DIEM EXECUTED IN SOUTH VIETNAMESE MILITARY COUP
Saigon, South Vietnam (JFK+50) On November 2, 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam, and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were executed as part of a military coup supported by the Kennedy administration and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The brothers had escaped the Palace by an underground tunnel, making it safely to a refuge in Cholon, but they were captured at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church just after 10 a.m.
Diem and Nhu were then placed in the back of a personnel carrier where they were beaten and shot to death. As a Catholic, Diem's authoritarian rule was opposed by South Vietnam's Buddhist population.
The State Department denied any involvement by the United States in the coup, but evidence uncovered a decade ago proves otherwise. Documents show that while the Kennedy administration "had a considerable role in the coup," there was no evidence to show that JFK or his advisers planned for the executions.
According to General Maxwell Taylor, President John F. Kennedy learned of the deaths of Diem and Nhu at a cabinet meeting. Taylor said...
"Kennedy leaped to his feet and rushed out of the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face...."
SOURCE
"JFK and the Diem Coup" by John Prados , The National Security Archive, 2003
www.2gwu.edu/
Saigon, South Vietnam (JFK+50) On November 2, 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam, and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were executed as part of a military coup supported by the Kennedy administration and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The brothers had escaped the Palace by an underground tunnel, making it safely to a refuge in Cholon, but they were captured at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church just after 10 a.m.
Diem and Nhu were then placed in the back of a personnel carrier where they were beaten and shot to death. As a Catholic, Diem's authoritarian rule was opposed by South Vietnam's Buddhist population.
The State Department denied any involvement by the United States in the coup, but evidence uncovered a decade ago proves otherwise. Documents show that while the Kennedy administration "had a considerable role in the coup," there was no evidence to show that JFK or his advisers planned for the executions.
According to General Maxwell Taylor, President John F. Kennedy learned of the deaths of Diem and Nhu at a cabinet meeting. Taylor said...
"Kennedy leaped to his feet and rushed out of the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face...."
SOURCE
"JFK and the Diem Coup" by John Prados , The National Security Archive, 2003
www.2gwu.edu/
Ike, JFK Dules & Ngo Dinh Diem
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