Huế Phật Đản shootings The Huế Phật Đản shootings refer to the deaths of nine unarmed Buddhist civilians on 8 May 1963 , in the city of Huế , South Vietnam , at the hands of the army and security forces of the government of Ngô Đình Diệm . The army and police fired guns and launched grenades into a crowd of Buddhists who had been protesting against a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on the day of Phật Đản , which commemorates the birth of Gautama Buddha . Diệm ' s denial of governmental responsibility for the incident – he instead blamed the Việt Cộng — added to discontent among the Buddhist majority . The incident spurred a protest movement by Buddhists against the religious discrimination perpetrated by the Roman Catholic - dominated Diệm regime , known as the " Buddhist crisis " , and widespread large - scale civil disobedience among the South Vietnamese . On 1 November 1963 , after six months of tension and growing opposition to the regime , generals from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam conducted a coup , which saw the removal and assassination of Diệm on 2 November 1963 . Prelude . In a country where surveys of the religious composition estimated the Buddhist majority to be between 70 and 90 percent , the policies of the staunchly Catholic President Ngô Đình Diệm generated claims of religious bias . As a member of the Catholic Vietnamese minority , he is widely regarded by historians as having pursued pro - Catholic policies that antagonized many Buddhists . Specifically , the government was regarded as being biased towards Catholics in public service and military promotions , as well as the allocation of land , business favors and tax concessions . Diệm once told a high - ranking officer , forgetting the man was of Buddhist descent , " Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places . They can be trusted . " Many officers in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam converted to Catholicism in the belief that their military prospects depended on it . Additionally , the distribution of firearms to village self - defense militias intended to repel Việt Cộng guerrillas saw weapons only given to Catholics , with Buddhists in the army being denied promotion if they refused to convert to Catholicism . Some Catholic priests ran their own private armies , and in some areas forced conversions , looting , shelling and demolition of pagodas occurred . Some Buddhist villages converted en masse in order to receive aid or to avoid forcible resettlement by Diệm ' s regime . The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country , and the " private " status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French , which required official permission to conduct public Buddhist activities , was not repealed by Diệm . Land owned by the Catholic Church was exempt from land reform measures . Catholics were also " de facto " exempt from the corvée labor that the government obliged all citizens to perform ; U . S . aid was disproportionately distributed to Catholic majority villages . Under Diệm , the Catholic Church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition , and in 1959 , he dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary . The white and gold Vatican flag was regularly flown at major public events in South Vietnam . A rarely enforced 1958 law known as Decree Number 10 was invoked on 7 May 1963 to prohibit the display of religious flags . This disallowed the flying of Buddhist flags on Phật Đản , the birthday of Gautama Buddha . The invoking official was the deputy province chief in charge of security , Major Dang Sy , a Catholic who was charged with maintaining public security and was commander of the Huế garrison . The application of the law caused indignation among Buddhists on the eve of the most important religious festival of the year , since a week earlier Catholics had been allowed to display Vatican flags to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the appointment of Diệm ' s brother Thục as Archbishop of Huế . The celebrations had been bankrolled by Diệm ' s regime through a national committee which asked the population to donate money to Thục ' s jubilee . Buddhists complained that they had been forced to give a month ' s wages to pay for the celebration . Enforcing the law , the authorities tore down thousands of Buddhist flags that had already been unfurled on homes and pagodas in preparation for Phật Đản . The origin of the order to enforce the law on the Buddhists has been attributed to Thục . Despite protestations from the Saigon representative to the central provinces , the order was enacted upon consultation with Saigon . Villages in the central region had converted en masse to Catholicism , with priests allowed special access to government facilities and funds . The designation of Buddhism as an " association " prevented it from acquiring land for the construction of pagodas . Protest and shootings . On Phật Đản , thousands of Buddhists defied the ban on flag flying . More than 500 people marched across the Perfume River , carrying signs and placards , congregating at the Từ Đàm pagoda before a 3 , 000 - strong demonstration , calling for religious equality , took place in the city centre as government security officials surrounded the area with armoured personnel carriers and civil guardsmen . The signs were in both Vietnamese and English to convey the message to western observers . Despite the ban on religious flags , Vatican flags hoisted on the bridge from the Catholic celebration were never taken down . The leading Buddhist activist monk Thích Trí Quang addressed the crowd and exhorted them to rise up against Catholic discrimination against Buddhism . He called the Buddhists to congregate outside the government radio station in the evening for a rally . Tension increased throughout the day with demonstrators chanting and displaying anti - government slogans as the crowd grew . They expected to hear another speech from Thích Trí Quang , but the speech was withdrawn from broadcast by the government censor . The Armed Forces were called in to disperse the discontented crowd . After two explosions shook the ground , the crowd thought that the troops had resorted to using bombs . Major Sy reportedly fired into the air and his men responded by launching grenades into the crowd as fire hoses were unleashed on the demonstrators . His troops fired directly into the crowd . In the end nine were killed and four severely injured . Two of the dead , both children , had been crushed underneath armored personnel carriers . Some had been mutilated and decapitated . Government reaction . Diệm and his government alleged that a Việt Cộng guerrilla had caused the incident by setting off the initial explosion , sparking a stampede . He initially refused to take any disciplinary action against the local authorities , claiming that they had acted