1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing
Encyclopedia
The 1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing in Saigon was an aerial attack
on February 27, 1962, by two dissident Vietnam Air Force
pilots, Second Lieutenant Nguyễn Văn Cử
and First Lieutenant Phạm Phú Quốc
. The pilots targeted the Independence Palace
, the official residence of the President of South Vietnam, with the aim of assassinating President Ngô Đình Diệm
and his immediate family, who acted as his political advisors.
The pilots later stated that their assassination attempt was in response to Diệm's autocratic rule, in which he focused more on remaining in power than on confronting the Vietcong, a Marxist-Leninist guerilla army who were threatening to overthrow the South Vietnamese government. Cử and Quốc hoped that the airstrike would expose Diệm's vulnerability and trigger a general uprising, but this failed to materialise. One bomb penetrated a room in the western wing where Diệm was reading but it failed to detonate, leading the president to claim that he had "divine protection". With the exception of Diệm's sister-in-law Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
, who escaped with minor injuries, the Ngo family were unscathed; however, three palace staff died and another 30 were injured. Afterwards, Cử managed to escape to Cambodia
, but Quốc was arrested and imprisoned.
In the wake of the airstrike, Diệm became hostile towards the American presence in South Vietnam. Diệm claimed that the American media
was seeking to bring him down and he introduced new restrictions on press freedom and political association. The media speculated that the United States would use the incident to justify the deployment of combat troops to South Vietnam though, in the event, the US remained circumspect. Domestically, the incident was reported to have increased plotting against Diệm by his officers.
Cử was the second son of Nguyen Van Luc
, a leader of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
(VNQDD), which opposed the Diệm regime. At one point in 1960, Diệm had jailed Luc for one month for engaging in "anti-government activities". The VNQDD planned that Cu along with Quoc, another pilot from the same squadron, would attack the Independence Palace
on February 27. Ironically, Quoc had recently been personally commended by Diệm for his achievements in combat, having been honoured as one of the best pilots in the Vietnam Air Force
(VNAF). Quoc also had relatives who were involved with the VNQDD. Cu recruited Quoc by claiming that all the armed services
and the United States were aware of the plot, showing him a Newsweek
article critical of Diệm as "evidence". Quoc had more subordinates but was not sure of their loyalty, so he did not try to recruit them for the attack on the palace. Years after the airstrike, Cu blamed Diệm's treatment of opposition parties as the motivation for his attack. He believed that Diệm had prioritised remaining in power over fighting the Vietcong and that, for six years, Cu had been denied promotion because of Diệm's obsession with hindering political opponents. Cu criticised the American government for its support for Diệm, which he felt had stifled the war effort, saying that "the Americans had slammed the door on those of us who really wanted the fight against the communists".
in an early morning mission against the Vietcong, an armed Marxist
guerilla army who wished to overthrow the government and who had backing from the Marxist government of North Vietnam
. The communists had been involved in attacks on Army of the Republic of Vietnam
units 60 km (37.3 mi) south of the capital and had inflicted heavy damage. Instead of proceeding south as ordered, they changed course to attack the Independence Palace, the official presidential residence. This meant that two companies of communist guerrillas were able to retreat after their attack without counter-attack.
At around 07:00, the deer on the expansive lawns of the French colonial-era
palace were frightened off as Quoc and Cu—flying American-built A-1 Skyraider
s (A1H/AD-6 variant) single-seater ground attack planes—flew low over their target to inspect the ruling family’s residence. On their second run, they attacked with bombs and napalm
before strafing the presidential compound with rocket and machine-gun fire. The duo continued their runs for 30 minutes before units loyal to the president arrived and launched a counterattack. Taking advantage of poor weather and low cloud cover, the two pilots circled the palace at altitudes of around 150 m (492.1 ft), periodically diving out of the clouds to re-attack before darting back into them. The airstrike caught the Saigon garrison off guard and, in the confusion, they were unable to determine whether the aircraft were acting alone or with ground forces. Loyalist tanks and armoured personnel carriers rushed to their battle stations and anti-aircraft batteries opened fire, nearly hitting the loyalist aircraft from Bien Hoa Air Base
in pursuit of the two rebel planes. Two tanks and a number of jeeps armed with 50-calibre machine guns patrolled the smoke-filled streets as a precaution.
