Buddha
in Tu Dam Pagoda
in Hue
; the temple was partially leveled by explosives. The temples were looted and vandalized, with the remains of self-immolated
Buddhist monks confiscated, and in Hue, violent street battles erupted between government forces and rioting pro-Buddhist, anti-Diem civilians.
At first, the Ngo family claimed that the army had carried out the raids, something their US allies initially believed. However, this was later debunked, and the incident prompted the United States to turn against the regime and begin exploring alternative leadership options, eventually leading to Diem's overthrow in a coup. In South Vietnam itself, the raids stoked widespread anger. Several high-ranking public servants resigned, and university and high school students boycotted classes and staged riotous demonstrations, resulting in further mass incarcerations. As most of the students were from middle-class children from public service and military families, the arrests caused further upset among the Ngo family's power base.
's pro-Catholic policies antagonized many Buddhists. A member of the Catholic
minority, his government was regarded as being biased towards Catholics in public service and military promotions, as well as in the allocation of land, business favors and tax concessions. Diem once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting that he was a Buddhist, "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted." Many officers in the ARVN converted to Catholicism in the belief that their career prospects depended on it, and many were refused promotion if they did not do so. Additionally, the distribution of firearms to village self-defense militias intended to repel Vietcong guerrillas was done so that weapons were only given to Catholics. Some Catholic priests ran private armies, and in some areas forced conversions, looting, shelling and demolition of pagodas occurred. Some Buddhist villages converted en masse to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diem's regime.
The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French, which required official permission to conduct public activities, was not repealed by Diem. The land owned by the church was exempt from land reform, and Catholics were also de facto exempt from the corvée
labor that the government obliged all other citizens to perform; public spending was disproportionately distributed to Catholic majority villages. Under Diem, the Catholic Church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition, and in 1959, he dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary. The Vatican flag was regularly flown at major public events in South Vietnam.
A rarely enforced 1958 law—known as Decree Number 10—was invoked in May 1963 to prohibit the display of religious flags. This disallowed the flying of the Buddhist flag
on Vesak
, the birthday of Gautama Buddha
. The application of the law caused indignation among Buddhists on the eve of the most important religious festival of the year, as a week earlier Catholics had been encouraged to display Vatican flags at a government-sponsored celebration for Diem's brother, Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, the most senior Catholic cleric in the country. On May 8, in Hue, a crowd of Buddhists protested against the ban on the Buddhist flag. The police and army broke up the demonstration by firing guns at and throwing grenades into the gathering, leaving nine dead.
Diem's denial of governmental responsibility for the incident—he instead blamed the Vietcong—led to growing discontent among the Buddhist majority. The incident spurred a protest movement against the religious discrimination
of the Roman Catholic-dominated Diem regime, resulting in widespread and large-scale civil disobedience among the South Vietnamese public, persisting throughout May and June. This period of political instability was known as the Buddhist crisis
. The objective of the protests was to have Decree Number 10 repealed, and to force Diem to implement religious equality.
On June 11, the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc self-immolated in downtown Saigon. Images were shown by news outlets across the world, embarrassing Diem's government and bringing negative global attention. A few days later, under mounting American pressure, Diem signed the Joint Communique
with senior Buddhist leaders, making various concessions to the Buddhists, who in turn agreed to stop the civil unrest and return to normal life.
Neither the Ngo family nor the Buddhists were happy with the agreement however, and it failed to solve the dispute. Both sides accused the other of failing to uphold their obligations; the government accused the Buddhists of continuing to vilify them in demonstrations, while the Buddhists accused Diem of stalling and not acting on his commitments to religious reform, and continuing to detain arrested Buddhist dissidents. The demonstrations and tension continued throughout July and August, with more self-immolations and an altercation (known as the Double Seven Day scuffle
) between secret police and American journalists reporting on a Buddhist protest.
. Built in the late 1950s, it was the largest Buddhist temple in the capital and was located in the city center. Many monks from outside Saigon—including prominent Buddhist leaders—had congregated at Xa Loi since the dispute began and it was used as a venue for press conferences, media interviews, publication of pamphlets and to plan and organize mass demonstrations.
At the time, Ngo Dinh Nhu
was known to favor a stronger line against the Buddhists. Nhu was the younger brother of President Diem and his main confidant, and was regarded as the real power behind the Ngo family's rule. Nhu had made statements calling for the suppression of the protests through his English language
newspaper, the Times of Vietnam
. There were persistent reports that Nhu was seeking to usurp power from his elder brother and to attack the Buddhists. Nick Turner of Reuters
approached Nhu and interviewed him about these rumors. Nhu said that if the Buddhist crisis was not resolved, he would stage a coup, demolish Xa Loi in two hours, and head a new anti-Buddhist government. The news was promptly published, but the American Embassy was unconvinced as to whether Nhu was serious.
In the meantime, Nhu prepared the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
commanded by Colonel Le Quang Tung
—who took his orders directly from Nhu and not the senior generals—for the raids. An American-trained outfit created to fight the Vietcong, the Special Forces were better equipped, trained and paid than the regular army, but were used by the Ngo family as a private army for repressing dissidents and protecting their rule, rather than fighting for the national interest. As such, they spent the majority of their time in Saigon warding off coup attempts. Tung brought two more Special Forces battalions into Saigon, meaning that a total of four were in the capital.
On Sunday, August 18, the Buddhists staged a mass protest at Xa Loi, attracting around 15,000 people, undeterred by rain. The attendance was approximately three times higher than that at the previous Sunday's rally. The event lasted for several hours, as speeches by the monks interspersed religious ceremonies. A Vietnamese journalist said that it was the only emotional public gathering in South Vietnam since Diem's rise to power almost a decade earlier. David Halberstam
of The New York Times
speculated that by not exploiting the large crowd by staging a protest march towards Gia Long Palace or other government buildings, the Buddhists were saving their biggest demonstration for the scheduled arrival of new US ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
in the following week. As a government attack on Xa Loi was anticipated, Halberstam concluded that the Buddhists were playing "a fast and dangerous game". He wrote that "the Buddhists themselves appeared to be at least as much aware of all the developments, and their protest seemed to have a mounting intensity".
Nhu summoned 7 of the 10 generals to Gia Long Palace on August 20 for consultations. They presented their request for martial law and discussed how to disband the groups of monks and their supporters from the temples in Saigon. Nhu sent the generals to see Diem. The president listened to the group of seven, led by General Tran Van Don
. The group also included Army Chief General Tran Thien Khiem
and General Nguyen Khanh
, commander of the II Corps
in the central highlands
. Khiem and Khanh were two of the officers who were responsible for helping to put down the attempted coup
against Diem in 1960. Also present was General Le Van Kim
, head of the military academy and Don's brother-in-law, General Do Cao Tri
, commander of I Corps
, which oversaw the northernmost region around Hue. The final two men present were favorites of the Diem regime. General Ton That Dinh
, the brash paratrooper who was South Vietnam's youngest ever general, commanded the III Corps
surrounding Saigon. General Huynh Van Cao
was the commander of the IV Corps
in the Mekong Delta
and the only one of the septet that was not involved in plotting against Diem. Dinh and Cao controlled the two corps regions closest to Saigon and therefore the two areas most crucial in the success or failure of a coup. Cao had used the Seventh Division
of his IV Corps to storm the capital in 1960 to save Diem.
Don claimed that communists had infiltrated the monks at Xa Loi and warned that ARVN morale was deteriorating because of the civil unrest and consequent disruption of the war effort. He claimed that it was possible that the Buddhists could assemble a crowd to march on Gia Long Palace. Hearing this, Diem agreed to declare martial law effective on the next day, without consulting his cabinet, and troops were ordered into Saigon to occupy strategic points. Don was appointed as the acting Chief of the Armed Forces in place of General Le Van Ty
, who was terminally ill with cancer and having medical treatment abroad. Don noted that Diem was apparently concerned for the welfare of the monks, telling the generals that he did not want any of them hurt. The martial law orders were then signed and authorized by Don.
