Le Quang Tung Colonel Lê Quang Tung ( 1923 – 1 November 1963 ) was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngô Đình Nhu , brother of South Vietnam ' s president , Ngô Đình Diệm . A former servant of the Ngô family , Tung ' s military background was in security and counterespionage . During the 1950s , Tung was a high - ranking official in Nhu ' s Cần Lao , a secret political apparatus which maintained the Ngô family ' s grip on power , extorting money from wealthy businessmen . In 1960 , Tung was promoted directly to the rank of colonel and became the commander of the special forces . His period at the helm of South Vietnam ' s elite troops was noted mostly for his work in repressing dissidents , rather than fighting the Viet Cong insurgents . His best - known attack was the raid on Xá Lợi pagoda on 21 August 1963 , in which hundreds died or disappeared . Tung ' s main military programme was a scheme in which Army of the Republic of Vietnam personnel attempted to infiltrate North Vietnam in order to engage in intelligence gathering and sabotage . The program was ineffective ; the vast majority of infiltrators were killed or captured . Tung was also reported to be planning an assassination attempt on Henry Cabot Lodge , Jr . , the United States Ambassador to South Vietnam . Following the pagoda raids , the United States terminated funding to Tung ' s men because they were used as a political tool rather than against the communists . Along with Diệm and Nhu , Tung was assassinated during the November 1963 coup . Nhu and Tung had been preparing a fake coup and counter - coup in order to give a false demonstration of the regime ' s strength . However , the pair were unaware that General Tôn Thất Đính , who was planning the phony operation , was involved in the real coup plot . Đính tricked Tung into sending his men into the countryside , leaving the regime in Saigon without the protection of the special forces . This led to the easy overthrow of the regime . Early career . Tung was born in 1923 in central Vietnam , which was then the protectorate of Annam in French Indochina . The former servant of the Ngô family was devoutly Roman Catholic , short and bespectacled . Tung had a military background almost entirely in security and counterespionage , which was an unusual basis for leading the special forces . Tung had first served the French as a security officer in Central Vietnam . He then worked for Diệm as a lieutenant in the military security service in Central Vietnam . As a high - ranking official in Nhu ' s Cần Lao , the secret Catholic political apparatus which maintained the Ngô family ' s grip on power , Tung raised party funds by extorting money from wealthy businessmen . Tung was primarily known among colleagues for his unwavering loyalty to Diệm . In 1960 , he was promoted straight to the rank of colonel and placed in charge of the special forces . The Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) regarded Tung as the third most powerful man in South Vietnam behind Diệm and Nhu , thereby ranking him as South Vietnam ' s most powerful military officer . Head of special forces . Tung had been trained by the CIA in the United States . A Diệm loyalist , he led a force of 1 , 840 men , which operated under the direction of Nhu rather than the army command . He did not conduct operations against the communist Việt Cộng insurgents , but used his forces mainly in Saigon to repress opponents of the Diệm regime . Tung ' s most notable attacks occurred during the Buddhist crisis of 1963 . During this period , the Buddhist majority engaged in mass protests against the pro - Catholic policies of the Diệm regime . On 21 August 1963 , Tung ' s men , acting on Nhu ' s orders , raided the Xá Lợi Pagoda , Saigon ' s main Buddhist temple . The attacks were replicated across the nation , leaving a death toll estimated to be in the hundreds . The pagodas suffered extensive damage and a further 1 , 400 monks and nuns were arrested . The attacks occurred after Nhu had tricked a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam ( ARVN ) generals into agreeing to declare martial law . He knew the generals were plotting and hoped to exploit martial law to overthrow his brother , but outmanoeuvred them by sending Tung ' s special forces into the pagodas disguised as regular ARVN soldiers . As a result , South Vietnam ' s Buddhist majority initially thought the regular army had attacked the monks , damaging its generals ' credibility among the populace as potential leaders of the country . Following the attacks , U . S . officials threatened to withhold aid to the special forces unless they were used to fight communists rather than attacking political or religious dissidents . Another notable religious attack was perpetrated by Tung ' s men in 1963 . A hugely oversized carp was found swimming in a small pond near the central city of Đà Nẵng . Local Buddhists began to believe that the fish was a reincarnation of one of Gautama Buddha ' s disciples . As more people made pilgrimages to the pond , so disquiet grew among the district chief and his subordinates , who answered to Ngô Đình Cẩn , another younger brother of Diệm . The officials mined the pond , but the fish survived . They raked the pond with machine gun fire , but the carp again escaped death . To deal with the tenacious fish , they called in Tung ' s special forces . Tung ' s men grenaded the pond , finally killing the carp . The killing backfired , because it generated more publicity – many newspapers across the world ran stories about the miraculous fish . Army of the Republic of Vietnam ( ARVN ) helicopters began landing at the site , with paratroopers filling their bottles with water that they believed to be magical . Tung also headed a group run by the CIA , in which ARVN personnel of northern origin infiltrated North Vietnam , posing as locals . The objective was to gather intelligence and sabotage communist infrastructure and communications facilities . The recruits were trained in bases at Nha Trang , Đà Nẵng , and sometimes offshore in Taiwan , Guam and Okinawa . Around eighty groups of operatives , each numbering six or seven men , were deployed in 1963 . They entered the north via parachute drops or sampan journeys at night , but nearly all were captured or killed . The captives were frequently used in communist propaganda broadcasts . Tung was criticised for his management of the operations . At Nhu ' s request , Tung was reported to have been planning an operation under the cover of a government - organised student demonstration outside the US Embassy , Saigon . In this plan , Tung ' s men would assassinate ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge , Jr . and other key officials among the confusion . Another target was the Buddhist leader Thích Trí Quang , who had been given asylum in the embassy after being targeted in the pagoda raids . According to the plan , Tung ' s men would then burn down the embassy . U . S . sanctions . Following the pagoda raids , the U . S . began exploring the possibility of replacing Diệm . Cable 243 informed the US embassy to look for alternative leadership if Diệm did not remove Nhu . In September , the Krulak Mendenhall mission was despatched to South Vietnam to analyse the domestic situation and the war against the communists . One of the resulting suggestions was to terminate funding of the special forces as an expression of disapproval of Tung and Nhu ' s actions . Another was to run covert campaigns to discredit Tung . The Krulak Mendenhall mission ended in a stalemate , so the Kennedy administration followed up with the McNamara Taylor mission . The second expedition resulted in the suspension of funding for the special forces until they were placed under the command of the army ' s Joint General Staff ( JGS ) and sent into battle . The McNamara Taylor mission ' s report noted that one of the reasons for sending Tung ' s men into the field was because they " are a continuing support for Diệm " . The Americans were aware that removing the special forces from Saigon would increase the chances that a coup would succeed , thereby encouraging the army to overthrow the president . Diệm and Nhu were undeterred by the suspension of aid , keeping Tung and his men in the capital . In private talks with US officials , Diệm insisted that the army was responsible for the pagoda attacks and that Tung ' s men were already under the control of the JGS . Coup and assassination . By September , Diệm and Nhu knew that a group of generals were planning a coup . Nhu ordered Tung and Tôn Thất Đính — a loyalist general who commanded the ARVN III Corps which encompassed the Saigon region — to plan a fake coup against the government . One objective was to trick anti - government dissidents into joining the false uprising so that they could be identified and eliminated . Another aim was to provide a public relations stunt that would give a false impression of the strength of the regime . Codenamed Operation Bravo , the first stage of the scheme involved some of Tung ' s loyalist soldiers , disguised as insurgents , faking a coup . Tung would then announce the formation of a " revolutionary government " consisting of opposition activists , while Diệm and Nhu pretended to be on the run . During the orchestrated chaos of the first coup , the disguised loyalists would riot and in the ensuing mayhem , kill the leading coup plotters , such as Generals Dương Văn Minh , Trần Văn Đôn , Lê Văn Kim and junior officers that were helping them . Tung ' s men and some of Nhu ' s underworld connections were also to kill some figures who were assisting the conspirators , such as the titular but relatively powerless Vice President Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ , CIA agent Lucien Conein , who was on assignment in Vietnam as a military adviser , and Ambassador Lodge . These would then be blamed on " neutralist and pro - communist elements " . This was to be followed by a fake " counter - coup " , whereupon Tung ' s special forces , having left Saigon on the pretext of fighting communists , as well as Đính ' s forces would triumphantly re - enter Saigon to reaffirm the Diệm regime . Nhu would then exploit the scare to round up dissidents . However , Nhu and Tung were unaware that Đính was part of the real coup plot . The III Corps commander told Tung that the counter - coup needed to employ an overwhelming amount of force . He said that tanks were required " because armour is dangerous " . In an attempt to outwit Tung , Đính said that fresh troops were needed , opining : The loyalists were unaware that Đính ' s real intention was to engulf Saigon with his rebel divisions and lock Tung ' s loyalists in the countryside where they could not defend the president . Tung and the palace agreed to send all four Saigon - based special forces companies out of the capital of Saigon on 29 October 1963 . On 1 November 1963 , Tung was summoned by the coup organisers to the Joint General Staff headquarters at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base , on the pretext of a routine officers ' lunch meeting . At 13 : 30 , General Trần Văn Đôn announced that a coup was taking place . Most of the officers rose to applaud , but Tung did not . He was taken away by Nguyễn Văn Nhung , the bodyguard of General Dương Văn Minh . As he was led away , Tung shouted " Remember who gave you your stars ! " During the early stages of the coup , the rebels forced Tung to order his men to surrender . This meant that only the Presidential Guard was left to defend Gia Long Palace . At 16 : 45 , Tung was forced at gunpoint to talk to Diệm on the phone , telling the president that he had told his men to surrender . Minh ordered Nhung to execute the Diệm loyalist . Tung had failed to convince the president to surrender and still commanded the loyalty of his men . The other generals had little sympathy , since the special forces commander had disguised his men in army uniforms and framed the generals for the pagoda raids . The generals were aware of the threat Tung posed ; they had discussed his elimination during their planning , having contemplated waging an offensive against his special forces . At nightfall he was taken with Major , his brother and deputy , hands tied , into a jeep and driven to edge of the air base . Forced to kneel over two freshly dug holes , the brothers were shot into their graves and buried . The coup was successful , and on the following morning , Diệm and Nhu were captured and executed .