Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngô Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963, was arrested and killed in a coup d'état led by Dương Văn Minh and backed by the CIA on 2 November 1963. Diệm, a dictator supported by the United States, was a controversial figure, mainly because of his handling against Buddhism, this escalated quickly after the death of Thích Quảng Đức.

Not only did Diệm get assassinated, but his younger brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, also gets killed. Initially, the assassinations of Diệm and Nhu were believed to be a suicide motive. Just three weeks later, John F. Kennedy, the US President at the time, also got assassinated like Diệm.

 Origins 
After the Viet Minh defeated France at Điện Biện Phủ in 1954, the Geneva Conference divided Vietnam into two nations at the 17th parallel north. With North Vietnam under communist rule by Hồ Chí Minh and South Vietnam under anti-communist and US-backed rule by Ngô Đình Diệm. A 1955 referendum that was later found to be rigged declared Ngô Đình Diệm as the President of South Vietnam, defeating Bảo Đại as the former State of Vietnam leader.

When the Vietnam War was still ongoing, North Vietnam formed a communist group in South Vietnam called the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (the US and South Vietnam called it the Viet Cong), Diệm wanted to get rid of this group so he ran a campaign against the Viet Cong, executing people who Diệm thought were communists in a guillotine to all cities in the South, this marked Diệm as a totalitarian with full control.

In 1963, a law in the South banned the Buddhist flag from displaying immediately sparked controversies and protests across the nation, particularly after the death of Thích Quảng Đức. US President John F. Kennedy authorised the US embassy in South Vietnam to explore for a possibility of a regime change.

 Related pages 
 Assassination of John F. Kennedy
 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

 References 

Category:History of Vietnam