Trueheart was a civilian intelligence analyst in the
United States Department of the Navy 1942–43. He then served in the Army, rising to the rank of captain. In 1949 he joined the
United States Department of State as an intelligence officer. Diem's assassination later in November 1963, just before that of the President
John F. Kennedy, was neither anticipated nor welcomed by Trueheart, although he had foreknowledge of the coup, and admitted there were no better alternatives within the Vietnamese theatre, indicating that it was possible that "half [the peasants] don't know who Diem is." However, this was immediately contradicted by his superior, Nolting stating emphatically that [Diem's] picture was "everywhere."
Historical context In October 1955, following a
fraudulent referendum in which Diem had secured 98.2% of the vote, the Republic of Vietnam was established (known generally as
South Vietnam) in which Diem declared himself
President. Stemming from this impossibility, Trueheart was shown to have little or no faith in the autocracy of the Diem government in South Vietnam, noted variously to have been part of a "get Diem faction," and rebuking Diem with the fact that he would lose American support if the oppression of the Buddhist monks continued. At this stage, during the mid-1960s, the media had become an integral part of the reporting of news in the
Vietnam War, with most infractions and incidents
highlighted in national news. Polarisation between Diem and the Buddhists grew worse on June 11, 1963, when
Thích Quảng Đức set himself alight in the process of
self-immolation. ==Notes==