The first 500 lb (226.8 kg) bomb penetrated a room in the western wing where Diệm was reading a biography of George Washington
. The bomb failed to detonate, which gave Diệm enough time to seek shelter in a cellar in the eastern wing. He was joined there by his elder brother Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu
, Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
—who sustained an arm fracture while running toward the cellar—and their children. Elsewhere within the palace, three servants and guards were killed, and about thirty more staff were injured. Outside the palace grounds, an American contractor died after falling from a rooftop where he had been watching the bombing. Despite the confusion, most of the city's inhabitants went about their usual business, indifferent to the chaos. The attack lasted 30 minutes and although they carried enough bombs to level the palace, the pilots did not expend all their munitions. Quoc's aircraft was damaged by fire from a minesweeper
, forcing him to eject over the Saigon River
and land in Nha Be, suffering minor facial injuries in the landing. He was arrested by a nearby naval patrol, and before being taken away for interrogation reportedly asked, "[d]id I kill that filthy character?". Cu believed the attack had been successful and managed to safely flee to Cambodia
. Commenting on the skills of the attackers, a US Air Force
officer opined that "[w]ith that weather, they did a hell of a job".
promptly sent a message denouncing the attack as a "destructive and vicious act", and expressed relief that Diệm was "safe and unharmed". US ambassador Frederick Nolting
determined that the attack had been the result of "two isolated cases" and opined that the incident did not represent widespread dissatisfaction with the regime. The absence of a Vietcong reaction led Nolting to label the bombing as a "limited scope, anti-Communist assassination attempt". The National Assembly, Diệm's rubber stamp
legislative body, urged the president to "take drastic measures against irresponsible elements". General Duong Van Minh
, the presidential military advisor, attributed the assault to "disgruntled pilots", and noted that no hostile troop movements had occurred. The Civil Guard had remained loyal and its commander ordered his airborne forces to take over Tan Son Nhut Air Base
. A spokesperson for Diệm also denied that napalm had been used against the palace. This was widely believed to be due to the fact that the government was sensitive to the ramifications of the air force being revealed to have such weapons in their stocks. He also claimed that the situation was under “complete control”.
The VNAF reacted to the two pilots’ actions by sending a resolution to Diệm, saying that the attack was an “absolutely isolated and foolish” event that “impaired the prestige of the air force” and was “detrimental to the national effort in the present struggle and is profitable to the Communists in their work of subversion”. The National Revolutionary Movement, an organization used by the Ngo family to stage orchestrated mass demonstrations in support of themselves, called for the death penalty against the two pilots and further asked Diệm to enact the “strictest measures to insure discipline in the military”.
As a result of the attack, Diệm ordered that all VNAF aircraft be grounded and all aerial combat missions were suspended while his security officials investigated fighter pilots for any possible anti-regime tendencies. This was achieved by placing tanks on the runway at Bien Hoa Air Base. Without assistance from accompanying fighter craft, it was deemed too risky for American helicopters to operate in the jungles against the communists. On March 2, three days after the attack, Diệm allowed the air force to resume combat operations, having concluded that Cu and Quoc’s sentiments were not representative of the air force. For a few days after the attack, the areas around the palace were cordoned off and tanks were stationed at prominent streets in the capital.
Quoc was imprisoned for his actions, while Cu remained in exile in Cambodia where he worked as a language teacher. Diệm asked Cambodia to extradite Cu, but this request was refused. Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Sihanouk
and Diệm had extremely hostile relations, and the Ngo family had tried to depose him in the past by funding coup attempts. In 1959, Nhu tried to assassinate Sihanouk by sending him a parcel bomb. As a result, Sihanouk routinely gave asylum to political refugees who had tried to depose or kill Diệm. In November 1960, he had given asylum to a group of paratroopers
who tried to depose Diệm
.
In the meantime, Diệm’s police sought to track down Cu’s father, who had gone into hiding following the assassination attempt. After Diệm's assassination in November 1963
, Quoc was released from prison and Cu returned from exile on November 16, and they resumed their service in the air force. Quoc then advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 18 months before being killed in an air raid over North Vietnam on April 20, 1965.
During Nolting's first meeting with Diệm after the assassination attempt, the president adamantly asserted that the media was responsible for the bombing. He pointed to the Newsweek article and other "derogatory articles in the press", using them to justify his claim that "the Americans were supporting the revolution". Diệm declared that while some journalists were portraying the bombing as a wake-up call he saw it as "a warning to them—an indicator of the danger of their irresponsibility [in fomenting disorder]".
In a later meeting with General Paul D. Harkins
, head of the US military mission to Vietnam, Diệm joked: "I shouldn't have put him in the air force, because I had put his father in jail years ago". Diệm went on to predict that "sometime I'm going to get shot right in the back of the neck. Sometime they'll get me that way". He was shot dead after a successful coup in 1963
. Diệm reacted to the assassination attempt by cracking down on political dissidents and further tightening control of the press. Off the record, one official admitted that "[w]e don't even talk about freedom of the press or ask for other liberties any more ... [Diệm] had completely surrounded himself in a protective oligarchy". Nhu justified anti-opposition restrictions, remarking that "[t]here's always going to be an opposition. If we take these people in, there will be another opposition springing up, because they are controversial men." Madame Nhu added, "[y]ou open a window to let in light and air, not bullets. We want freedom, but we don't want to be exploited by it."