The real purpose of Don asking for martial law was to maneuver troops in readiness for a coup, and he had no concrete plans to send the regular army into the pagodas. However, Nhu sidestepped him and took the opportunity to discredit the army by using Tung's Special Forces and the combat police to attack the pagodas. With the action occurring in his military region, Dinh, the officer most trusted by the Ngo family, was the only general who was given advance notice of the raids.
With the approval of Diem, Nhu used the declaration of martial law to order armed men into the Buddhist pagodas. Nhu purposely chose a time when the American Embassy was leaderless. Frederick Nolting
had returned to the United States
and his successor Lodge was yet to arrive. As the high command of the ARVN worked closely with American military advisers deployed in the country, Nhu used the combat police and Tung's Special Forces, who took their orders directly from him. The men were dressed in standard army uniforms, such as paratroop attire, to frame the regulars for the raids.
Nhu's motive was to avoid responsibility for a violent operation—which would anger the Vietnamese public and the American leadership. In falsely implicating the army in the attacks, Nhu intended to dent the confidence of the Vietnamese populace and the Americans in the senior officers who were plotting against him. Nhu hoped that the Buddhist majority and the Americans would blame the army for the raids and become less inclined to support a coup by the generals. In the past, Nhu's Machiavellian tactics in playing the generals against one another had kept conspirators off-balance and thwarted coup attempts. The raids were not unexpected, as the Buddhists had prepared themselves for the attacks, as had journalists, who were watching military installations for signs of movement.
The Buddhists in Saigon were aware that a raid on the pagodas was imminent. Buddhist relatives of Special Forces and combat police personnel had tipped off the monks, and Buddhists who lived near pagodas had observed them move into the region in the lead-up. American journalists were tipped off and traveled through Saigon to visit the pagodas ahead of the raids. The pagodas had been locked by the monks in preparation for the attacks and the doors were barricaded with furniture and reinforced by nailing wooden planks across them. The monks told members of the US press corps in Saigon that the raids were coming, allowing them to be more prepared for the event than the US embassy.
In the afternoon before the raids, trucks filled with soldiers headed past the offices of media outlets—from where the journalists saw them—destined for An Quang Pagoda
. More troops were seen congregating at the police headquarters, ready to board trucks moving towards Xa Loi Pagoda. The American-made trucks had been provided as part of the US military aid program for South Vietnam. Late at night, the convoys arrived and surrounded Xa Loi from several sides, causing a traffic jam in the city center. Several thousand personnel were estimated to have been present. Journalists were informed as soon as the attacks began, even as Nhu's men cut communications lines almost immediately, and rushed to Xa Loi.
Squads of Special Forces and combat police flattened the gates and smashed their way into the pagoda at around 00:20 on August 21, as Xa Loi's brass gong was struck to signal the attack. Nhu's men were armed with pistols, submachine guns, carbines, shotguns, grenades and tear gas. The red-bereted Special Forces were joined by truckloads of steel-helmeted combat police in army camouflage uniforms. Two of Nhu's senior aides were seen outside Xa Loi directing the operation, while Nhu and his wife, Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
, watched the action from a nearby tank. Monks and nuns who barricaded themselves behind wooden shields were attacked with rifle butts and bayonets. The sound of the pagoda's gong was largely masked by that of automatic weapons fire, exploding grenades, battering rams, shattering glass and human screaming. The military personnel shouted as they attacked, as did the occupants, in fear.
Tung's men charged forward in a V-shaped riot formation. According to Halberstam, "they pranced into the pagoda, looking something like a smart football team coming up to the line of scrimmage". In the end, it took around two hours to complete the raids because many of the occupants had entrenched themselves inside the various rooms in anticipation of the attacks and doors had to be unhinged to reach them. According to journalist Neil Sheehan
, who was at the scene, "The raid on Xa Loi, like those on the pagodas elsewhere in South Vietnam, was flawlessly executed. It reminded me of a scene from a movie of the French Resistance
—the scene when the Gestapo
arrive at the Resistance hideout in Paris. William Prochnau
said that "Using the elite guard against the Buddhists was analogous to using Green Berets to put down Negro protests at home. It was outrageous."
One monk was thrown from a balcony down to the courtyard six meters below. Nhu's men vandalized the main altar and confiscated the intact charred heart of Thich Quang Duc, which had failed to burn during his re-cremation. However, some of the Buddhists were able to flee the pagoda with a receptacle containing his ashes. Two monks jumped the back wall of Xa Loi to enter the grounds of the adjoining United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) mission, where they were given asylum, despite the presence of troops behind the pagoda walls who opened fire with automatic weapons on any monks who tried to flee by jumping the fence.
Thich Tinh Khiet, the 80-year-old Buddhist patriarch, was seized and taken to a military hospital on the outskirts of Saigon. As commander of the III Corps, General Dinh soon announced military control over Saigon, canceling all commercial flights into the city and instituting press censorship. Later, Thich Quang Do
, one of leading arrested monks, who later went on to become one of the leaders of the now-banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
, explained the protest strategy. After being released following the deposal of Diem, he was asked why the Buddhist leaders had not fled to avoid arrest. He said that "We had done nothing wrong; therefore we could not flee. If we had, it would have been an admission that we were guilty."
The violence was worse in Hue, where the approach of government forces was met by the beating of Buddhist drums and cymbals to alert the populace. The townsfolk left their homes in the middle of the night in an attempt to defend the city's pagodas. At Tu Dam Pagoda
, which was the temple of Buddhist protest leader Thich Tri Quang
, monks attempted to burn the coffin of a monk who had self-immolated recently. Government soldiers, firing M1 rifles, overran the pagoda and confiscated the coffin. They also demolished a statue of Gautama Buddha
and looted and vandalized the pagoda. They then set off an explosion, leveling much of the pagoda. Many Buddhists were shot or clubbed to death.
The most determined resistance to the Diem regime occurred outside the Dieu De Pagoda
. As troops attempted to stretch a barbed wire barricade across a bridge leading to the pagoda, the crowd tore it down with their bare hands. The protestors then fought the heavily armed military personnel with rocks, sticks and their bare fists, throwing back the tear gas grenades that were fired at them. After a five-hour battle, the military finally won control of the bridge by driving armored cars through the angry crowd at sunrise. The defense of the bridge and Dieu De left an estimated 30 dead and 200 wounded.
Ten truckloads of bridge defenders were taken to jail and an estimated 500 people were arrested in the city. Seventeen of the 47 professors at Hue University
, who had resigned earlier in the week in protest against the dismissal of the rector Cao Van Luan, a Catholic priest and opponent of Diem's brother Archbishop Thuc were also arrested. The raids were repeated in cities and towns across the country. The total number of dead and disappeared was never confirmed, but estimates range up to several hundred. At least 1,400 were arrested.
, the deputy of the recently relieved US ambassador Nolting, arrived at the building. As the leading American diplomat in Vietnam in the transition period between ambassadors, Trueheart refused to take action until he received instructions from Washington, but warned Mau against violating the diplomatic immunity of the USAID offices. Trueheart knew that handing over the monks would imply American approval of the regime's action. The confrontation soon died down, and the US State Department ordered Trueheart not to release the two monks and to regard the USAID building as being equivalent to the embassy. More monks went on to find sanctuary in the US embassy, which became known as the "Buddhist Hilton".
Lodge was in Honolulu for last minute briefings with Nolting when news filtered through of the pagoda raids. He was given directions to proceed directly to Saigon, and arrived after sunset on August 22. In the meantime, the State Department denounced the raids as a "direct violation by the Vietnamese government of assurances that it was pursuing a policy of reconciliation with the Buddhists".
