SE 71g PEt tae a later in Conein's safe. The passing of, these. funds 42 obviously & very sensitive natter. Dave Smith reported by cable. on 25 November - a 3963 that the di sbursenent had not yet been discussed with the a a ; & ot Ambassador. The files do not show whe ther the Anbassador was: - : ‘ tees ed, ' wsSMae tke s ese ever told. Ina State cable from Saigon of-2h April 1954, Lodge . : reports a meeting he had that day with General Minh. .. it reads in part: “ : , . "He then said: ‘I want to ask you @ question about a money : : : matter. Did Conein ever give General. Don money for the Kovember 1 aed . . _ / - coup?! "I said: ‘Definitely not. Lad he done such a tag, vat Pouca + “° would certainly have knowa it.*" Sa Ee < We asked Dave Smith about this, and he said he thought that the . he Antassedor had eventually been told that the money had been passed. .« We. can neither confina nor refute frou the record. _ Thus, Conein went to JGS headquarters and remained at the © 7 comand’ post ‘throughout the struggle. Before leaving his haume, bo Conein alerted the station by radio. Upon arriving at JGS headquarters). Conein vas told ‘by General Don that, Don had tried unsuccessfully to : ‘reach Conein earlier by telephone. . A later check revealed that a - : ‘ - Conein's ‘telephone was out of r order. Conein was told that he was to keep a telephone Line open to the Ambassador. Because there was a CIA officer on the scene and in intimate contact with the coup principals, - kl - ean onetsnnnht SMR AT a a ee areca nen ;
, where at headquarters. Tne first cable was received at headquarters - dy name and as being at IGS, headquarters in eleven CRITIC messages, the station was able to report aluost minute-by-minute progress of the coup. The. fact that Conein was at JGS headquarters is well | known tn = official circles. On 2h October, headquarters had cabled the station: "In future do net repeat not put nessage re coup plots or rmors in ' CRITIC channel. Rather you should slug them IMMEDIATE ATTENTION FOR | - BRENT." As a-consequence, the first cabled reports from the station A ERRORS UTP een ene ee came in as regular CIA cables and were put onto the CRITIC network wo at 0117 hours, Washington time, and was filed on the carrie network es at 0159. At 0256 hours, following receipt of the sixth non-CRITIC cable, headquarters instructed. the station to put the coup reporting oe ‘ i on the CRITIC ‘network at the station. Some time during the day. of : ; : an 1 November. (the . confirmation copy - ‘of the ‘cable lacks a date/time j stemp) “ headguarters cabled’ a warning to the station against including’ re a the names of CIA personnel in its CRITIC cables. Conein is identified . * seven of vhich vere put into the cRITIc channel, without the name — BO _ being deleted, here at headquarters. - At 1030 hours 2 Hovember (in Saigon) the Saigon radio announced that both Diem and Nhu had committed suicide by taking poison. later — Shh Tea in the day General Minh said that Diem and Nhu escaped from Gia Long
ERP LNT SY BAS) VP ee Mae nUNON kb tee rn ee ae ” immediately ordered all telephones removed from rooms in their JGS not judge. (nor did it name hin), gave a station officer two photographs “4 very Dloody. The source gave the following account of the deaths: o¥ Palace shortly after 0700 hours on 2 Noverber by a tinnel unknown : to the generals. They left the tunnel in the dock area and went to” a Catholic church in Cholon where they took poison. They were = 9° vt discovered at the church at 1030 hours. . : We do not have a truly reliable account of the circumstance 5 of their deaths, but they certainly were not by suicide. According to one of Conein's reports, Diem called General Don at 0650 hours 2 November and offered to surrender unconditionally. General Minh. H command post area. This cut off all communication with the outside except for radios under Minh‘'s control. a On 16 November 1963 a field-cgrade officer of the JGS, who was deeply involved in the coup and whose reliability the station could of the bodies.of Diem and Nhu, which he claimed he had taken at the. request of General Kim. The photographs show that the, deaths were ™ The officer was present when the Military Revolutionary Committee debated the ultimate disposition of the brothers, ‘accompanied tue .force that apprehended them, and witnessed ‘the . Loa events immediately after their deaths. He was not. present in : a . the M-113 armored personnel carrier at the time of the deaths. : an) A lengthy argument took place on the night of 1-2 November __ , i as to the ultimate disposition of Diem and Nhu, with most of the sen a generals favoring their execution. The ultimate decision was ar |
14-00000 : SECRET-EVES CHLY to Kill them. A Captain Nhung was designated as executioner. On the morning of 2 Novemcer, the Committee received a : Jka phone call from a casual informant telling where Diem and : 3 < Nhu could be found. <A force was dispatched to apprehend 7 them. [fais appears to conflict with Conein's report that the phones had been pulled out./ Shortly after 10:00 a.m., Diem and Nhu entered the personnel carrier with Ceptain Noung. Upon arrival at the JGS headquarters, Diem and Nhu vere dead. Nhu had been stabbed 21 tires in the back with a carbine bayonet and shot five times. Dies had been shot twice in the chest. Wnung leaped from the M-1135 with the baycret in hand and proudly displayed it to all observers. His ares were soaked with blood. /From the photos, it looxs as if Diem and Nhu had their hands tied behind their backs. / To recap: C @. CIA was not in favor of the decision to abandon the Diem regime, but faithfully carried out instructions. b. CIA officers Conein and Spera vere the contacts with the coup generals, but only as approved and under instructions. ce. A CIA officer, Conein, was at the generals’ command post throughout the fighting. d.. Conein furnished General Don about $65,000 to buy off opposition military units while the coup was in progress. i e. CIA had no hand in the assassinations and had no | : foreknowledge of them. pert Sy he den evenniane HIRT ROE Q oe a, _ bh . . 6. SEORET-EVES OMY ——