1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état

Diệm's road to political power began in June 1954, when former emperor Bảo Đại, serving as Head of State, appointed him Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam in recognition of his strong anti-communist and anti-colonialist stance. The two, however, became embroiled in a power struggle. The issue was brought to a head when Diệm scheduled a referendum for October 1955, which was rigged by his brother Nhu, and proclaimed himself the President of the newly created Republic of Vietnam. He proceeded to strengthen his autocratic and nepotistic rule over the country. A rubber-stamp legislature wrote a constitution that gave Diệm the power to create laws by decree and arbitrarily give himself emergency powers. Dissidents, both communist and nationalist, were jailed and executed in the thousands, and elections were routinely rigged. Opposition candidates were threatened with being charged for conspiring with the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam, which carried the death penalty, and in many areas, large numbers of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops were sent to stuff ballot boxes. Diệm kept the control of the nation firmly within the hands of his family, and promotions in the ARVN were given on the basis of loyalty rather than merit. Two unsuccessful attempts were made to depose Diệm; in 1960, a paratrooper revolt was quashed after Diệm stalled for negotiations to buy time for loyalists to put down the coup attempt, while a 1962 palace bombing by two Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) pilots failed to kill him. By 1963, many but not the majority of Buddhists in South Vietnam had grown resentful of Diệm's perceived favoritism toward Catholics. Allegedly, public servants had been promoted on the basis of religious preference, and government contracts, land, and business favors were preferentially given to Catholics. The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country, and its holdings were exempt from land reform (i.e., appropriation). In the countryside, Catholics were de facto exempt from performing corvée labor. In 1957, Diệm dedicated the nation to the Virgin Mary. Discontent with Diệm and Nhu exploded into mass protest during mid-1963 when nine Buddhists died at the hand of Diệm's army and police on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. In response, the US government was concerned that it might be "impossible for the Diem/Nhu government to succeed and for us [the United States] to continue to support them". The response by Ambassador Frederick Nolting was, "We should take it slow and easy and see if we can live with the Diem government." As a result of this potential inability to support the Diem/Nhu government, the United States government discussed a proposed coup. In a telegram to the American Embassy in Saigon, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roger Hilsman says that at some point, were the US to require "political liquidation" in South Vietnam, it should also "urgently examine all possible alternative leadership and make detailed plans as to how we might bring about Diem's replacement if this should become necessary". In May 1963, a law against the flying of religious flags was selectively enforced; the Buddhist flag was banned from display on Vesak, while the Vatican flag was displayed to celebrate the anniversary of the consecration of Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục, Diệm's brother. Many Buddhists defied the ban and a protest was ended when government forces opened fire. With Diệm remaining intransigent in the face of escalating Buddhist demands for religious equality, sections of society began calling for his removal from power. The key turning point came shortly after midnight on 21 August, when Nhu's ARVN Special Forces raided and vandalized Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands of monks and causing a death toll estimated to be in the hundreds. Numerous coup plans had been explored by the army before, but the plotters intensified their activities with increased confidence after the administration of US President John F. Kennedy authorized the US embassy to explore the possibility of a leadership change through Cable 243. They felt Diệm's policies were making their allied regime in Vietnam politically unsustainable. ==Conspiracies==

There were many conspiracies against Diệm in 1963, many by different cliques of military officers independent from one another. According to the historian Ellen Hammer, there were "perhaps as many as six and possibly more" different plots, and these spanned the gamut of society to include civilian politicians, union leaders, and university students. As South Vietnam was a police state, Tuyến was a powerful figure and had many contacts. Another person in this group was Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, an undetected communist agent who was deliberately fomenting infighting among the officers and mismanaging the Strategic Hamlet Program in order to destabilise the Saigon government. Tuyến's group had many officers who were members of the opposition Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng and Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng, These officers included commanders of airborne, marine and tank units from the 5th Division, When Tuyến's machinations were uncovered, he was exiled by Nhu. Mậu and Thảo took over but their initial coup plans for 15 July were shelved when American CIA officer Lucien Conein instructed Thảo's superior, General Trần Thiện Khiêm, the head of the ARVN, to stop the coup on the grounds that it was premature. Thảo and Mậu's group resumed plotting, intending to move on 24 October and they recruited a total of 3000 men. The younger officers' plot was integrated into the generals' larger group, and because Khiêm and Mậu were involved with both groups. After the coup was completed, the media learned that the conspiracy organised by Tuyến and Thảo had been more advanced than that of the generals' before the latter were integrated into the main plot. General Trần Văn Đôn threatened to have the younger officers arrested but Mậu intervened to protect them. Plotting by the generals Following the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, the senior generals started their own plot in earnest, having only had vague plans prior to this. General Đôn, nominally a high-ranking general, but in a position without command of troops since the palace distrusted him, was sought out by Mậu, who wanted to collaborate. Mậu later accompanied the ranking general in the plot, Dương Văn Minh, on recruitment campaigns. Despite his high rank, Minh was out of favour and served as the Presidential Military Advisor, a meaningless desk job where he had no subordinates in the field and no access to soldiers. Mậu helped Minh to secure the cooperation of General Nguyễn Khánh, According to Thiệu, Mậu and Minh had promised to establish a more strongly anti-communist government and to keep Diệm as a figurehead president. Recruitment of Đính The generals knew that without the cooperation of General Đính, a coup would be difficult as his III Corps forces oversaw the region surrounding the capital. Regarded by his peers as ambitious, vain and impulsive, Đính was a favorite of the Ngô family, and headed the military wing of the Cần Lao Party. Đính converted to Catholicism as Diệm trusted his co-religionists and promoted officers based on loyalty and not competence. Đính was known mainly for his drunken presence in Saigon's nightclubs, and the CIA labeled him a "basic opportunist". Đính privately claimed responsibility for the pagoda attacks, During this period, Đính claimed he was "a great national hero". His ego had been played upon by the Ngô brothers, who reiterated this point and paid him a large cash bonus after the pagoda raids. In the heady times after the attacks, Đính told his American advisors that "he was without doubt the greatest general officer in the ARVN, the saviour of Saigon ... and soon he would be the top military man in the country". In a press conference soon after, Đính claimed to have saved South Vietnam from "foreign adventurers", a euphemism for the United States. Đính returned to the officers' mess at the Joint General Staff (JGS) headquarters The other generals told him that the people were dissatisfied with Diệm's cabinet and that Vietnam needed dynamic young officers in politics, and that their presence would reverse the declining morale in the ARVN. Nhu then made a plan to outwit the generals with a counter-plot. The generals heard of this, and decided that they had to counteract him. Exhorting them to join the coup on the grounds that Diệm's regime was unable to keep the military going forward, he stated that all the generals except Cao were in the plot, while Đính was going to do so. Nhu opposed this and stated that he wanted Có alive to catch the plotters, and tried to use Đính to achieve this. Despite their distrust of Đính, the Ngô brothers told them this was not the case and that they would promote him. both of whom took their orders directly from the palace instead of the ARVN command, to plan a fake coup against the Ngô family. One of Nhu's objectives was to trick dissidents into joining the false uprising so that they could be identified and eliminated. Another objective of the public relations stunt was to give the public a false impression of the strength of the Ngô regime. During the orchestrated chaos of the first coup, the disguised loyalists would riot and in the ensuing mayhem, kill the leading coup plotters, such as Generals Dương Văn Minh, Trần Văn Đôn, Lê Văn Kim and junior officers that were helping them. The loyalists and some of Nhu's underworld connections were also to kill some figures who were assisting the conspirators, such as the titular but relatively powerless Vice President Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, CIA agent Lucien Conein, who was on assignment in South Vietnam as a military adviser, and Lodge. Tung would then announce the formation of a "revolutionary government" consisting of opposition activists who had not consented to being named in the government, while Diệm and Nhu would pretend to be on the run and move to Vũng Tàu. A fake "counter-coup" was to follow, whereby Tung's men, having left Saigon on the pretext of fighting the Viet Cong (VC), as well as Đính's forces, would