On August 23, Lodge's first day in Saigon, he visited the two monks who had taken refuge in the USAID building, and ordered that vegetarian food be made available for them. The meeting was a means of showing where American government policy stood on the attacks against the Buddhists.
At 06:00 on August 21, Diem broadcast a statement on Radio Saigon in which he said: "under Article 44 of the constitution, I declare a state of siege
throughout the national territory. I confer upon the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
the responsibility to restore security and public order so that the state may be protected, Communism defeated, freedom secured, and democracy achieved." Under martial law
, the army was given blanket search-and-arrest powers and was empowered to ban all public gatherings, enforce a curfew, restrict press freedom and stop the circulation of all "printed material and other documents harmful to public order and security". The military were given orders to shoot anybody who violated the curfew on sight, and the secret police used the increased powers to raid and vandalize the premises of anyone who was thought to be unfriendly towards the regime.
Government sources claimed that in Xa Loi, An Quang, and various Theravada
pagodas, soldiers had found machine guns, ammunition, plastic explosives, homemade mines, daggers, and Vietcong documents. It was later discovered that they had been planted there by Nhu's men. A few days later, Madame Nhu said in an interview that the raids were "the happiest day in my life since we crushed the Binh Xuyen
in 1955", and assailed the Buddhists as "communists". On August 29, General Dinh held a press conference in which he accused the Americans of trying to launch a coup in South Vietnam and took credit for the raids, despite Tung having been the chief military officer in charge.
The Secretary of State Nguyen Dinh Thuan
and Interior Minister Bui Van Luong were caught off guard by the attacks. The initial perception was that the military establishment had suddenly cracked down on the Buddhists because they were deemed to be a threat to the war effort. The government propagated a theory which held that the military felt compelled to take action after pro-Buddhist student unrest on August 17 and 18. In Hue, student protestors had turned on an ARVN officer after he fired in their direction. The attacks were also preceded by a large rally at Xa Loi Pagoda during which some monks had called for the overthrow of the Diem regime and denounced the anti-Buddhist statements of the de facto first lady Madame Nhu. These arguments were dismissed by observers, along with government claims that the raids were spontaneous.
Diem had long distrusted his generals and frequently played them against each other in a divide and conquer
strategy to weaken any chance of a coup attempt. The army also contained substantial numbers of soldiers from the Buddhist majority, heightening skepticism that they would have attacked the pagodas and monks in such a violent manner. The synchronized military operations throughout the country, the speed at which banners were erected declaring the ARVN resolve to defeat communism, and doctored propaganda photos purporting to show Vietcong infiltration of the Buddhists suggested that the actions were long premeditated. In an attempt to maintain secrecy, special printing presses had produced propaganda materials only hours before the raids.
The initial government line was that the regular army had taken the actions. ARVN radio broadcasts bore the influence of Nhu's abrasive tone in directing the Republican Youth to cooperate with the government. Nhu accused the Buddhists of turning their pagodas into headquarters for plotting anti-government insurrections. He claimed that the Buddhist Intersect Committee operated under the control of "political speculators who exploited religion and terrorism". Lodge believed that Diem remained in control but that Nhu's influence had risen to unprecedented levels. He thought that Nhu's divide and conquer tactics had split the military into three factions, respectively led by Generals Don and Dinh and Colonel Tung. Don was believed not to have the allegiance of Dinh and Tung, who took their orders directly from Gia Long Palace. The two loyalists were reputed to have detested one another but had support from various Diemist elements. Lodge predicted that if the army deposed Diem, fighting could break out within the ARVN.
Initially, the American embassy believed the Ngo family's claims that the regular army was responsible for the raids. The Voice of America
, which was widely listened to in South Vietnam as the only non-Diemist news source, initially aired Nhu's version of events, much to the dismay of the generals. However, the American media thought otherwise and began to debunk this theory, pointing out that the Ngos constantly sought to undermine the army, and that Madame Nhu's joy over the events would suggest that the family had not ceded power to or had their hand forced by the military. Furthermore, they identified Nhu's aides at the site, his idiosyncratic style in the announcements supposedly made by the ARVN, and the fact that the army had little motive to attack the Buddhists. The New York Times printed two versions of the raids on its front page, one by David Halberstam
implicating Nhu for the attacks, and another with the official government version. Sheehan of United Press International
also claimed that Nhu was responsible for the attacks, and foreign journalists had to smuggle their stories out by asking people leaving the country at the airport to carry documents for them. At the time, Sheehan and Halberstam were on a Ngo family hit list along with political dissidents because of their exposes of the regime's human rights abuses, and following the raids, they slept at the home of US official John Mecklin
. They also received information that the Ngos were going to plant bombs in their offices and blame the deaths on the communists.
The Central Intelligence Agency
went on to report that the ARVN officers resolutely denied any involvement in the pagoda raids. They held that Tung's Special Forces had disguised themselves in ARVN uniforms before attacking the pagodas. Further unsubstantiated rumors had spread within the army that the Americans, who trained the Special Forces, had helped to plan the attack. The ARVN leaders were unsure of how to proceed and Don called a staff meeting on the morning of August 23 to discuss impending demonstrations against the raids by university students and the anger of junior ARVN officers about the pagoda attacks. General Duong Van Minh
noted that the ongoing presence of armed military personnel had alienated society by creating an "aura of suppression".
Later in the day, Don privately met with CIA agent Lucien Conein
and reiterated that the Americans were mistaken in believing that the ARVN was responsible. Don insisted that Diem remained in control although Nhu had to approve all of the generals' meetings with Diem. Don insisted that Nhu had orchestrated the raids, fearing that the generals had too much power. He asserted that Nhu used the cover of martial law to discredit the generals by dressing the Special Forces in ARVN uniforms. Don insisted that he was unaware of the plans and was at Joint General Staff headquarters with Khiem when he received a radio message informing him of the assaults. Police Commissioner Tran Van Tu, supported by Tung's men, were in charge of the operation at ground level, and by the time Don arrived, the mission had been completed. Kim had also had his own meeting with Rufus Phillips at the US Embassy. He bitterly confided that Nhu had tricked the army into imposing martial law and becoming his "puppet".
Kim asserted that Dinh, Don and the other generals were not aware of the raids in advance and revealed that the arms and explosives that Nhu claimed were found in the pagodas had been planted. As a result, the Vietnamese people had expressed anger at the army and their US backers, strengthening Nhu's position.
The pagoda raids provoked widespread disquiet among the usually apolitical Saigon public. At midnight on August 22, Generals Don, Dinh and Khiem informed Nhu that student demonstrations were planned for three consecutive days. They recommended that the schools be closed, but when Nhu took them to see Diem, the president refused to close the educational institutions. Diem decided that the students, not usually known for political activism, should be allowed to voice their opinions. Taking advantage of the opportunity, students at Saigon University
boycotted classes and rioted, which was met with arrests, imprisonment, and the closure of the campus. These events were repeated at Hue University, which was likewise shut down.
When high school students followed the lead of their elders and demonstrated, Diem had them arrested as well. Two of the detained students were paraded at a press conference in which they falsely admitted to being communists who had brainwashed their entire school, having been tortured to force their confession. At Trung Vuong, an elite girls' high school, the students hung up banners attacking Diem and the Nhus, while students from the corresponding boys' schools became violent, smashing school windows and erecting banners that insulted Madame Nhu in explicit language. More than 1,000 students from Saigon's leading high school, most of them children of public servants and military officers, were sent to re-education camps. The result was that many army officers and senior civil servants had to lobby to have their children or younger siblings released from jail, causing a further drop in morale among government and military officials. In more extreme cases, brawls broke out between the police officers who were arresting students and military officers and public servants whose children were being taken away.
