Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Who assassinated Ngo Dinh Diem?
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963. On 2 November 1963, Diệm and his adviser, his younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu, were arrested after the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) had been successful in a bloody overnight siege on Gia Long Palace in Saigon. The coup was the culmination of nine years of autocratic and nepotistic family rule in South Vietnam. Discontent with the Diệm regime had been simmering below the surface, and exploded with mass Buddhist protests against long-standing religious discrimination after the government shooting of protesters who defied a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag.
Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, three weeks after the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem. Kennedy adviser Roger Hilsman stated that "The Kennedy administration had developed a concept for fighting guerrilla warfare, an idea for a political program into which military measures were meshed, but we had failed so far to convince the Diem regime or even the top levels of the Pentagon to give it a fair trial."
Đôn ordered another general to tell reporters that the Ngô brothers had died in an accident. He went to confront Minh in his office.[24]
The Ambassador is a novel by Australian author Morris West. It was first published in 1965. The novel is fictionalisation of the period leading up to and shortly after the Coup d'état against and assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
During the presidency of Richard Nixon, a US government investigation was initiated into American involvement in the assassinations. Nixon was a political foe of Kennedy, having narrowly lost to him in the 1960 Presidential election. Nixon ordered an investigation under E. Howard Hunt into the murders, convinced Kennedy must have secretly ordered the killings but the inquiry was unable to find any such secret order.[36]
Following the victory of the Viet Minh in the First Indochina War, the 1954 Geneva Accords stipulated that Vietnam would be divided for two years only, until national elections could be held. However, the Americans along with Ngo Dinh Diem feared that Ho Chi Minh and the Communists would win the election. The State of Vietnam and the United States didn't sign the Geneva Accords, citing that it was impossible to hold free and fair nationwide democratic elections in the communist North, and this was later expressed by UN observers monitoring the partition of Vietnam. As a result, South Vietnam and the U.S. were not bound by its terms. In 1955 the Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, supported by the United States, declared the independence of the Republic of Vietnam in the southern half of Vietnam. Over time, Diem grew increasingly uncomfortable with the role of the U.S. in his country, complaining that they were increasing the conflict with North Vietnam. Diem's complaints became more vocal as American soldiers, called "advisors", continued to pour into the country, and some began calling Diem an uncooperative client and a puppet pulling his own strings. After he became seen more as a liability than an asset to America, Diem was assassinated in 1963 with the complicity of the CIA and John F. Kennedy.
Đôn: Why are they dead? Minh: And what does it matter that they are dead?[24]
"A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963" was published in 1987, and Thomas Omestad wrote in a "New York Times" Book Review, "The title of this carefully researched book refers to the death of Ngo Dinh Diem, president of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963, and that of his brother and adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu." The book incorporated a variety of classified American government cables detailing the American involvement in the downfall of Diem. It documents the events leading up to the 1963 South Vietnamese coup in November, which saw the Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the first President of South Vietnam, and follows the downfall of the Diem regime amid mass protests following the Hue Vesak shootings, in which nine Buddhists were shot dead by government forces while protesting a ban on the Buddhist flag. The book documents the unfolding Buddhist crisis, covering events such as the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc, the Xa Loi Pagoda raids and the United States' maneuvering amid the crisis.
The reason for Dan's exclusion from further Bảo Đại and then Ngo Dinh Diem cabinets is disputed. Dan said that it was due to Diem being appointed by Bảo Đại, but the government maintained that it was because he was holding out for a more important ministry, having allegedly rejected an offer to become the Minister for Social Welfare. For his part, Dan later claimed that he rebuffed Diem because he ‘never intended to cooperate with Diệm’, who he asserted could not administer a government that could modernise Vietnam in a democratic manner, but instead was set on feudal and nepotistic rule. Dan claimed that upon his return to Vietnam in September 1955, Diem’s officials sought him out at the airport to arrange a meeting at the Norodom Palace. Dan claimed that he reprimanded Diem for running a nepotistic regime and relying on the counsel of his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, and stated his intention to contribute to South Vietnamese politics by organising ‘a constructive, legal opposition’. According to the historian Jason Picard, Diem viewed Dan’s publications and remarks as disrespectful and a challenge to his political authority.
According to the "Pentagon Papers", the U.S. government played a key role in the 1963 South Vietnamese coup, in which President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated. While maintaining "clandestine contact" with Vietnamese generals planning a coup, the U.S. cut off its aid to President Diem and openly supported a successor government in what the authors called an "essentially leaderless Vietnam":
After Diệm's assassination, South Vietnam was unable to establish a stable government and several coups took place after his death. While the United States continued to influence South Vietnam's government, the assassination bolstered North Vietnamese attempts to characterize the South Vietnamese as "supporters of colonialism".
Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu had been exploited by the help of CIA advisors to help defeat one of the challenges to the new Prime Minister's authority.
CIA personnel were involved in attempted assassinations of foreign government leaders such as Fidel Castro. They provided support to those that killed Patrice Lumumba. In yet another category was noninterference in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) "Coup d'état" in which President Ngo Dinh Diem was killed.
Upon learning of Diệm's ouster and assassination, Hồ Chí Minh reportedly stated: "I can scarcely believe the Americans would be so stupid." The North Vietnamese Politburo was more explicit:
The nationalist President of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, instituted a number of programs designed to halt the growing influence of the Viet Cong in the countryside. In 1959, Diem created the Agroville program which had the objective of moving peasants into fortified villages. The program failed due to the coercive and disruptive aspects of moving peasants from their homes and requiring them to construct new ones under the supervision of government officials. The Viet Cong harassed the agrovilles with terrorism and assassinations
Hunt's White House duties included assassinations-related disinformation. In September 1971, Hunt forged and offered to a "Life" magazine reporter two top-secret U.S. State Department cables designed to prove that President Kennedy had personally and specifically ordered the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu. Hunt told the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 that he had fabricated the cables to show a link between President Kennedy and the assassination of Diem, a Catholic, to estrange Catholic voters from the Democratic Party, after Colson suggested he "might be able to improve upon the record."
Aside from the Fielding burglary, there are few other activities the Plumbers were known to have been engaged in. Hunt reportedly looked into the Ted Kennedy-Chappaquiddick incident and Liddy reported purported Kennedy administration involvement in the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
In Thomas Ahern's monograph, he stops short of any admission that the agency was an actor in the coup that overthrew Saigon leader Ngo Dinh Diem. Within the monograph it is noted that on the morning of the coup the US military command in South Vietnam advised the CIA that Saigon was quiet, and that the CIA should stop reporting a coup was imminent or in-progress. The CIA also reportedly recognized that Diem would have political problems as early as August 1954. It is reported that policy surrounding Diem was set with this in mind. Relations with Diem’s brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, began as early as 1952, also signaling that the CIA predicted political problems with Diem. Despite having the benefit of expert warnings, it is clear that the CIA acted beyond the scope of it experts.
An 8 May 1973 memorandum states that "An Inspector General report of investigation of allegations that the Agency was instrumental in bringing about the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. The allegations were determined to be without foundation."
By the end of the sixth week after this report was written, both Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu are dead.
In November 1963, American intelligence officer Paul Christopher investigates the assassination of US President John F Kennedy. Believing that the Kennedy White House was behind the assassination of Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, Christopher deduces that Vietnamese leaders had Kennedy assassinated as revenge. When one of Kennedy's former advisers threatens Christopher not to discuss the matter with anyone else, Christopher quits the Agency and heads to Vietnam to find the truth.
Dr. Khương was responsible for teaching many successful politician and leaders in VietNam such as Prominent lawyer-Minister Tran Ngoc Lieng Trần Ngọc Liễng, Prime Minister/Vice President/President Tran Van Huong Trần Văn Hương, etc. Dr. Khương was responsible to establish and recommend Ngo Dinh Diem to United States Boston Catholic Cardinal Cushing which later introduced to him to President [Eisenhower] and Senator [John F. Kennedy]. This introduction and mentoring ultimately get Ngo Dinh Diem recognized by the French government and Emperor Bao Dai Bảo Đại.
In 1962, Bigart was sent to South Vietnam, where he stayed for six months. He soon realized that the war was a mistake, stating "I never thought we'd be stupid enough to send ground troops over there in the first place, after the experience in Korea". He made enemies by bucking the pressure to report optimistically. He was expelled from South Vietnam by President Ngo Dinh Diem for persistently criticizing him, his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, and sister-in-law Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu.
Vy returned to South Vietnam after the 1963 coup which removed Diem from power and led to his assassination. He was arrested during the 1964 South Vietnamese coup for being a member of the military committee command staff, under General Dương Văn Minh (or "Big Minh"). It was the late President Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu who want to open talks with the North Vietnamese. Like most of the military leaders involved in the alleged plot, he was soon released. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant General, and was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in 1967.
4. (Ngo Dinh) Diem would not last 24 hours without (Ngo Dinh) Nhu who handles the bribes and manipulates the power base necessary for his survival. ...