On November 2, 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated.
In October 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem became president of South Vietnam, a position that he held until his death in November 1963. Diem was both put into and removed from power at the hands of the American government, which acted as puppetmaster. As president, the Catholic Diem used violence against Buddhist organizations, outlawed divorce, abortion, and opium, and installed his brothers in positions of power. His policies led to an outbreak of riots, and refusing to comply with outside demands, the American Kennedy administration began to plot his removal from power.
Encouraged by CIA cash payouts, Duong Ban Minh organized and led a coup on November 1, 1963. On November 2, Diem and his brother were killed in an American-supplied armored personnel carrier by members of the South Vietnamese military, each having been shot and stabbed repeatedly.
President John F. Kennedy expressed regret for the assassination; while he was complicit in the plan to remove Diem from power, he intended for it to be stopped at that and not progress into the harming, let alone killing, of Diem. Minh became the new ruler of South Vietnam, and North Vietnam politicians viewed this assassination as the beginning to the end of US involvement in Vietnam.
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