Foreign Minister Vu Van Mau resigned, shaving his head like a Buddhist monk in protest. As Mau had decided to leave the country for a religious pilgrimage to India
, the diplomatic and press corps assembled at the airport to see him off. He never arrived, as the Ngos had him arrested. However, General Dinh softened the punishment at the behest of a fellow officer, and put the former diplomat under house arrest instead of placing him in jail.
Tran Van Chuong
, the ambassador to the United States and father of the de facto first lady
Madame Nhu, resigned in protest, along with all but one of the staff members at the embassy. Chuong charged Diem with having "copied the tactics of totalitarian regimes", and said that as long as Diem and the Nhus were in power, there was "not once chance in a hundred for victory" against the communists. Madame Chuong—who was South Vietnam's observer at the United Nations
—resigned and spoke of mass executions and a reign of terror under Diem and Nhu. She predicted that if Diem and the Nhus did not leave Vietnam then they would be killed in some sort of uprising. The Voice of America announced that Chuong had resigned in protest against the Ngo family's policies, but this was denied by the Saigon government, which asserted that the Chuongs had been sacked. Diem's officials claimed that Chuong's last telegram had been so critical of the regime that it was determined to be "inadmissible in form and substance". After years of privately complaining about his ambassador, Diem dismissed him.
In the meantime, the brothers made selective payments to some generals, hoping to cause resentment and division within the army. Vietnamese civil servants also became more reluctant to do their jobs, especially in conjunction with American advisers. They reasoned that as the Americans were funding Tung's men, they must have been involved in the attacks.
On August 24, the Kennedy administration sent Cable 243
to Lodge at the embassy in Saigon, marking a change in American policy. The message advised Lodge to seek the removal of the Nhus from power, and to look for alternative leadership options if Diem refused to heed American pressure for reform. As the probability of Diem sidelining Nhu and his wife was seen as virtually nil, the message effectively meant the fomenting of a coup. The Voice of America also broadcast a statement blaming Nhu for the raids and absolving the army of responsibility. Aware that the Americans would neither oppose a coup nor respond with aid cuts or sanctions, the generals deposed the Ngo brothers
, who were arrested and assassinated the next day, November 2.
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
s in the major cities of South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
shortly after midnight on August 21, 1963. The raids were executed by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . Following the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955, the Special Forces were formed at Nha Trang in February 1956...
under Colonel Le Quang Tung
Le Quang Tung
Colonel Lê Quang Tung was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngo Dinh Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem. A former servant of the Ngô family, Tung's military background was in security and counterespionage...
, and combat police, both of which took their orders directly from Ngo Dinh 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...
, the younger brother of the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
. The Xa Loi Pagoda
Xa Loi Pagoda
The Xá Lợi Pagoda is the largest pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was built in 1956 and was the headquarters of Buddhism in South Vietnam. The pagoda is located at 89 Bà Huyện Thanh Quan Street in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City and lies on a plot of 2500 square metres...
, the largest in the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, was the most prominent of the temples raided. Over 1,400 Buddhists were arrested, and estimates of the death toll and missing
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
ranged up to the hundreds.
In response to the Hue Vesak shootings
Hue Vesak shootings
The Huế Phật Đản shootings refer to the deaths of nine unarmed Buddhist civilians on May 8, 1963, in the city of Huế in South Vietnam, at the hands of the army and security forces of the government of Ngô Đình Diệm...
and a ban on the Buddhist flag
Buddhist flag
The Buddhist flag is a flag designed in the late 19th century to symbolise and universally represent Buddhism. It is used by Buddhists throughout the world.-History:...
in early May, South Vietnam's Buddhist majority rose in widespread civil disobedience and protest against the religious bias and discrimination of the Catholic-dominated Diem government. Buddhist temples in major cities, most prominently the Xa Loi Pagoda, became focal points for protesters and assembly points for Buddhist monks
Bhikkhu
A Bhikkhu or Bhikṣu is an ordained male Buddhist monastic. A female monastic is called a Bhikkhuni Nepali: ). The life of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis is governed by a set of rules called the patimokkha within the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline...
from rural areas.
In August, several 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...
(ARVN) generals proposed the imposition of martial law, ostensibly to break up the demonstrations, but in reality to prepare for a military coup. However, Nhu—who was already looking to arrest Buddhist leaders and crush the protest movement—used the opportunity to pre-empt the generals and embarrass them. He disguised Tung's Special Forces in army uniforms and used them to attack the Buddhists, thereby causing the general public and South Vietnam's US allies to blame the army, diminishing the generals' reputations and ability to act as future national leaders.
Soon after midnight on August 21, Nhu's men attacked the pagodas using automatic firearms, grenades, battering rams and explosives, causing widespread damage. Some religious objects were destroyed, including a statue of Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
in Tu Dam Pagoda
Tu Dam Pagoda
Tu Dam Temple is a Buddhist temple in the central city of Huế in Vietnam. Tu Dam Temple is located on a street of the same name, in Trường An ward of Huế.-History:...
in Hue
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
; the temple was partially leveled by explosives. The temples were looted and vandalized, with the remains of self-immolated
Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
Buddhist monks confiscated, and in Hue, violent street battles erupted between government forces and rioting pro-Buddhist, anti-Diem civilians.
At first, the Ngo family claimed that the army had carried out the raids, something their US allies initially believed. However, this was later debunked, and the incident prompted the United States to turn against the regime and begin exploring alternative leadership options, eventually leading to Diem's overthrow in a coup. In South Vietnam itself, the raids stoked widespread anger. Several high-ranking public servants resigned, and university and high school students boycotted classes and staged riotous demonstrations, resulting in further mass incarcerations. As most of the students were from middle-class children from public service and military families, the arrests caused further upset among the Ngo family's power base.
Background
In South Vietnam, a country where the Buddhist majority was estimated to comprise between 70 and 90 percent of the population in 1963, President Ngo Dinh DiemNgo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
's pro-Catholic policies antagonized many Buddhists. A member of the Catholic
Roman Catholicism in Vietnam
The Roman Catholic Church in Vietnam is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome. Vietnam has the fifth largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines, India, China and Indonesia....
minority, his government was regarded as being biased towards Catholics in public service and military promotions, as well as in the allocation of land, business favors and tax concessions. Diem once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting that he was a Buddhist, "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted." Many officers in the ARVN converted to Catholicism in the belief that their career prospects depended on it, and many were refused promotion if they did not do so. Additionally, the distribution of firearms to village self-defense militias intended to repel Vietcong guerrillas was done so that weapons were only given to Catholics. Some Catholic priests ran private armies, and in some areas forced conversions, looting, shelling and demolition of pagodas occurred. Some Buddhist villages converted en masse to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diem's regime.
The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French, which required official permission to conduct public activities, was not repealed by Diem. The land owned by the church was exempt from land reform, and Catholics were also de facto exempt from the corvée
Corvée
Corvée is unfree labour, often unpaid, that is required of people of lower social standing and imposed on them by the state or a superior . The corvée was the earliest and most widespread form of taxation, which can be traced back to the beginning of civilization...
labor that the government obliged all other citizens to perform; public spending was disproportionately distributed to Catholic majority villages. Under Diem, the Catholic Church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition, and in 1959, he dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary. The Vatican flag was regularly flown at major public events in South Vietnam.
Buddhist flag
The Buddhist flag is a flag designed in the late 19th century to symbolise and universally represent Buddhism. It is used by Buddhists throughout the world.-History:...
on Vesak
Vesak
Vesākha is a holiday observed traditionally by Buddhists in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the South East Asian countries of Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, and Indonesia...
, the birthday of Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. The application of the law caused indignation among Buddhists on the eve of the most important religious festival of the year, as a week earlier Catholics had been encouraged to display Vatican flags at a government-sponsored celebration for Diem's brother, Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, the most senior Catholic cleric in the country. On May 8, in Hue, a crowd of Buddhists protested against the ban on the Buddhist flag. The police and army broke up the demonstration by firing guns at and throwing grenades into the gathering, leaving nine dead.