triumphantly re-enter Saigon to reaffirm the Diệm regime. Nhu would then round up opposition figures. Đính, now a double agent, was put in charge of the fake coup and was allowed the additional control of the 7th Division, which was previously assigned to Diệm loyalist General Huỳnh Văn Cao, who was in charge of the IV Corps in the Mekong Delta. The reassignment of the 7th Division to Đính gave his III Corps complete encirclement of Saigon. The encirclement would prevent Cao from storming the capital to save Diệm as he had done during the 1960 coup attempt. This arrangement was supposed to make Đính's task of serving the regime easier, but it was exploited to bring down the Ngô family. opining, "If we move reserves into the city, the Americans will be angry. They'll complain that we're not fighting the war. So we must camouflage our plan by sending the special forces out to the country. That will deceive them." Tung and Nhu agreed to send all four Saigon-based special forces companies out of Saigon on 29 October. Another of Diệm's brothers, Ngô Đình Cẩn, began to suspect Mậu and told the palace, which told army chief General Khiêm to have Mậu arrested. However, Khiêm, who was also part of the plot, deliberately procrastinated, and Mậu remained free. In the meantime, it was too late for the brothers to bring their loyalists back into the capital. Not trusting Có, Diệm put Colonel Lâm Văn Phát in command of the 7th Division on 31 October. According to tradition, Phát had to pay the Corps' commander a courtesy visit before assuming control of the division. Đính refused to see Phát and told him to come back on Friday at 14:00, by which time the coup would have been in progress. In the meantime, Đính had Đôn sign a counter-order transferring command of the 7th Division to Có. ==Rebel troop movements in and around Saigon==

The insurgent plans were based on three main task forces. The first consisted of two battalions of marines and a company of M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs). Two battalions of airborne troops regarded as being pro-Diệm were moved to Bình Dương Province to the north of the capital and replaced with the two marine battalions. By noon, thousands of rebel soldiers had assembled on the city's outskirts, checking equipment and weapons and receiving last-minute orders. Three marine battalions in tanks and armored cars had moved toward the Saigon city center to spearhead the revolt, and some of the 7th Division had arrived from the Mekong Delta to cut the main road from the south into Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base. The enlisted men did not know the truth behind their mission, nor did many lower-ranking officers; the senior officers told them that they were crushing a police revolt. One airborne lieutenant was suspicious, and as they moved into the suburbs, a colonel revealed that their objective was the Cộng Hòa barracks of the Presidential Guard. When the lieutenant asked "Who is the enemy and who our friend?", the colonel retorted that "Anyone who opposes us is the enemy". The task forces were used to man various parts of the city, guarding the howitzers to be used in the siege of loyalist installations, and to protect the headquarters of Colonel Thiệu. Đính had 20 tanks brought to his III Corps headquarters at Camp Lê Văn Duyệt. In all, the conspirators had 40 tanks and armoured personnel carriers. ==Lodge, Harkins and Felt meet with Diệm==

At 10:00 on 1 November, They were accompanied by Đôn, whose desk job meant that his duties consisted mainly of meeting visiting military dignitaries. Diệm gave one of his chain-smoking monologues and said that he would cooperate with US recommendations. At one stage, Diệm said "I know there is going to be a coup attempt, but I don't know who is going to do it", to which Lodge purportedly replied "I don't think that there is anything to worry about". Lodge did not discuss anything specific with regards to a regime change, but claimed that he was not worried by rumors that Diệm and Nhu had wanted to assassinate him. Lodge expressed his "admiration and personal friendship" and gratitude for Diệm's hospitality. Lodge was not taken in by Diệm, as Washington had already told Diệm what reforms were necessary, such as the removal of Nhu and the use of the special forces to fight communists rather than dissidents; Diệm had not responded to US advice. Lodge knew that the real coup was in the offing and did not want to stop it, even if Diệm's overtures were genuine. Felt was unaware of impending events—as was Harkins—and hurried to Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base for his noon flight. While Felt and Harkins were talking, the officers were preparing to launch the coup at a lunchtime meeting at military headquarters next to the airport. Thinking of the situation, Đôn kept glancing at his watch while waiting for Felt to fly out. After Felt left, the runway was closed, Although Felt was surprised, ==Final preparations==

