Image from The Daily Telegraph . Photograph of Ngo Dinh Diem, 1957 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 repeated...