Diem's denial of governmental responsibility for the incident—he instead blamed the Vietcong—led to growing discontent among the Buddhist majority. The incident spurred a protest movement against the religious discrimination
Religious discrimination
Religious discrimination is valuing or treating a person or group differently because of what they do or do not believe.A concept like that of 'religious discrimination' is necessary to take into account ambiguities of the term religious persecution. The infamous cases in which people have been...
of the Roman Catholic-dominated Diem regime, resulting in widespread and large-scale civil disobedience among the South Vietnamese public, persisting throughout May and June. This period of political instability was known as the Buddhist crisis
Buddhist crisis
The Buddhist crisis was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam from May 1963 to November 1963 characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government and a campaign of civil resistance, led mainly by Buddhist monks....
. The objective of the protests was to have Decree Number 10 repealed, and to force Diem to implement religious equality.
On June 11, the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc self-immolated in downtown Saigon. Images were shown by news outlets across the world, embarrassing Diem's government and bringing negative global attention. A few days later, under mounting American pressure, Diem signed the Joint Communique
Joint Communique
The Joint Communiqué was an agreement signed on 16 June 1963 between the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem and the Buddhist leadership of the country in an attempt to end the Buddhist crisis.- Background :...
with senior Buddhist leaders, making various concessions to the Buddhists, who in turn agreed to stop the civil unrest and return to normal life.
Neither the Ngo family nor the Buddhists were happy with the agreement however, and it failed to solve the dispute. Both sides accused the other of failing to uphold their obligations; the government accused the Buddhists of continuing to vilify them in demonstrations, while the Buddhists accused Diem of stalling and not acting on his commitments to religious reform, and continuing to detain arrested Buddhist dissidents. The demonstrations and tension continued throughout July and August, with more self-immolations and an altercation (known as the Double Seven Day scuffle
Double Seven Day scuffle
The Double Seven Day scuffle was a physical altercation on July 7, 1963, in Saigon, South Vietnam. The secret police of Ngô Đình Nhu—the brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm—attacked a group of journalists from the United States who were covering Buddhist protests on the ninth anniversary...
Xa Loi Pagoda
The hub of Buddhist activism in Saigon was Xa Loi PagodaXa Loi Pagoda
The Xá Lợi Pagoda is the largest pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was built in 1956 and was the headquarters of Buddhism in South Vietnam. The pagoda is located at 89 Bà Huyện Thanh Quan Street in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City and lies on a plot of 2500 square metres...
. Built in the late 1950s, it was the largest Buddhist temple in the capital and was located in the city center. Many monks from outside Saigon—including prominent Buddhist leaders—had congregated at Xa Loi since the dispute began and it was used as a venue for press conferences, media interviews, publication of pamphlets and to plan and organize mass demonstrations.
At the time, Ngo Dinh 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...
was known to favor a stronger line against the Buddhists. Nhu was the younger brother of President Diem and his main confidant, and was regarded as the real power behind the Ngo family's rule. Nhu had made statements calling for the suppression of the protests through his English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
newspaper, the Times of Vietnam
Times of Vietnam
The Times of Vietnam is a defunct English language newspaper that existed in South Vietnam under the rule of President Ngô Đình Diệm. It was regarded as the official mouthpiece of his regime. It was disbanded following his deposal and assassination in November 1963. The November 1 morning edition...
. There were persistent reports that Nhu was seeking to usurp power from his elder brother and to attack the Buddhists. Nick Turner of Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
approached Nhu and interviewed him about these rumors. Nhu said that if the Buddhist crisis was not resolved, he would stage a coup, demolish Xa Loi in two hours, and head a new anti-Buddhist government. The news was promptly published, but the American Embassy was unconvinced as to whether Nhu was serious.
In the meantime, Nhu prepared the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . Following the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955, the Special Forces were formed at Nha Trang in February 1956...
commanded by Colonel Le Quang Tung
Le Quang Tung
Colonel Lê Quang Tung was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngo Dinh Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem. A former servant of the Ngô family, Tung's military background was in security and counterespionage...
—who took his orders directly from Nhu and not the senior generals—for the raids. An American-trained outfit created to fight the Vietcong, the Special Forces were better equipped, trained and paid than the regular army, but were used by the Ngo family as a private army for repressing dissidents and protecting their rule, rather than fighting for the national interest. As such, they spent the majority of their time in Saigon warding off coup attempts. Tung brought two more Special Forces battalions into Saigon, meaning that a total of four were in the capital.
On Sunday, August 18, the Buddhists staged a mass protest at Xa Loi, attracting around 15,000 people, undeterred by rain. The attendance was approximately three times higher than that at the previous Sunday's rally. The event lasted for several hours, as speeches by the monks interspersed religious ceremonies. A Vietnamese journalist said that it was the only emotional public gathering in South Vietnam since Diem's rise to power almost a decade earlier. David Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
speculated that by not exploiting the large crowd by staging a protest march towards Gia Long Palace or other government buildings, the Buddhists were saving their biggest demonstration for the scheduled arrival of new US ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
in the following week. As a government attack on Xa Loi was anticipated, Halberstam concluded that the Buddhists were playing "a fast and dangerous game". He wrote that "the Buddhists themselves appeared to be at least as much aware of all the developments, and their protest seemed to have a mounting intensity".
Planning
On the evening of August 18, ten senior ARVN generals met to discuss the situation regarding the Buddhist unrest and decided that martial law was needed. They wanted to disperse the monks who had gathered in Saigon and other regional cities and return them to their original pagodas in the rural areas.Nhu summoned 7 of the 10 generals to Gia Long Palace on August 20 for consultations. They presented their request for martial law and discussed how to disband the groups of monks and their supporters from the temples in Saigon. Nhu sent the generals to see Diem. The president listened to the group of seven, led by General Tran Van Don
Tran Van Don
Trần Văn Đôn was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and one of the principal figures in the coup d'état which deposed Ngô Đình Diệm from the presidency of South Vietnam.-Family:...
. The group also included Army Chief General Tran Thien Khiem
Tran Thien Khiem
General Trần Thiện Khiêm was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. During the 1960s he was involved in several coups. He helped President Ngo Dinh Diem put down a November 1960 coup attempt and was rewarded with promotion...
and General Nguyen Khanh
Nguyen Khanh
Nguyễn Khánh is a former general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam who variously served as Head of State and Prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a military junta from January 1964 until February 1965. He was involved in or against many coup attempts, failed and successful,...
, commander of the II Corps
II Corps (South Vietnam)
The II Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps in the ARVN, and it oversaw the region of the central highlands region, north of the capital Saigon...
in the central highlands
Tây Nguyên
Tây Nguyên, translated as Western Highlands and sometimes also called Central Highlands, is one of the regions of Vietnam. It contains the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lâm Đồng....
. Khiem and Khanh were two of the officers who were responsible for helping to put down the attempted coup
1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt
On November 11, 1960, a failed coup attempt against President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was led by Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Van Dong and Colonel Nguyen Chanh Thi of the Airborne Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam ....
against Diem in 1960. Also present was General Le Van Kim
Le Van Kim
Lieutenant General Lê Văn Kim is a former general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was the brother in law of General Trần Văn Đôn and together with General Dương Văn Minh, the trio organised the 1963 South Vietnamese coup which toppled President Ngô Đình Diệm and ended in his arrest and...
, head of the military academy and Don's brother-in-law, General Do Cao Tri
Do Cao Tri
Lieutenant General Đỗ Cao Trí was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam known for his fighting prowess and flamboyant style. Tri started out in the French Army before transferring to the Vietnamese National Army and the ARVN...
, commander of I Corps
I Corps (South Vietnam)
The I Corps Tactical Zone was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps which the ARVN oversaw. This was the northernmost region of South Vietnam, bordering North Vietnam...