Distrust On the morning of the coup, there was still some trepidation among the plotters. Khiêm approached Đính and asked him to keep their conversation confidential. After the III Corps commander agreed, Khiêm claimed that he wanted to cancel the coup, saying "Đính, I think we still have time to talk to the old man. I don't want to hurt him. Have pity on him!" Đính contemplated the situation and said that he would still proceed with the overthrow. Khiêm reported this to Đôn, and claimed that he had placed Chinese medicinal oil into his eyes to irritate and redden them and thus give the appearance he had become remorseful about the coup, in order to test Đính's loyalty to the plot. There are varying accounts of Quyền's death. According to Stanley Karnow, Quyền had noticed abnormal troop movements and drove off to discuss the matter with a colleague. A jeep of rebel marines followed and intercepted him by overtaking him and blocking the road. Quyền abandoned his vehicle and ran across the open field, but stumbled and fell with the marines in hot pursuit. One of them reached him and shot him in the head point blank. According to Ellen Hammer, however, Quyền started his birthday with an early morning tennis match with fellow officers, who invited him to a lunchtime birthday party. Quyền declined in order to look after his children who were at home alone while his wife was studying in Japan. His deputy, who was part of the plot, followed him home and managed to change Quyền's mind. The two men headed for a restaurant on Saigon's outskirts, and the shooting took place along the way. Historian and author Mark Moyar wrote that Quyền noticed suspicious troop movements near the capital in the morning. As Quyền prepared to go to the palace to alert the Ngô brothers, his deputy shot him dead on the Biên Hòa highway. Mậu and Đôn organised the invitations and set up the trap. At 13:45, Đôn announced that a coup was taking place. Most of the officers rose to applaud, while those who did not and refused to turn against Diệm were brutally beaten and arrested by their colleagues. Some were subsequently executed. The generals were well aware of the threat that Tung posed; they had discussed and agreed on his elimination during their planning, having contemplated waging an offensive against Tung's special forces. At nightfall Tung was taken with Major Lé Quang Trieu, his brother and deputy, hands tied, into a jeep and driven to the edge of the air base. Forced to kneel over two freshly dug holes, the brothers were shot into their graves and buried. Another leading officer who stayed loyal to Diệm was Colonel Cao Văn Viên, commander of the airborne brigade. Viên had been unaware of the plot, and the generals had discussed whether to assassinate him during their planning phase because they knew he was a Diệmist. However, Đính, who played mahjong with Viên's wife, convinced Minh to not have Viên liquidated, and promised that Viên would not oppose the coup. Viên had planned with Diệm to allow the president to take refuge at his home in the event of a coup, but the offer was moot as rebels surrounded Viên's house after taking him into custody. General Khang, the commander of the marine brigade, was also brutally beaten and arrested for remaining loyal to Diệm, as was the head of the RVNAF Đỗ Khắc Mai, and the National Police chief. ==Seizing control of the 7th Division==

With a group of his personal rebel officers, Có flew by helicopter to Mỹ Tho, the division headquarters, to take command on the morning of the coup. Reaching the Mekong Delta town two hours before the scheduled start of the coup, he held a ceremony for the division's incumbent officers—who thought the change of command was a routine matter—in a local hall. When Cao radioed the 7th Division in Mỹ Tho, Có identified himself and taunted the corps commander, saying "Didn't you recognise my accent?". ==Fighting in Saigon==

The rebels encountered little resistance at the start of the attack on Saigon, and this allowed them to generate momentum. This was primarily due to Diệm and Nhu's complacency and their mistaken assumption that the military action was the start of Operation Bravo. The central police called Diệm, informing him that the marines did not appear to be friendly. It was too late as the rebels captured the police headquarters and shut down the secret police, which were directly controlled by Nhu. Wearing red scarves for identification, the rebel marines caught the loyalists off guard and took over control of the building of the Interior Ministry and the National Police headquarters. The latter installation was captured by some newly enlisted troops from the Quang Trung National Training Center, led by General Mai Hữu Xuân, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, the RVNAF deputy commander, sent two T-28 fighter-bombers over Saigon. They strafed the palace, and fired two rockets while avoiding sporadic black and white clouds of antiaircraft fire. Both shots missed their targets, and the second struck an empty US Marine barracks. At the same time, some fighter-bombers made strafing runs at the RVNN headquarters in the capital, where the defenders remained loyal to Diệm. Some anti-aircraft guns on the RVNN vessels patrolling in the Saigon River returned fire. Tân Sơn Nhứt was located on the northwestern edge of the city, and the officer said that it was only protected by trainee soldiers. He told Diệm there was no chance that the new recruits could resist a loyalist attack