page_title: Xá Lợi Pagoda raids
section_title: Saigon
hierarchical_section_title: Xá Lợi Pagoda raids / Raids / Saigon
caption_attribution_description: English: Bell tower of Xa Loi Pagoda
context_page_description: The Xá Lợi Pagoda raids were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagodas in the major cities of South Vietnam shortly after midnight on 21 August 1963. The raids were executed by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under Colonel Lê Quang Tung, and combat police, both of which took their orders directly from Ngô Đình Nhu, younger brother of the Roman Catholic President Ngô Đình Diệm. Xá Lợi Pagoda, the largest pagoda in the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, was the most prominent of the raided temples. Over 1,400 Buddhists were arrested, and estimates of the death toll and missing ranged up to the hundreds. In response to the Huế Vesak shootings and a ban on the Buddhist flag in early May, South Vietnam's Buddhist majority rose in widespread civil disobedience and protest against the religious bias and discrimination of the Catholic-dominated Diệm government. Buddhist temples in major cities, most prominently the Xá Lợi pagoda, became focal points for protesters and assembly points for Buddhist monks from rural areas.
context_section_description: The Buddhists in Saigon were aware that a raid on the pagodas was imminent. Buddhist relatives of Special Forces and combat police personnel had tipped off the monks, and Buddhists who lived near pagodas had observed them move into the region in the lead-up. American journalists were tipped off and traveled through Saigon to visit the pagodas ahead of the raids. The pagodas had been locked by the monks in preparation for the attacks and the doors were barricaded with furniture and reinforced by nailing wooden planks across them. The monks told members of the U.S. press corps in Saigon that the raids were coming, allowing them to be more prepared for the event than the U.S. embassy.
  In the afternoon before the raids, trucks filled with soldiers headed past the offices of media outlets—from where the journalists saw them—destined for the Ấn Quang Pagoda. More troops were seen congregating at police headquarters, ready to board trucks moving towards Xá Lợi. The American-made trucks had been provided as part of the U.S. military aid program for South Vietnam. Late at night, the convoys arrived and surrounded Xá Lợi from several sides, causing a traffic jam in the city center. Several thousand personnel were estimated to have been present. Journalists were informed as soon as the attacks began, even as Nhu's men cut communications lines, and rushed to Xá Lợi.
  Squads of Special Forces and combat police flattened the gates and smashed their way into the pagoda at around 00:20 on 21 August as Xá Lợi's brass gong was struck to signal the attack. Nhu's men were armed with pistols, submachine guns, carbines, shotguns, grenades and tear gas. The red-bereted Special Forces were joined by truckloads of steel-helmeted combat police in army camouflage uniforms. Two of Nhu's senior aides were seen outside Xá Lợi directing the operation, while Nhu and his wife, Madame Nhu, watched the action from a nearby tank. Monks and nuns who barricaded themselves behind wooden shields were attacked with rifle butts and bayonets. The sound of the pagoda's gong was largely masked by that of automatic weapons fire, exploding grenades, battering rams, shattering glass and human screaming. The military personnel shouted as they attacked, as did the occupants, in fear.
  Tung's men charged forward in a V-shaped riot formation. According to Halberstam, "they pranced into the pagoda, looking something like a smart football team coming up to the line of scrimmage". In the end, it took around two hours to complete the raids because many of the occupants had entrenched themselves inside the various rooms in anticipation of the attacks and doors had to be unhinged to reach them. According to journalist Neil Sheehan, who was at the scene, "The raid on Xá Lợi, like those on the pagodas elsewhere in South Vietnam, was flawlessly executed. It reminded me of a scene from a movie of the French Resistance—the scene when the Gestapo arrive at the Resistance hideout in Paris." William Prochnau said that "Using the elite guard against the Buddhists was analogous to using Green Berets to put down Negro protests at home. It was outrageous."
  One monk was thrown from a balcony down to the courtyard six meters below. Nhu's men vandalized the main altar and confiscated the intact charred heart of Thích Quảng Đức, which had failed to burn during his re-cremation. However, some of the Buddhists were able to flee the pagoda with a receptacle containing his ashes. Two monks jumped the back wall of Xá Lợi to enter the grounds of the adjoining United States Agency for International Development (USAID) mission, where they were given asylum, despite the presence of troops behind the pagoda walls who opened fire with automatic weapons on any monks who tried to flee by jumping the fence.
  Thích Tịnh Khiết, the 80-year-old Buddhist patriarch, was seized and taken to a military hospital on the outskirts of Saigon. As commander of the III Corps, General Đính soon announced military control over Saigon, canceling all commercial flights into the city and instituting press censorship. Later, Thíc
caption: The gong in the bell tower of Xá Lợi was struck continuously to alert the population of the raids.
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