, which oversaw the northernmost region around Hue. The final two men present were favorites of the Diem regime. General Ton That Dinh
Ton That Dinh
Major General Tôn Thất Đính is a retired officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that deposed and resulted in the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam .A favourite of...
, the brash paratrooper who was South Vietnam's youngest ever general, commanded the III Corps
III Corps (South Vietnam)
III Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975...
surrounding Saigon. General Huynh Van Cao
Huynh Van Cao
Major General Huỳnh Văn Cao was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was born on September 26, 1927.He is married and has ten children and more than 20 grandchildren. In 1950, he graduated from Military school in Huế. He then attended College of Tactics and graduated in Hanoi in...
was the commander of the IV Corps
IV Corps (South Vietnam)
The IV Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975...
in the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
and the only one of the septet that was not involved in plotting against Diem. Dinh and Cao controlled the two corps regions closest to Saigon and therefore the two areas most crucial in the success or failure of a coup. Cao had used the Seventh Division
Seventh Division (South Vietnam)
The Seventh Division was part of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975...
of his IV Corps to storm the capital in 1960 to save Diem.
Le Van Ty
General Lê Văn Tỵ was the first chief of staff of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was previously a general in the Vietnamese National Army of the State of Vietnam, which became the Republic of Vietnam in 1955 after Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem deposed Emperor Bao Dai in a fraudulent...
, who was terminally ill with cancer and having medical treatment abroad. Don noted that Diem was apparently concerned for the welfare of the monks, telling the generals that he did not want any of them hurt. The martial law orders were then signed and authorized by Don.
The real purpose of Don asking for martial law was to maneuver troops in readiness for a coup, and he had no concrete plans to send the regular army into the pagodas. However, Nhu sidestepped him and took the opportunity to discredit the army by using Tung's Special Forces and the combat police to attack the pagodas. With the action occurring in his military region, Dinh, the officer most trusted by the Ngo family, was the only general who was given advance notice of the raids.
With the approval of Diem, Nhu used the declaration of martial law to order armed men into the Buddhist pagodas. Nhu purposely chose a time when the American Embassy was leaderless. Frederick Nolting
Frederick Nolting
Frederick Ernst Nolting , was a World War II naval officer and United States diplomat.-Early life and education:...
had returned to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and his successor Lodge was yet to arrive. As the high command of the ARVN worked closely with American military advisers deployed in the country, Nhu used the combat police and Tung's Special Forces, who took their orders directly from him. The men were dressed in standard army uniforms, such as paratroop attire, to frame the regulars for the raids.
Nhu's motive was to avoid responsibility for a violent operation—which would anger the Vietnamese public and the American leadership. In falsely implicating the army in the attacks, Nhu intended to dent the confidence of the Vietnamese populace and the Americans in the senior officers who were plotting against him. Nhu hoped that the Buddhist majority and the Americans would blame the army for the raids and become less inclined to support a coup by the generals. In the past, Nhu's Machiavellian tactics in playing the generals against one another had kept conspirators off-balance and thwarted coup attempts. The raids were not unexpected, as the Buddhists had prepared themselves for the attacks, as had journalists, who were watching military installations for signs of movement.
Saigon
In the afternoon before the raids, trucks filled with soldiers headed past the offices of media outlets—from where the journalists saw them—destined for An Quang Pagoda
An Quang Pagoda
An Quang Pagoda in Master Van Hanh Street is a meeting place for Vietnamese Buddhist leaders in Ho Chi Minh City and is a site of the Institute for Dharma Propagation...
. More troops were seen congregating at the police headquarters, ready to board trucks moving towards Xa Loi Pagoda. The American-made trucks had been provided as part of the US military aid program for South Vietnam. Late at night, the convoys arrived and surrounded Xa Loi from several sides, causing a traffic jam in the city center. Several thousand personnel were estimated to have been present. Journalists were informed as soon as the attacks began, even as Nhu's men cut communications lines almost immediately, and rushed to Xa Loi.
Squads of Special Forces and combat police flattened the gates and smashed their way into the pagoda at around 00:20 on August 21, as Xa Loi's brass gong was struck to signal the attack. Nhu's men were armed with pistols, submachine guns, carbines, shotguns, grenades and tear gas. The red-bereted Special Forces were joined by truckloads of steel-helmeted combat police in army camouflage uniforms. Two of Nhu's senior aides were seen outside Xa Loi directing the operation, while Nhu and his wife, Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Trần Lệ Xuân , popularly known as Madame Nhu, was considered the first lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu who was the brother and chief adviser to President Ngo Dinh Diem...
, watched the action from a nearby tank. Monks and nuns who barricaded themselves behind wooden shields were attacked with rifle butts and bayonets. The sound of the pagoda's gong was largely masked by that of automatic weapons fire, exploding grenades, battering rams, shattering glass and human screaming. The military personnel shouted as they attacked, as did the occupants, in fear.
Tung's men charged forward in a V-shaped riot formation. According to Halberstam, "they pranced into the pagoda, looking something like a smart football team coming up to the line of scrimmage". In the end, it took around two hours to complete the raids because many of the occupants had entrenched themselves inside the various rooms in anticipation of the attacks and doors had to be unhinged to reach them. According to journalist Neil Sheehan
Neil Sheehan
Cornelius Mahoney "Neil" Sheehan is an American journalist. As a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classified Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. His series in the Times revealed a secret U.S. Department of Defense history of the Vietnam War and resulted in government...
, who was at the scene, "The raid on Xa Loi, like those on the pagodas elsewhere in South Vietnam, was flawlessly executed. It reminded me of a scene from a movie of the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
—the scene when the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
arrive at the Resistance hideout in Paris. William Prochnau
William Prochnau
William Walter Prochnau is an American journalist.His work on the Vietnam War while at the Seattle Times landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents....
said that "Using the elite guard against the Buddhists was analogous to using Green Berets to put down Negro protests at home. It was outrageous."
One monk was thrown from a balcony down to the courtyard six meters below. Nhu's men vandalized the main altar and confiscated the intact charred heart of Thich Quang Duc, which had failed to burn during his re-cremation. However, some of the Buddhists were able to flee the pagoda with a receptacle containing his ashes. Two monks jumped the back wall of Xa Loi to enter the grounds of the adjoining United States Agency for International Development
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...
(USAID) mission, where they were given asylum, despite the presence of troops behind the pagoda walls who opened fire with automatic weapons on any monks who tried to flee by jumping the fence.
Thich Tinh Khiet, the 80-year-old Buddhist patriarch, was seized and taken to a military hospital on the outskirts of Saigon. As commander of the III Corps, General Dinh soon announced military control over Saigon, canceling all commercial flights into the city and instituting press censorship. Later, Thich Quang Do
Thich Quang Do
Thích Quảng Độ is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk.In 2002, he was awarded the Homo Homini Award for human rights activism by the Czech group People in Need, which he shared with Thích Huyền Quang and Nguyen Van Ly...
, one of leading arrested monks, who later went on to become one of the leaders of the now-banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam is a Buddhist organization in Vietnam. The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam was founded in 1964 to unify 11 of the 14 different sects of Vietnamese Buddhism at the time present in the country...
, explained the protest strategy. After being released following the deposal of Diem, he was asked why the Buddhist leaders had not fled to avoid arrest. He said that "We had done nothing wrong; therefore we could not flee. If we had, it would have been an admission that we were guilty."
Hue
Tu Dam Pagoda
Tu Dam Temple is a Buddhist temple in the central city of Huế in Vietnam. Tu Dam Temple is located on a street of the same name, in Trường An ward of Huế.-History:...
, which was the temple of Buddhist protest leader Thich Tri Quang
Thich Tri Quang
Thích Trí Quang is a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk best known for his role in leading South Vietnam’s Buddhist population during the Buddhist crisis in 1963....
