JFK CONSIDERS SUPPORTING COUP IN SOUTH VIETNAM
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On August 29, 1963, President John F. Kennedy met with his advisers at the White House regarding his administration's policy in South Vietnam.
Audio tapes made at the meeting, declassified and released in December 2009, reveal the specific topics discussed including possible support of an overthrow of the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem.*
According to The National Security Archive, JFK acted as a "moderator," asking questions and listening to answers from his various advisers. At one point the President said... "We're up to our hips in mud out there."
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maxwell Taylor, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and CIA director John McCone opposed supporting the coup while several others were in favor of supporting it.
Senior officials told JFK that there was "no chance of success" in the war in Vietnam with Diem as president of South Vietnam. The President and a majority of his advisers concluded that, at the very least, Ngo Dinh Nhu**, Diem's younger brother and chief political adviser, had to go.
JFK sent McNamara and Taylor to South Vietnam to attempt to convince Diem of the necessity of removing Nhu. During their mission, the United States terminated military aid to the South Vietnam Special Forces which was controlled by Nhu. The National Security Archives says that this action indicates that JFK was prepared to support Diem's overthrow if he didn't cooperate.
*Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-1963), president of the Republic of Vietnam 1955-1963, was born in Quang Binh and graduated 1st in his class at the French School of Public Administration and Law in 1921.
**Ngo Dinh Nhu (1910-1963) was born in Phu Cam, French Indochina. He graduated from an archivists school in Paris and worked at Hanoi's National Library. In 1943, he married Tran Le Xuan.^
^Tran Le Xuan, a.k.a. Madame Nhu, (1924-2011) served as 1st Lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963 as her brother-in-law, President Diem, was unmarried.
SOURCE
"Kennedy Considered Supporting Coup in South Vietnam, August 1963." The National Security Archive, December 11, 2009, www.2.gwu.edu/
Madame Nhu and LBJ
May 12, 1961
LBJ Library Photo
