11.01.2013

Friday-Saturday, November 1-2, 1963: Coup in South Vietnam

Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam, is shot and killed on November 2, the day after a military overthrow of the government began.


Clutched by searing flames, a Buddhist monk martyrs himself on a Saigon sidewalk. A few days later, joyous hands hoist a Vietnamese soldier in a victory that belongs both to him and the suicidal monk. Opposition to the regime of South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem had been gathering force like a thunderhead, overshadowing the U.S.-backed war against the Communist Viet Cong. First Buddhists, then students and other dissidents joined against Diem's government -- and the government had no answer but repressive brutality. Then Diem's own generals and the armies they command rose in revolt.

-- Life magazine, November 15, 1963 (link: @

-- Photo from Corbis Images. Original caption: In photo just obtained by UPI, the bodies of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem (right) and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, disguised as priests, lie in armored personnel carrier, November 2, shortly after they were slain in revolution. They were reportedly being taken to Army staff headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Airfield. Note bindings on Nhu's hands.

* Short summaries from history.com: @ and @
* Summary from "Vietnam War Almanac" (James H. Willbanks, 2009): @ 
* "Walkthrough: Vietnam in Late 1963" (from Mary Ferrell Foundation): @
* "South Vietnam 1963" (from "U.S. Foreign Policy in Perspective," David Sylvan and Stephen Majeski, 2009): @
* "JFK and the Diem Coup" (from National Security Archive): @
* "The Coup Against the Diem Government" (from "Foreign Relations of the United States," U.S. Department of State): @
* "Vietnam, August-December 1963" (from FRUS): @
* "The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May-November, 1963" (from the Pentagon Papers, U.S. Department of Defense): @
* "The Vietnam Revolt" (newsreel): @
* "Death of a Regime" (CBS News): @
* "Vietnam Climax" (Life magazine, October 11): @ 

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