On October 5, 1963, the CIP was briefly suspended by the United States in the wake of the McNamara Taylor mission, a fact-finding expedition to South Vietnam conducted by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor to investigate the progress of the fight against the communist Vietcong insurgency. The report concluded that Diem was not concentrating on fighting the insurrection but was instead preoccupied with quelling Buddhist protests for religious equality, such as raiding pagodas and firing on Buddhist dissidents. One of the reasons for the CIP suspension was to give military officers a signal that Washington was unhappy with Diem and therefore increase the prospects of a coup, as well as to try and foster urban resentment towards Diem among those that had previously benefited from the CIP. Another was that Diem might change his policy direction in accordance with US wishes, although they considered this to be unlikely. Funding was restored in early November 1963, about a month later, after the deposal and assassination of Diem in a military coup.