and therefore the generals would be easily captured and the leadership of the coup would break down. The aide reported that Diệm turned down the proposal, saying "The brigade should conserve its forces to fight the communists and avoid bloodshed. In the meantime, it should protect Gia Long Palace, the post office and the treasury." According to this account, Diệm "was confident that his forbearance would make the coup forces realize that he was a president who always stood on the side of the masses of the population". Under the command of Thiệu, After an hour, Diệm and Nhu suspected that something was amiss and attempted to call Đính's office for a second time and again were told Đính was not there. Not believing Đính had double-crossed them, the Ngô brothers were heard in the background speculating that Đính had been arrested by the rebels. The generals then phoned Gia Long Palace with an ultimatum. If Diệm resigned immediately, he and Nhu would be safely exiled. If he did not, they would launch air strikes and start shelling the palace within the hour. The generals said that there would be no negotiation, only a yes or no would be acceptable. Diệm made no reply. Lodge's aide, Frederick Flott, claimed that in the middle of the conversation Lodge offered to send his staff to Diệm's palace to have the Ngô brothers taken to the airport and safely exiled and exhorted him to leave. where he would be flown aboard an American aircraft to a military base in the Philippines. Through the afternoon and into the night, the loudspeakers on the grounds of Gia Long Palace carried Diệm's recorded exhortation to loyalists that "We shall not give in". These were mixed with passages of military music. At the same time, the US military ordered units of the Seventh Fleet to move into the waters near Saigon as a "precautionary measure" in case the fighting endangered American lives and to deter an opportunistic communist offensive. ==Siege of Gia Long Palace==

Gia Long Palace, the presidential mansion, had once served as the home of French governor generals. For security reasons, the surrounding streets were regularly sealed after sunset; the building had several bunkers and an intricate tunnel system, including a half-block-long escape route to the basement of the City Hall. On the morning of 1 November, Diệm had reinforced palace security with more soldiers and barbed-wire barricades. The palace was surrounded by walls of around 2.1 m, and defended by 150 troops of the Presidential Guard. The building was protected by machine and antiaircraft guns and ringed with pillboxes, tanks, and 20-mm cannons mounted on armoured vehicles. The coup results pleased the anti-Diệmists. The casualties were light: 9 insurgents killed and 46 wounded, 4 dead and 44 injured Presidential Guards. The greatest casualties were from the populace, who suffered 20 deaths and 146 injured. ==I Corps==

When I Corps commander General Đỗ Cao Trí was informed that coup was imminent, he left Huế on 29 October for Đà Nẵng so that he would be away from Ngô Đình Cẩn, who ruled central Vietnam from Hue for his family. ==Surrender and execution of Diệm and Nhu==

In the early morning of 2 November 1963 Diệm agreed to surrender. The ARVN officers had a meeting intended to exile Diệm and Nhu, having promised the Ngô brothers safe passage out of the country into an "honorable retirement". Not all of the senior officers attended the meeting. General Nguyễn Ngọc Lê strongly lobbied for Diệm's execution. There was no formal vote taken at the meeting, and Lê attracted only minority support. Conein reported that the generals had never indicated that assassination was on their minds, since an orderly transition of power was a high priority in achieving their ultimate aim of gaining international recognition. Minh and Don asked Conein to secure an American aircraft to take the brothers out of the country. Two days earlier, Lodge had alerted Washington that such a request was likely and recommended Saigon as the departure point. This request put the Kennedy administration in a difficult position, as the provision of an airplane would publicly tie it to the coup. When Conein telephoned the Saigon CIA station, there was a ten-minute wait. The US government would not allow the aircraft to land in any country, unless that state was willing to grant asylum to Diem. The United States did not want Diem and Nhu to form a government in exile, and Assistant Secretary of State Roger Hilsman had written earlier that "Under no circumstances should the Nhus be permitted to remain in Southeast Asia in close proximity to Vietnam because of the plots they will mount to try to regain power. If the generals decide to exile Diem, he should also be sent outside Southeast Asia." He further went on to anticipate what he termed a "Götterdämmerung in the palace". After surrendering, Diệm rang Lodge and spoke to the American envoy for the last time. Lodge did not report the conversation to Washington, so it was widely assumed that the pair last spoke on the previous afternoon when the coup was just starting. However, after Lodge died in 1985, his aide, Colonel Mike Dunn, said that Lodge and Diệm spoke for the last time at around 07:00 on 2 November, moments after Diệm