On November 1st, 1963, South Vietnamese Generals led by Duong Van Minh overthrew Diem's regime. The President and his brother and strongman, Ngo Dinh Nhu, initially fled the presidential palace and went into hiding. Diem was aware that the United States had given up on him, after Kennedy's TV interviews in September, and especially Diem's telephone conversation with Ambassador Lodge the very night of the coup.The CIA had actually been informed of the details of the plan since its initial stages, and Lodge himself had pressed hard to guarantee, if not direct U.S. support for the insurrection, at least a pledge of not intervention, to which Kennedy agreed.
Even though Diem's regime was showing growing signs of exhaustion after nine years in power, the coup opened the door for the rivalries and inefficiency that would plague the government in Saigon and thwart the American war effort.
On November 22, 1963, barely three weeks after Diem's assassination, Kennedy would fall under the bullets of Lee Harvey Oswald. JFK's death propelled Johnson to the presidency. The Administration Johnson inherited was ridden with problems--Vietnam being just one of them--and the presidential elections were less than one year ahead.
It would be an exercise in futility to try to imagine what would have become of Vietnam had Kennedy not been killed. However, it is worth pointing out that Johnson's key aides in foreign policy--McNamara, Dean Rusk, McGeorge Bundy, and others--were inherited from JFK's administration.
Kennedy's 1963
TV Interviews on Vietnam
From Vincent Ferraro's web site at Mount Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kentv.htm
In these TV interviews, Kennedy shows U.S. disappointment with Diem, particularly with his mistreatment of Buddhists. At the time of these two interviews, Kennedy already knew about General Minh's plot against Diem.
Phone
Conversation Between Ngo Dinh Diem and Henry Cabot Lodge, November 1, 1963
From the Vietnam Wars Page at Vassar College
http://vietnam.vassar.edu/~vietnam/doc8.html
Under instructions of "not thwarting" General Minh's coup, Lodge coldly responds to Diem's call for help. While offering U.S. assistance to ensure Diem's personal safety, Lodge refuses to offer any support for the survival of the regime. Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were eventually captured and murdered.
JFK's
Assassination Files
From the National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.nara.gov/research/jfk/index.html
Official files about the Kennedy assassination, including the Warren Commission Report.
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