Editing Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (section)

==Coup against Diệm==
[[File:Lyndon B. Johnson meeting with President Nguyen van Thieu in Hawaii - 1968 - A6585-13.jpg|thumb|Thiệu and US President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]]]
{{Main|1963 South Vietnamese coup|Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm}}
Thiệu turned against Diệm late, and led his 5th Division in the revolt. Late on the night of 1 November, as light drizzle fell, Thiệu's tanks, artillery, and troops advanced towards the grounds of [[Gia Long Palace]].<ref name=j414/> A little before 22:00, infantry started the assault, covered by tank and artillery fire, which flattened the Presidential Guard barracks. Demolition units set charges to the palace, and rebel flamethrowers sprayed buildings, as the two sides exchanged gunfire.<ref name=j414>Jones, p. 414.</ref> After a lull, shortly after 03:00, the shelling resumed, and just after 05:00, Thiệu ordered the start of the final stage of the siege. By 06:37, the palace fell.<ref>Jones, pp. 412–15.</ref> He was then made a general by the junta after they took power.<ref name=ob/> Diệm had been promised exile by the generals, but, after escaping from the palace, was executed on the journey back to military headquarters after having been captured.<ref name=kh180>Kahin, p. 180.</ref> [[Dương Văn Minh]], the junta and coup leader, was generally blamed for having ordered Diệm's assassination, but there has been debate about the culpability.<ref name=j435/><ref name=h299/>
[[File:Thi and thieu.jpg|thumb|Thiệu (middle) and [[Nguyễn Chánh Thi]] (left) at Danang airfield.]]
When Thiệu rose to become president, Minh blamed him for the assassinations. In 1971, Minh claimed that Thiệu had caused the deaths by hesitating and delaying the attack on Gia Long Palace, implying that if Diệm was captured there, junior officers could not have killed him while in a small group. General [[Trần Văn Đôn]], another plotter, was reported to have pressured Thiệu during the night of the siege, asking him on the phone, "Why are you so slow in doing it? Do you need more troops? If you do, ask [[Tôn Thất Đính|Đính]] to send more troops—and do it quickly because after taking the palace you will be made a general."<ref name=h299>Hammer, p. 299.</ref> Thiệu stridently denied responsibility and issued a statement that Minh did not dispute: "Dương Văn Minh has to assume entire responsibility for the death of Ngô Đình Diệm."<ref name="j435">Jones, p. 435.</ref>

Diệm remained a taboo subject until Thiệu became president. His regime first approved of public memorial services for Diệm upon the eighth anniversary of his death in 1971, and this was the third year that such services were permitted. Madame Thiệu, the First Lady, was seen weeping at a requiem mass for Diệm at the [[Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica]].<ref>Hammer, p. 317.</ref>