Henry Cabot Lodge and the 1963 Diem Coup
The 1963 Diem coup during the Vietnam War as well as the American ambassador’s role in it.
Diem: Some unites have made a rebellion and I want to know: What is the attitude of the U.S.?
Lodge: I do not feel well enough informed to be able to tell you. Also, it is 4:30 a.m. in Washington and U.S. government cannot possibly have a view.
Diem: But you must have some general ideas. After all, I am a chief of state. I have tried to do my duty.
Lodge: You have certainly done your duty I admire your courage and your great contributions to your country Now I am worried about your physical safety
Diem: You have my telephone number?
Lodge: Yes. If I can do anything for your physical safety, please call me.
Diem Im trying to re-establish order.
After the phone call with Diem, Lodge sent a cable to Washington describing events so far. Diem never did re-establish order. He escaped with his brother Nhu from the besieged Presidential palace and fled to a hideout in Dalat, the same city where Lodge and Diem had dedicated a nuclear reactor only three days earlier. Diem was subsequently captured by the army at a Catholic church in Dalat. He was killed soon after.
President Kennedy, upon hearing the death of Diem, leaped to his feet and rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face he always insisted that Diem must never suffer more than exile. In a taped recording on November 4, President Kennedy took personal responsibility for the death of Diem and added that Lodge had been inclined from early august to remove Diem from office. For Lodge, the coup provided him an opportunity to reflect on the events of the past three months in Vietnam. It also allowed Lodge to defend his role to the Kennedy administration and to reassure himself that he had made the right decisions:
At the time of the pagodas raids of August 21, U.S.G. and GVN seemed to be totally deadlocked We were being totally taken for granted by the GVN…There is no doubt that the coup was a Vietnamese and a popular affair, which we could neither manage nor stop after it got started But it is equally certain that the ground in which the coup seed grew into a robust plant was prepared by us and that the coup would not have happened [when] it did without our preparation All this may be a useful lesson in the use of U.S. power for those who face similar situation in other places in the future Perhaps the U.S. government has here evolved a way of not being everywhere saddled with responsibility for autocratic governments simply because they are anti-communist Clearly the coup has brought about change; let us hope it will turn out to be a great improvement Our actions were not colonial and when Madame Nhu accused me of acting like the Governor General of Indochina, it did not ring true.
In the next three years, South Vietnam experienced four more coups. Relative stability returned only with the regime of Thieu in 1967. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. And Ambassador Lodge continued his term as ambassador until 1964 and was re-elected to that position by President Johnson in 1965.
Liked it