surrendered. When Diệm called, Lodge "put [him] on hold" and then walked away. Upon his return, the ambassador offered Diệm and Nhu asylum, but would not arrange for transportation to the Philippines until the next day. Dunn then offered to personally go to the brothers' hideout to escort him so that the generals could not kill him, but Lodge refused, saying "We just can't get that involved". Dunn said "I was really astonished that we didn't do more for them". Having refused to help the Ngô brothers to leave the country safely, Lodge later said after they had been shot: "What would we have done with them if they had lived? Every Colonel Blimp in the world would have made use of them." Diệm and Nhu emerged in a wooded area in a park near the Cercle Sportif (), the city's upper-class sporting club, where they were picked up by a waiting vehicle. Historian Ellen Hammer disputes the tunnel escape, asserting that the Ngô brothers simply walked out of the building, which was not yet under siege. After leaving the palace, Nhu was reported to have suggested to Diệm that the brothers split up, arguing this would enhance their chances of survival. Nhu proposed that one of them travel to the Mekong Delta to join Cao's IV Corps, while the other would travel to the II Corps of General Khánh in the Central Highlands. Nhu felt that the rebel generals would not dare to kill one of them while the other was free, in case the surviving brother was to regain power. According to one account, Diệm reportedly turned down Nhu, reasoning that "You cannot leave alone. They hate you too much; they will kill you. Stay with me and I will protect you." Another story holds that Diệm reportedly said "We have always been together during these last years. How could we separate during these last years? How could we separate in this critical hour?" Nhu agreed that they should stay together until the end. When Thảo arrived at Ma Tuyen's house, he phoned his superiors. Diệm and Nhu overheard him and fled to the nearby Catholic Church of St. Francis Xavier (). The Ngô brothers walked through the shady courtyard. It was speculated that they were recognised by an informant while they walked through the yard. A few minutes later, just after 10:00, an APC and two jeeps entered. Execution dead. Initial rumors said that he and his brother committed suicide.|right|200px|thumb The convoy was led by General Mai Hữu Xuân and consisted of Colonels Quan and Lắm. Quan was Minh's deputy, and Lắm was commander of Diệm's Civil Guard. Lắm had joined the coup once a rebel victory seemed assured. Two further officers made up the convoy: Major Dương Hiếu Nghĩa and Captain Nhung, Minh's bodyguard. Nhu expressed disgust that they were to be transported in an APC, asking "You use such a vehicle to drive the president?" Attempted cover-up When the corpses arrived at JGS headquarters, the generals were shocked. Although they despised and had no sympathy for Nhu, they still respected Diệm, and several lost their composure. Đính later declared "I couldn't sleep that night", while Đôn maintained that the generals were "truly grievous", maintaining that they were sincere in their intentions to give a safe exile. Đôn charged Nhu with convincing Diệm to reject the offer. Lodge later concluded that "Once again, brother Nhu proves to be the evil genius in Diệm's life." Đôn ordered another general to tell reporters that the brothers had died in an accident. He went to confront Minh in his office. When Kennedy learned of the deaths during a White House meeting, he appeared shaken, and left the room. Kennedy later penned a memo, lamenting that the assassination was "particularly abhorrent" and blaming himself for approving Cable 243, Kennedy's reaction did not draw unanimous sympathy. Through Conein, the Americans later became aware of the true reasons for the deaths of Diệm and Nhu. Later, photos appeared showing the two dead brothers covered in blood on the floor of the APC. The images appeared to be genuine, discrediting the generals' claims that the brothers had committed suicide. Once the news of the cause of death of the Ngô brothers began to become public, the US became concerned at its association with the new junta and began asking questions. Lodge showed no alarm in public, congratulating Đôn on the "masterful performance" of the coup and promising diplomatic recognition. Đôn's assertion that the assassinations were unplanned were sufficient for Lodge, who told the State Department that "I am sure assassination was not at their direction." Minh and Đôn reiterated their position in a meeting with Conein and Lodge on the following day. Several members of the Kennedy administration were appalled by the killings, citing them as a key factor in the future leadership troubles which beset South Vietnam. The assassinations caused a split within the leadership of the junta, and repulsed American and world opinion. Culpability debate The responsibility for the assassinations was generally put on the shoulders of Minh. Conein asserted that "I have it on very good authority of very many people, that Big Minh gave the order," Đôn was equally emphatic, saying "I can state without equivocation that this was done by General Dương Văn Minh and by him alone." Lodge