On what date was Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated?
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963. On 2 November 1963, Diệm and his adviser, his younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu, were arrested after the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) had been successful in a bloody overnight siege on Gia Long Palace in Saigon. The coup was the culmination of nine years of autocratic and nepotistic family rule in South Vietnam. Discontent with the Diệm regime had been simmering below the surface, and exploded with mass Buddhist protests against long-standing religious discrimination after the government shooting of protesters who defied a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag.
Ngo Dinh Diem presidential visit to the United States
In 1963, mass civil disobedience broke out due to discontent from the Buddhist majority over Diệm's discrimination against them, sparked by the fatal shootings of nine people who were demonstrating against the ban on the Buddhist flag. The US began to lose confidence in Diệm's ability to run the country effectively and prevent the growth of the communist insurgency, and concluded that he was an obstacle to religious and thus national stability. During this time, the American press corps wrote unvarnished stories about the South Vietnamese government's policies and actions, in contrast to the supportive pieces of the 1950s, and Diệm's attempts to physically intimidate correspondents backfired. After Diệm tried to settle the Buddhist crisis by launching synchronized raids on Buddhist temples across the country to round up those monks who were leading protests against him, the Americans began to look for alternative leadership, sending Cable 243 to their embassy in Saigon to authorise the search for someone to replace Diệm. In November 1963, Diệm was overthrown in a US-backed coup and he and Nhu were captured and executed.