Editing Ngo Dinh Diem (section)

===Religious policies and the Buddhist crisis===
{{Main|Buddhist crisis}}{{See also|Huế Phật Đản shootings|Huế chemical attacks|Thích Quảng Đức|Xá Lợi Pagoda raids}}
By most estimates, Buddhism was followed by 70–90% of the population,<ref>[http://www.historynet.com/wars_conflicts/vietnam_war/3033916.html The 1966 Buddhist Crisis in South Vietnam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304102006/http://www.historynet.com/wars_conflicts/vietnam_war/3033916.html |date=4 March 2008 }} HistoryNet</ref>{{sfn|Gettleman|1966|pp=275-276, 366}}{{sfn|Moyar|2006|pp=215-216}}<ref>{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874816-2,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930041419/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874816-2,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=30 September 2007 | magazine=Time | title=South Viet Nam: The Religious Crisis | date=14 June 1963 | access-date=20 May 2010}}</ref>{{sfn|Tucker|2001|pp=49, 291, 293}}{{sfn|Maclear|1981|p=63}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon2/doc125.htm |title=SNIE 53-2-63, "The Situation in South Vietnam, 10 July 1963<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=19 April 2007 |archive-date=9 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109110224/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon2/doc125.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> though some estimates place it lower, and Buddhism was followed alongside other traditions such as [[Vietnamese folk religion]] and [[Taoism]].<ref name="Słowiak">{{cite journal |last1=Słowiak |first1=Jerema |title=Role of the Religion and Politico-Religious Organizations in the South Vietnam During Ngo Dinh Diem Period |journal=Nauki Społeczne |date=2017 |issue=16 |pages=109–124 |publisher=Zeszyty Naukowe Towarzystwa Doktorantów UJ |location=Kraków |url=https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/13747/Jarema%20S%C5%82owiak%20Role%20of%20the%20Religion%20and%20Politico-Religious%20Organizations.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |issn=2082-9213}}</ref>
 
Diem was 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.{{sfn|Tucker|2001|p=291}} Diệm allegedly once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting that he was a Buddhist, "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted."<ref name="Słowiak"/> Many officers in the ARVN converted to Catholicism in the belief that their military prospects depended on it.{{sfn|Gettleman|1966|pp=280-282}} The distribution of weapons to village self-defense militias intended to repel VC guerrillas saw weapons only given to Catholics. Some Buddhist villages converted en masse to Catholicism in order to receive aid or to avoid being forcibly resettled by Diệm's regime,{{sfn|Buttinger|1967|p=993}} with Buddhists in the army being denied promotion if they refused to convert to Catholicism.<ref name="sv">{{cite news|title=South Vietnam: Whose funeral pyre? |publisher=[[The New Republic]] |page=9| date=29 June 1963}}</ref> Some Catholic priests ran their own private armies,{{sfn|Warner|1964|p=210}} and in some areas forced conversions, looting, shelling, and demolition of [[pagoda]]s occurred.{{sfn|Fall|1967|p=199}} Słowiak argues that Diệm's favoritism towards Catholics was not a sign of corruption and nepotism, but that it was necessary for Diệm to favor people loyal towards him, given the precarious internal situation of Vietnam.<ref name="Słowiak"/>
[[File:Flag of Buddhism.svg|alt=Flag flown by Vietnamese buddhist during the protests.|thumb|231x231px|Flag flown by [[Buddhism in Vietnam|Vietnamese buddhists]] during the protests.]]
The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status imposed on Buddhism by the French required official permission to conduct public Buddhist activities and was never repealed by Diệm.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p= 294}} Catholics were also ''de facto'' exempt from the ''[[corvée]]'' labor that the government obliged all citizens to perform; US aid was disproportionately distributed to Catholic-majority villages.<ref name=j91>{{harvnb|Jacobs|2006|p=91}}</ref> The land owned by the Catholic Church was exempt from land reform.{{sfn|Buttinger|1967|p=933}} Under Diệm, the Catholic Church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition, and in 1959, Diệm dedicated his country to the [[Virgin Mary]].<ref name=j91/> The white and gold Vatican flag was regularly flown at all major public events in South Vietnam.<ref name="crusade">{{cite news|title=Diem's other crusade| date=22 June 1963|publisher=[[The New Republic]]|pages=5–6}}</ref> The newly constructed [[Hue University|Hue]] and Dalat universities were placed under Catholic authority to foster a Catholic-skewed academic environment.<ref name="diembudd">{{cite news|first=David |last=Halberstam| author-link=David Halberstam| title=Diệm and the Buddhists| work=[[New York Times]]| date=17 June 1963}}</ref> Nonetheless, Diệm had contributed to Buddhist communities in South Vietnam by giving them permission to carry out activities that were banned by the French and supported money for Buddhist schools, ceremonies, and building more pagodas. Among the eighteen members of Diệm's cabinet, there were five Catholics, five [[Confucian]]s, and eight Buddhists, including a vice-president and a foreign minister. Only three of the top nineteen military officials were Catholics.{{sfn|Moyar|2006|p=216}}
 