thought Xuân was partly culpable, asserting that "Diệm and Nhu had been assassinated, if not by Xuân personally, at least at his direction." Thiệu stridently denied responsibility and issued a statement that Minh did not dispute: "Dương Văn Minh has to assume entire responsibility for the death of Ngô Đình Diệm." Conein asserted that Minh's humiliation by the Ngô brothers was a major motivation for ordering their executions. He reasoned that Minh had been embarrassed by arriving at the presidential residence in full ceremonial military uniform to take power, only to find an empty building. One CIA employee said "They had to kill him [Diệm]. Otherwise his supporters would gradually rally and organise and there would be civil war." Several months after the event, Minh reportedly said privately that "We had no alternative. They had to be killed. Diệm could not be allowed to live because he was too much respected among simple, gullible people in the countryside, especially the Catholics and the refugees. We had to kill Nhu because he was so widely feared – and he had created organizations that were arms of his personal power." ==Reaction==

The reaction to the coup was mixed. The coup was immediately denounced by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, asserting that the coup had brought a US "puppet" government. The remainder of the world expressed the general hope that the junta would end persecution of Buddhists and focus on defeating the communist insurgency. Some VC officials were so surprised that the Americans would remove Diệm that they thought it was a trick. They felt Diệm's removal was a blunder on the part of the Americans. Tho said "Our enemy has been seriously weakened from all points of view, military, political and administrative." Thọ said: The deposition of the Ngô brothers was greeted with widespread joy by the South Vietnamese public. Large spontaneous street demonstrations took place. The offices of the Times of Vietnam, the Ngô family's propaganda mouthpiece, were burned. Elsewhere, the crowd smashed windows and ransacked any building associated with Nhu. The tension released by the downfall of the regime sparked off celebrations similar to Tết (Lunar New Year) celebrations. Americans were treated and received with great enthusiasm, Lodge was mobbed by the Saigon public, and it was joked that Lodge would win any Vietnamese election by a landslide. Madame Nhu, who was in the United States at the time, denounced the coup and angrily accused the Americans of orchestrating it. When asked about whether the US was involved, she replied "definitely", elaborating that "no coup can erupt without American incitement and backing" and declaring that she would not seek asylum "in a country whose government stabbed me in the back". The United States publicly disclaimed responsibility or involvement in the coup. Many, including Harriman, General Maxwell Taylor, The White House fostered the impression that the coup was purely Vietnamese and claimed to have no knowledge of it. Transition of power Even before the start of the coup, the generals had been in contact with civilian opposition figures and more moderate members of Diệm's regime. Once the coup was confirmed to have concluded, negotiations by the generals and dissidents began. All of Diệm's ministers were forced to resign, and no further reprisals were taken. Diệm's Vice President Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ had discussions with Minh over the interim government. The Americans also pressured the generals to give Thơ a prominent role so as to give the impression of civilian rule. The Military Revolutionary Council (MRC), as it called itself, dissolved Diệm's rubber-stamp National Assembly and the constitution of 1956. The MRC vowed support for free elections, unhindered political opposition, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and an end to discrimination, and that the purpose of the coup was to bolster the fight against the VC. The generals decided on a two-tier government structure, with a military committee overseen by Minh presiding over a regular cabinet that would be predominantly civilian, with Thơ as prime minister. The new government was announced on 5 November. Minh was named president and chief of the Military Committee; Thơ was listed as prime minister, Minister of Economy, and Minister of Finance; Đôn was named Minister of Defense; and Đính was made the Minister of Security (Interior). Only one other general was in the cabinet of 15, which was dominated by bureaucrats and civilians with no previous political experience. This was followed by the release of Provisional Constitutional Act No. 1, formally suspending the 1956 constitution and detailing the structure and duty of the interim government. On 6 November, Saigon radio announced the composition of the executive committee of the MRC. Minh was chairman, Đính and Đôn were deputy chairmen, and nine other senior generals, including Kim, Thiệu, Khiêm, Trần Văn Minh and Phạm Xuân Chiểu. A notable omission was the II Corps commander, General Khánh, who was transferred to I Corps, the northernmost Corps and the farthest away from Saigon. The Americans recognized the new government on 8 November. ==See also==