, monks attempted to burn the coffin of a monk who had self-immolated recently. Government soldiers, firing M1 rifles, overran the pagoda and confiscated the coffin. They also demolished a statue of Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
and looted and vandalized the pagoda. They then set off an explosion, leveling much of the pagoda. Many Buddhists were shot or clubbed to death.
The most determined resistance to the Diem regime occurred outside the Dieu De Pagoda
Dieu De Pagoda
Dieu De Pagoda is a Buddhist temple in the central city of Huế in Vietnam. It is named for the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, which are called Tứ Diệu Đế in Vietnamese. During the period of the Nguyễn Dynasty in the 19th century, Emperor Thiệu Trị declared it to be one of the national pagodas of...
. As troops attempted to stretch a barbed wire barricade across a bridge leading to the pagoda, the crowd tore it down with their bare hands. The protestors then fought the heavily armed military personnel with rocks, sticks and their bare fists, throwing back the tear gas grenades that were fired at them. After a five-hour battle, the military finally won control of the bridge by driving armored cars through the angry crowd at sunrise. The defense of the bridge and Dieu De left an estimated 30 dead and 200 wounded.
Ten truckloads of bridge defenders were taken to jail and an estimated 500 people were arrested in the city. Seventeen of the 47 professors at Hue University
Hue University
Huế University is a university located in Huế, the former imperial capital of Vietnam; this university is one of the important regional universities of Vietnam...
, who had resigned earlier in the week in protest against the dismissal of the rector Cao Van Luan, a Catholic priest and opponent of Diem's brother Archbishop Thuc were also arrested. The raids were repeated in cities and towns across the country. The total number of dead and disappeared was never confirmed, but estimates range up to several hundred. At least 1,400 were arrested.
US reaction and sanctuary for monks
The United States became immediately embroiled in the attacks following the escape of the two monks over the back wall of Xa Loi Pagoda into the adjacent USAID compound. Saigon's police chief, disguised as a member of Nhu's Republican Youth, cordoned off the building. He ordered all Vietnamese inside to leave the area and threatened to storm the building when the Americans denied him entry. Foreign Minister Vu Van Mau rushed to the scene to stop any physical confrontation, but demanded the Americans turn over the monks. William TrueheartWilliam Trueheart
William Trueheart was a diplomat in the service of the United States. Serving as the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 1969–1971, he is better known for being the acting U.S...
, the deputy of the recently relieved US ambassador Nolting, arrived at the building. As the leading American diplomat in Vietnam in the transition period between ambassadors, Trueheart refused to take action until he received instructions from Washington, but warned Mau against violating the diplomatic immunity of the USAID offices. Trueheart knew that handing over the monks would imply American approval of the regime's action. The confrontation soon died down, and the US State Department ordered Trueheart not to release the two monks and to regard the USAID building as being equivalent to the embassy. More monks went on to find sanctuary in the US embassy, which became known as the "Buddhist Hilton".
Lodge was in Honolulu for last minute briefings with Nolting when news filtered through of the pagoda raids. He was given directions to proceed directly to Saigon, and arrived after sunset on August 22. In the meantime, the State Department denounced the raids as a "direct violation by the Vietnamese government of assurances that it was pursuing a policy of reconciliation with the Buddhists".
On August 23, Lodge's first day in Saigon, he visited the two monks who had taken refuge in the USAID building, and ordered that vegetarian food be made available for them. The meeting was a means of showing where American government policy stood on the attacks against the Buddhists.
Diem reaction
State of Siege
State of Siege is a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.-Summary:...
throughout the national territory. I confer upon 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...
the responsibility to restore security and public order so that the state may be protected, Communism defeated, freedom secured, and democracy achieved." Under martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
, the army was given blanket search-and-arrest powers and was empowered to ban all public gatherings, enforce a curfew, restrict press freedom and stop the circulation of all "printed material and other documents harmful to public order and security". The military were given orders to shoot anybody who violated the curfew on sight, and the secret police used the increased powers to raid and vandalize the premises of anyone who was thought to be unfriendly towards the regime.
Government sources claimed that in Xa Loi, An Quang, and various Theravada
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
pagodas, soldiers had found machine guns, ammunition, plastic explosives, homemade mines, daggers, and Vietcong documents. It was later discovered that they had been planted there by Nhu's men. A few days later, Madame Nhu said in an interview that the raids were "the happiest day in my life since we crushed the Binh Xuyen
Binh Xuyen
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van "Bay" Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh...
in 1955", and assailed the Buddhists as "communists". On August 29, General Dinh held a press conference in which he accused the Americans of trying to launch a coup in South Vietnam and took credit for the raids, despite Tung having been the chief military officer in charge.
Confusion over culpability and army denials
On the surface, the driving force behind the government assault on the Buddhists appeared to have come from senior military commanders acting without consulting the civilian government. Immediately after the attacks, posters were erected across Saigon under the aegis of ARVN, but the language used was more reminiscent of Nhu.The Secretary of State Nguyen Dinh Thuan
Nguyen Dinh Thuan
Nguyễn Đình Thuận was the Secretary of State under President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam....
and Interior Minister Bui Van Luong were caught off guard by the attacks. The initial perception was that the military establishment had suddenly cracked down on the Buddhists because they were deemed to be a threat to the war effort. The government propagated a theory which held that the military felt compelled to take action after pro-Buddhist student unrest on August 17 and 18. In Hue, student protestors had turned on an ARVN officer after he fired in their direction. The attacks were also preceded by a large rally at Xa Loi Pagoda during which some monks had called for the overthrow of the Diem regime and denounced the anti-Buddhist statements of the de facto first lady Madame Nhu. These arguments were dismissed by observers, along with government claims that the raids were spontaneous.
Diem had long distrusted his generals and frequently played them against each other in a divide and conquer
Divide and rule
In politics and sociology, divide and rule is a combination of political, military and economic strategy of gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy...
strategy to weaken any chance of a coup attempt. The army also contained substantial numbers of soldiers from the Buddhist majority, heightening skepticism that they would have attacked the pagodas and monks in such a violent manner. The synchronized military operations throughout the country, the speed at which banners were erected declaring the ARVN resolve to defeat communism, and doctored propaganda photos purporting to show Vietcong infiltration of the Buddhists suggested that the actions were long premeditated. In an attempt to maintain secrecy, special printing presses had produced propaganda materials only hours before the raids.
The initial government line was that the regular army had taken the actions. ARVN radio broadcasts bore the influence of Nhu's abrasive tone in directing the Republican Youth to cooperate with the government. Nhu accused the Buddhists of turning their pagodas into headquarters for plotting anti-government insurrections. He claimed that the Buddhist Intersect Committee operated under the control of "political speculators who exploited religion and terrorism". Lodge believed that Diem remained in control but that Nhu's influence had risen to unprecedented levels. He thought that Nhu's divide and conquer tactics had split the military into three factions, respectively led by Generals Don and Dinh and Colonel Tung. Don was believed not to have the allegiance of Dinh and Tung, who took their orders directly from Gia Long Palace. The two loyalists were reputed to have detested one another but had support from various Diemist elements. Lodge predicted that if the army deposed Diem, fighting could break out within the ARVN.
Initially, the American embassy believed the Ngo family's claims that the regular army was responsible for the raids. The Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
, which was widely listened to in South Vietnam as the only non-Diemist news source, initially aired Nhu's version of events, much to the dismay of the generals. However, the American media thought otherwise and began to debunk this theory, pointing out that the Ngos constantly sought to undermine the army, and that Madame Nhu's joy over the events would suggest that the family had not ceded power to or had their hand forced by the military. Furthermore, they identified Nhu's aides at the site, his idiosyncratic style in the announcements supposedly made by the ARVN, and the fact that the army had little motive to attack the Buddhists. The New York Times printed two versions of the raids on its front page, one by David Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
implicating Nhu for the attacks, and another with the official government version. Sheehan of United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
also claimed that Nhu was responsible for the attacks, and foreign journalists had to smuggle their stories out by asking people leaving the country at the airport to carry documents for them. At the time, Sheehan and Halberstam were on a Ngo family hit list along with political dissidents because of their exposes of the regime's human rights abuses, and following the raids, they slept at the home of US official John Mecklin
John Mecklin
John Martin Mecklin was an American journalist and diplomat. He wrote for the New York Times, Time magazine and Fortune magazine. He also served as the Public Affairs Advisor for the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development of the United States Information Agency...