The regime's relations with the United States worsened during 1963, as discontent among South Vietnam's Buddhist majority was simultaneously heightened. In May, in the heavily Buddhist central city of Huế{{snd}}the seat of Diệm's elder brother as the local Catholic archbishop{{snd}}the Buddhist majority was prohibited from displaying [[Buddhist flag]]s during [[Vesak]] celebrations commemorating the [[Buddha's Birthday|birth of Gautama Buddha]] when the government cited a regulation prohibiting the display of non-government flags.{{sfn|Miller|2013|p=266}} A few days earlier, however, white and yellow Catholic [[papal flag]]s flew at the 25th anniversary commemoration of Ngô Đình Thục's elevation to the rank of bishop.{{sfn|Jarvis|2018|p=59}} According to Miller, Diệm then proclaimed the flag embargo because he was annoyed with the commemoration for Thục.{{sfn|Miller|2013|p=266}} However, the ban on religious flags led to a protest led by [[Thích Trí Quang]] against the government, which was suppressed by Diệm's forces, and unarmed civilians were killed in [[Huế Phật Đản shootings|the clash]]. Diệm and his supporters blamed the Việt Cộng for the deaths and claimed the protesters were responsible for the violence.{{sfn|Moyar|2006|pp=212-213}} Although the provincial chief expressed sorrow for the killings and offered to compensate the victims' families, they resolutely denied that government forces were responsible for the killings and blamed the Viet Cong. According to Diệm, it was the communists who threw a grenade into the crowd.{{sfn|Jacobs|2006|p=143}}
 
The Buddhists pushed for a five-point agreement: freedom to fly religious flags, an end to arbitrary arrests, compensation for the Huế victims, punishment for the officials responsible, and [[religious equality]]. Diệm then banned demonstrations and ordered his forces to arrest those who engaged in civil disobedience. On 3 June 1963, protesters attempted to march towards the [[Từ Đàm pagoda]]. Six waves of ARVN tear gas and attack dogs failed to disperse the crowds. Finally, brownish-red liquid chemicals [[Hue chemical attacks|were doused on praying protesters]], resulting in 67 being hospitalized for chemical injuries. A curfew was subsequently enacted.{{sfn|Jacobs|2006|p=145}}
[[File:Thích_Quảng_Đức_self-immolation.jpg|thumb|[[Buddhist monk]], [[Thích Quảng Đức]], set himself on fire in the middle of a busy Saigon intersection in protest of Diệm's policies|left|272x272px]]
The turning point came in June when a [[Buddhist monk]], [[Thích Quảng Đức]], set himself on fire in the middle of a busy Saigon intersection in protest of Diệm's policies; photos of this event were disseminated around the world, and for many people these pictures came to represent the failure of Diệm's government.{{sfn|Moyar|2006|p=220}} A number of other monks publicly [[self-immolated]], and the US grew increasingly frustrated with the unpopular leader's public image in both Vietnam and the United States. Diệm used his conventional anti-communist argument, identifying the dissenters as communists. As demonstrations against his government continued throughout the summer, the special forces loyal to Diệm's brother, Nhu, conducted an August raid of the [[Xá Lợi pagoda]] in Saigon. Pagodas were vandalized, monks beaten, and the cremated remains of Quảng Đức, which included his heart, a religious relic, were confiscated. [[Xá Lợi Pagoda raids|Simultaneous raids]] were carried out across the country, with the Từ Đàm pagoda in Huế looted, the statue of [[Gautama Buddha]] demolished, and the body of a deceased monk confiscated.{{sfn|Jacobs|2006|pp=147-154}} When the populace came to the defense of the monks, the resulting clashes saw 30 civilians killed and 200 wounded. In all 1,400 monks were arrested, and some thirty were injured across the country. The United States indicated its disapproval of Diệm's administration when ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.]] visited the pagoda. No further mass Buddhist protests occurred during the remainder of Diệm's rule.{{sfn|Moyar|2006|pp=212–216, 231–234}}
 
