The positive reception accorded to Diệm in 1957 contrasted with increasingly negative Australian attitudes towards Vietnam. Over time, the media in both Australia and the United States began to pay more attention to Diệm's autocratic style and religious bias, especially after the eruption of the Buddhist crisis in 1963, and the iconic self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức. After six months of civil unrest, Diệm was deposed and assassinated in November 1963, and by that time, little goodwill remained. With new leadership in Saigon, and an escalation in the war against the communists, Australia sent in ground troops—including conscripts—to support South Vietnam, but over time, the bipartisanship of the 1950s evaporated. The centre-left ALP became more sympathetic to the communists and Labor leader Arthur Calwell stridently denounced South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ as a "fascist dictator" and a "butcher" ahead of his 1967 visit—at the time Kỳ was the chief of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force and headed a military junta. Despite the controversy leading up to the visit, Kỳ's trip was a success. He dealt with the media effectively, despite hostile sentiment from some sections of the press and public. However, with the war becoming increasing destructive, and the death toll rising, opposition to the Vietnam War grew. In 1970, Labor leader Gough Whitlam posed with the Viet Cong flag, and his deputy Jim Cairns, the chairman of the Vietnam Moratorium Committee, led large anti-war protests. Labor won the 1972 federal election on an anti-war platform, and Whitlam withdrew Australian troops and recognised North Vietnam, which welcomed his electoral success. Whitlam later refused to accept South Vietnamese refugees following the fall of Saigon to the communists in April 1975. The Liberals—led by Malcolm Fraser—condemned Whitlam, and after defeating Labor in December 1975, allowed South Vietnamese refugees to settle in Australia in large numbers.