. They also received information that the Ngos were going to plant bombs in their offices and blame the deaths on the communists.
The Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
went on to report that the ARVN officers resolutely denied any involvement in the pagoda raids. They held that Tung's Special Forces had disguised themselves in ARVN uniforms before attacking the pagodas. Further unsubstantiated rumors had spread within the army that the Americans, who trained the Special Forces, had helped to plan the attack. The ARVN leaders were unsure of how to proceed and Don called a staff meeting on the morning of August 23 to discuss impending demonstrations against the raids by university students and the anger of junior ARVN officers about the pagoda attacks. General Duong Van 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...
noted that the ongoing presence of armed military personnel had alienated society by creating an "aura of suppression".
Later in the day, Don privately met with CIA agent Lucien Conein
Lucien Conein
Lt. Col. Lucien Emile Conein was a noted U.S. Army officer and Office of Strategic Services / Central Intelligence Agency operative...
and reiterated that the Americans were mistaken in believing that the ARVN was responsible. Don insisted that Diem remained in control although Nhu had to approve all of the generals' meetings with Diem. Don insisted that Nhu had orchestrated the raids, fearing that the generals had too much power. He asserted that Nhu used the cover of martial law to discredit the generals by dressing the Special Forces in ARVN uniforms. Don insisted that he was unaware of the plans and was at Joint General Staff headquarters with Khiem when he received a radio message informing him of the assaults. Police Commissioner Tran Van Tu, supported by Tung's men, were in charge of the operation at ground level, and by the time Don arrived, the mission had been completed. Kim had also had his own meeting with Rufus Phillips at the US Embassy. He bitterly confided that Nhu had tricked the army into imposing martial law and becoming his "puppet".
Kim asserted that Dinh, Don and the other generals were not aware of the raids in advance and revealed that the arms and explosives that Nhu claimed were found in the pagodas had been planted. As a result, the Vietnamese people had expressed anger at the army and their US backers, strengthening Nhu's position.
Martial law and riots
Following the raids, tensions were high in the streets of the cities. Police were ordered to shoot those who defied the 21:00 to 05:00 curfew, and troops in full camouflage battle dress guarded every major intersection and bridge with automatic weapons bearing fixed bayonets. The empty pagodas were ringed by troops and armored cars. All outgoing news was censored, forcing reporters to smuggle their copy out with travelers flying to foreign countries. The telephone lines in the homes and offices of all US military and embassy staff were disconnected. The head of the USAID mission, Joe Brant, was stopped and searched while commuting to work, and other American officials had their meetings with Vietnamese officials and applications for permits to travel after the curfew hours delayed. The 14,000 US military advisers in the country were given orders to stay in their homes, and all leave was canceled.The pagoda raids provoked widespread disquiet among the usually apolitical Saigon public. At midnight on August 22, Generals Don, Dinh and Khiem informed Nhu that student demonstrations were planned for three consecutive days. They recommended that the schools be closed, but when Nhu took them to see Diem, the president refused to close the educational institutions. Diem decided that the students, not usually known for political activism, should be allowed to voice their opinions. Taking advantage of the opportunity, students at Saigon University
Saigon University
Saigon University is a public university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This university was established in 25 April 2007 by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, operating under the People's Committee in Ho Chi Minh City. This university was founded on the basis of the Ho Chi Minh City College...
boycotted classes and rioted, which was met with arrests, imprisonment, and the closure of the campus. These events were repeated at Hue University, which was likewise shut down.
When high school students followed the lead of their elders and demonstrated, Diem had them arrested as well. Two of the detained students were paraded at a press conference in which they falsely admitted to being communists who had brainwashed their entire school, having been tortured to force their confession. At Trung Vuong, an elite girls' high school, the students hung up banners attacking Diem and the Nhus, while students from the corresponding boys' schools became violent, smashing school windows and erecting banners that insulted Madame Nhu in explicit language. More than 1,000 students from Saigon's leading high school, most of them children of public servants and military officers, were sent to re-education camps. The result was that many army officers and senior civil servants had to lobby to have their children or younger siblings released from jail, causing a further drop in morale among government and military officials. In more extreme cases, brawls broke out between the police officers who were arresting students and military officers and public servants whose children were being taken away.
Foreign Minister Vu Van Mau resigned, shaving his head like a Buddhist monk in protest. As Mau had decided to leave the country for a religious pilgrimage to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, the diplomatic and press corps assembled at the airport to see him off. He never arrived, as the Ngos had him arrested. However, General Dinh softened the punishment at the behest of a fellow officer, and put the former diplomat under house arrest instead of placing him in jail.
Tran Van Chuong
Tran Van Chuong
Trần Văn Chương was South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States in the early 1960s and the father of the country's de facto first lady, Madame Nhu .-Family life:...
, the ambassador to the United States and father of the de facto first lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
Madame Nhu, resigned in protest, along with all but one of the staff members at the embassy. Chuong charged Diem with having "copied the tactics of totalitarian regimes", and said that as long as Diem and the Nhus were in power, there was "not once chance in a hundred for victory" against the communists. Madame Chuong—who was South Vietnam's observer at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
—resigned and spoke of mass executions and a reign of terror under Diem and Nhu. She predicted that if Diem and the Nhus did not leave Vietnam then they would be killed in some sort of uprising. The Voice of America announced that Chuong had resigned in protest against the Ngo family's policies, but this was denied by the Saigon government, which asserted that the Chuongs had been sacked. Diem's officials claimed that Chuong's last telegram had been so critical of the regime that it was determined to be "inadmissible in form and substance". After years of privately complaining about his ambassador, Diem dismissed him.
In the meantime, the brothers made selective payments to some generals, hoping to cause resentment and division within the army. Vietnamese civil servants also became more reluctant to do their jobs, especially in conjunction with American advisers. They reasoned that as the Americans were funding Tung's men, they must have been involved in the attacks.
Change in US policy
Once the US government realized the truth about who was behind the raids, they reacted with disapproval towards the Diem regime. The Americans had pursued a policy of quietly and privately advising the Ngos to reconcile with the Buddhists while publicly supporting the partnership, but following the attacks, this route was regarded as untenable. Furthermore, the attacks were carried out by American-trained Special Forces personnel funded by the CIA, and presented Lodge with a fait accompli. One Western ambassador thought that the raids signaled "the end of the gallant American effort here". The State Department issued a statement declaring that the raids were a "direct violation" of the promise to pursue "a policy of reconciliation".On August 24, the Kennedy administration sent Cable 243
Cable 243
DEPTEL 243, also known as Telegram 243, the August 24 cable or most commonly Cable 243, was a high-profile message sent on August 24, 1963 by the United States Department of State to Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the US ambassador to South Vietnam...
to Lodge at the embassy in Saigon, marking a change in American policy. The message advised Lodge to seek the removal of the Nhus from power, and to look for alternative leadership options if Diem refused to heed American pressure for reform. As the probability of Diem sidelining Nhu and his wife was seen as virtually nil, the message effectively meant the fomenting of a coup. The Voice of America also broadcast a statement blaming Nhu for the raids and absolving the army of responsibility. Aware that the Americans would neither oppose a coup nor respond with aid cuts or sanctions, the generals deposed the Ngo brothers
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...
, who were arrested and assassinated the next day, November 2.