properly . The government claimed that only percussion grenades had been used , not lethal fragmentation grenades . The force of the explosion cast doubt on whether the Việt Cộng would have had access to sufficiently powerful explosives . Another theory at the time was that a CIA agent had caused the blasts with the aim of fomenting sectarian tension and destabilising the Diệm regime . Eyewitness testimony disputed the official version of events , citing amateur footage , which showed government troops firing on the crowd . A local doctor concluded that there was no evidence of the fatal injuries being inflicted by plastic explosives ; he was subsequently jailed . Diệm refused to be swayed from his account of the incident , and ordered the bodies of the victims to be buried without autopsy . Thích Trí Quang spent the night riding through the streets of Huế with a loudspeaker , accusing the government of firing on the demonstrators . U . S . Ambassador Frederick Nolting , known for his policy of appeasement of Diệm , attempted to spread the responsibility . He claimed all parties were responsible , the demonstrators for ( as he alleged ) trying to take over the radio station , the government for deploying the army , which later opened fire , and " agitators " for throwing the explosives . When the government later ignored his version and refused to assign responsibility , Nolting called its actions " objective , accurate and fair . " Buddhist reaction and protests . At 11 am on 9 May , Major Sy announced to nearly 800 youthful pro - Buddhist demonstrators that " oppositionist agitators " had forced troops to take the severe measures to maintain order in the face of Việt Cộng agitation . The protesters showed their anger at such an improbable explanation by marching around the old citadel quarter of Huế , chanting anti - Catholic and anti - Diệm slogans . A government organised counter - demonstration to condemn the " Việtcộng terrorist act " under the leadership of Diệm ' s brother , Ngô Đình Nhu attracted almost nobody . Thích Trí Quang , who had traveled throughout the country protesting against religious inequality and the flag ban , began rallying Buddhists in central Vietnam . He called them to attend a public mass funeral for the Huế victims scheduled for 10 May . Such an emotion - charged spectacle would have attracted thousands of spectators and placed pressure on Diệm ' s regime to grant reforms , so the government announced a curfew and put all armed personnel on duty around the clock to " prevent VC infiltration " . A confrontation was averted when Thích Trí Quang persuaded the protesters to lay down their flags and slogans and observe the 9 pm curfew . The following day , tensions increased again as a crowd of around 6 , 000 Buddhists attended Tu Dam Pagoda for the funerals and a series of meetings . Major Sy was present with ARVN troops and armed police . Slogans and speeches calling for religious equality and anti - government sentiment were prevalent . Quang called on Buddhists to use unarmed struggle and follow Gandhi an principles , saying " Carry no weapons ; be prepared to die . . . follow Gandhi ' s policies " . After Sy echoed Buddhist calls for compensation and expressed sorrow for the victims , the meeting dissolved without violence . Buddhist demands for equality . On 10 May , Quang proclaimed a five - point " manifesto of the monks " that demanded freedom to fly the Buddhist flag , religious equality between Buddhists and Catholics , compensation for the victims ' families , an end to arbitrary arrests , and punishment for the officials responsible . On 13 May , a committee of Buddhist monks formalized their request to Diệm for the five demands . Although the signatories had couched the declaration as " requests " they had expectations that these would be met . On 15 May , a delegation of six monks and two laymen met Diệm to present the document . After the meeting , the monks held a press conference at the Xá Lợi Pagoda . It was to be the first of many in which they attempted to publicise their cause to the foreign press corps . Diệm agreed to meet with a Buddhist delegation , but increased tension further by demeaning them . Initially Diệm refused to pay compensation , believing it was a sign of weakness . He claimed there was no discrimination in South Vietnam and that all religions had been treated equally with respect to the flag issue . In regard to the classification of Buddhism as an association under Decree 10 , Diệm claimed it was an administrative oversight that would be fixed ( although no action was taken on the matter during his final six months of office ) ; Diệm labeled the Buddhists " damn fools " for demanding something that according to him , they already enjoyed . The government press release detailing the meeting also used the expression " damn fools " . As the demonstrations continued , Ambassador Nolting managed to extract theoretical concessions from Diệm on 18 May . Diệm agreed a modest compensation package of USD $ 7000 for the families of the victims as a conciliatory gesture . Diệm also agreed to dismiss those responsible for the shootings . However , the publicly stated reason for this action was that the officials had failed to maintain order , rather than that they had been responsible for the deaths of the protesters . Despite these concessions , Diệm maintained that his government was not responsible for the deaths , resolutely continuing to blame the Việt Cộng . It was enough to satisfy Nolting , who immediately departed for his vacation . His absence allowed the remaining American diplomatic staff led by William Trueheart , Nolting ' s deputy , to end Nolting ' s policy of appeasing Diệm . Trial . After the fall of the Diệm regime in a coup on 1 November 1963 , Dang Sy faced a trial held under a government led by Nguyễn Khánh . Some of the accusations were that Sy ' s men had fired on the crowd and crushed the victims with armoured cars , or that the grenades had been launched at his orders and caused the deaths . Sy later reportedly revealed that Archbishop Thục had personally given him the order to shoot the Buddhists but refused to testify against Thục , who was by that time living in exile in Rome . Sy was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to compensate the victims ' families . His lawyer contended that the court had been unable to establish the nature and source of the lethal explosions . The Defense Minister , General Trần Thiện Khiêm , a Catholic who had helped Khánh in his January 1964 coup , later claimed Khánh had rigged the trial to gain Quang ' s support , and released Sy from prison ; Sy later emigrated to the United States . In 1970 , the Saigon - based Catholic newspaper , " Hoa Binh " ran a story claiming that CIA agents had used a secret new explosive to foment trouble for Diệm ' s regime whose relations with the United States were deteriorating .