[[Madame Nhu]] Trần Lệ Xuân, Nhu's wife, inflamed the situation by mockingly applauding the suicides, stating, "If the Buddhists want to have another barbecue, I will be glad to supply the gasoline."{{sfn|Jacobs|2006|p=149}} The pagoda raids stoked widespread public disquiet in [[Saigon]]. Students at Saigon University boycotted classes and rioted, which led to arrests, imprisonments, and the closure of the university; this was repeated at Huế University. When high school students demonstrated, Diệm arrested them as well; over 1,000 students from Saigon's leading high school, most of them children of Saigon civil servants, were sent to re-education camps, including, reportedly, children as young as five, on charges of anti-government graffiti. Diệm's foreign minister [[Vũ Văn Mẫu]] resigned, shaving his head like a Buddhist monk in protest.{{sfn|Jacobs|2006|p=154}} When he attempted to leave the country on a religious pilgrimage to India, he was detained and kept under house arrest.{{sfn|Sheehan|1989|p=357}}
 
At the same time that the [[Buddhist crisis]] was taking place, a French diplomatic initiative to end the war had been launched. The initiative was known to historians as the "Maneli affair", after [[Mieczysław Maneli]], the Polish Commissioner to the International Control Commission who served as an intermediary between the two Vietnams. In 1963, North Vietnam was suffering its worst drought in a generation. Maneli conveyed messages between Hanoi and Saigon negotiating a declaration of a ceasefire in exchange for South Vietnamese rice being traded for North Vietnamese coal.{{sfn|Jacobs|2006|p=165}} On 2 September 1963, Maneli met with Nhu at his office in the Gia Long Palace, a meeting that Nhu leaked to the American columnist [[Joseph Alsop]], who revealed it to the world in his "A Matter of Fact" column in the ''Washington Post''.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=234}} Nhu's purpose in leaking the meeting was to blackmail the United States with the message that if Kennedy continued to criticize Diệm's handling of the Buddhist crisis, Diem would reach an understanding with the Communists. The Kennedy administration reacted with fury at what Alsop had revealed.<ref name="Karnow, p. 292">{{harvnb|Karnow|1997|p= 292}}</ref> In a message to Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]], [[Roger Hilsman]] urged that a coup against Diệm be encouraged to take place promptly, saying that the mere possibility that Diệm might make a deal with the Communists meant that he had to go.<ref name="Karnow, p. 292"/>
 
There have been many interpretations of the Buddhist crisis and the immolation of Thích Quảng Đức in 1963. Relating the events to the larger context of [[Vietnamese Buddhism]] in the 20th century and looking at the interactions between Diệm and Buddhist groups, the Buddhist protests during Diệm's regime were not only the struggles against discrimination in religious practices and religious freedom, but also the resistance of Vietnamese Buddhism to Diệm's [[nation-building]] policies centered by a [[personalist]] revolution that Buddhists considered a threat to the revival of Vietnamese Buddhist power.{{sfn|Miller|2013|p=262}} Until the end of his life, Diệm, along with his brother Nhu still believed that their nation-building was successful and they could resolve the Buddhist crisis in their own way, like what they had done with the Hinh crisis in 1954 and the struggle with the Bình Xuyên in 1955.{{sfn|Miller|2013|pp=277-278}}
 
Jerema Słowiak of [[Jagiellonian University]] notes that the American media coverage skewed the true background of the conflict, spreading the "narrative of evil dictator Diệm oppressing good, peaceful Buddhists". Because of this, Diệm was considered a brutal and corrupt dictator in the United States at the time of his assassination.<ref name="Słowiak"/> However, Diệm enjoyed relatively good relations with the Buddhists until 1963, and sponsored numerous Buddhist temples, especially [[Xá Lợi Pagoda]] in 1956. Vietnamese Buddhists had a nationalist vision for Vietnam of their own, and were political enemies of Diệm, engaged in "a clash of two competing visions of Vietnam".<ref name="Słowiak"/> The Buddhist challenge to Diệm was politically motivated and constituted struggle for power rather than a religious conflict – the Buddhists protested mainly against the Ngo family and rejected Diệm's concessions, as their explicit goal was removal of Diệm.<ref name="Słowiak"/> Thích Trí Quang, the leader of the Buddhist movement, insisted that the agitation must not stop until the South Vietnamese government is overthrown, and stated his intention to "call for suicide volunteers" if necessary. Edward Miller also argues that the primary cause of the protests was the opposition to Diệm and his agenda rather than the discriminatory policies, as the Buddhist movements of Vietnam had their own political goals that starkly contrasted with Diệm's.{{sfn|Miller|2013|p=262}} Diệm reacted to the Buddhist resistance the same way he reacted to the Sect Crisis of 1955, and Xá Lợi Pagoda raids successfully broke the protesters' movement. The military supported Diệm, and army leaders helped plan the raids and advocated for a forceful response to the protests, and only American disapproval drove military cliques to reconsider their support for Diệm.<ref name="Słowiak"/>