denied that the US had plans to deploy combat forces. He also ruled out negotiations with the Vietcong, saying "the root of the trouble" was communist violations of the Geneva Accords
. United States Ambassador to India
John Kenneth Galbraith
lobbied Kennedy against the deployment of combat troops, believing that it would lead to endless South Vietnamese requests for more troops. Galbraith further believed that wasting US resources in the jungles of Vietnam would be playing into the hands of the Soviet Union
. According to one US observer, the palace bombing provoked "full scale plotting against Diệm". Galbraith noted that "[w]hen the man in power is on the way down, anything is better" and considered that any change in South Vietnamese leadership would bring an improvement.
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...
on February 27, 1962, by two dissident Vietnam Air Force
Vietnam Air Force
The Vietnam Air Force began with a few hand-picked men chosen to fly alongside French pilots during the State of Vietnam era. It eventually grew into the world’s sixth largest air force at the height of its power, in 1974...
pilots, Second Lieutenant Nguyễn Văn Cử
Nguyen Van Cu
Nguyễn Văn Cử was a lieutenant in the Vietnam Air Force, best known for being one of two mutinous pilots involved in the 1962 South Vietnamese Presidential Palace bombing on 27 February 1962, which aimed to assassinate South Vietnam's President Ngô Đình Diệm and his immediate family, who were his...
and First Lieutenant Phạm Phú Quốc
Pham Phu Quoc
Phạm Phú Quốc was a French-trained South Vietnamese flying ace and lieutenant in the Republic of Vietnam Air Force, best known for being one of two mutinous pilots involved in the 1962 South Vietnamese Presidential Palace bombing on February 27, 1962, which aimed to assassinate President Ngo Dinh...
. The pilots targeted the Independence Palace
Reunification Palace
Reunification Palace formerly known as Independence Palace , built on the site of the former Norodom Palace, is a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was designed by architect Ngô Viết Thụ and was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War...
, the official residence of the President of South Vietnam, with the aim of assassinating President Ngô Đình Diệm
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
and his immediate family, who acted as his political advisors.
The pilots later stated that their assassination attempt was in response to Diệm's autocratic rule, in which he focused more on remaining in power than on confronting the Vietcong, a Marxist-Leninist guerilla army who were threatening to overthrow the South Vietnamese government. Cử and Quốc hoped that the airstrike would expose Diệm's vulnerability and trigger a general uprising, but this failed to materialise. One bomb penetrated a room in the western wing where Diệm was reading but it failed to detonate, leading the president to claim that he had "divine protection". With the exception of Diệm's sister-in-law Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Trần Lệ Xuân , popularly known as Madame Nhu, was considered the first lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu who was the brother and chief adviser to President Ngo Dinh Diem...
, who escaped with minor injuries, the Ngo family were unscathed; however, three palace staff died and another 30 were injured. Afterwards, Cử managed to escape to Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, but Quốc was arrested and imprisoned.
In the wake of the airstrike, Diệm became hostile towards the American presence in South Vietnam. Diệm claimed that the American media
Media of the United States
Media of the United States consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. The U.S...
was seeking to bring him down and he introduced new restrictions on press freedom and political association. The media speculated that the United States would use the incident to justify the deployment of combat troops to South Vietnam though, in the event, the US remained circumspect. Domestically, the incident was reported to have increased plotting against Diệm by his officers.
Planning
Nguyen Van Luc
Nguyễn Văn Lực was a Vietnamese Lieutenant Commander and leader of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang , which opposed the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. At one point in 1960, Diem had jailed Luc for one month for engaging in "anti-government activities"...
, a leader of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng , also known as the Việt Quốc and the Vietnamese Kuomintang, is the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, a revolutionary socialist political party that sought independence from French colonial rule in Vietnam during the early 20th century...
(VNQDD), which opposed the Diệm regime. At one point in 1960, Diệm had jailed Luc for one month for engaging in "anti-government activities". The VNQDD planned that Cu along with Quoc, another pilot from the same squadron, would attack the Independence Palace
Reunification Palace
Reunification Palace formerly known as Independence Palace , built on the site of the former Norodom Palace, is a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was designed by architect Ngô Viết Thụ and was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War...
on February 27. Ironically, Quoc had recently been personally commended by Diệm for his achievements in combat, having been honoured as one of the best pilots in the Vietnam Air Force
Vietnam Air Force
The Vietnam Air Force began with a few hand-picked men chosen to fly alongside French pilots during the State of Vietnam era. It eventually grew into the world’s sixth largest air force at the height of its power, in 1974...
(VNAF). Quoc also had relatives who were involved with the VNQDD. Cu recruited Quoc by claiming that all the armed services
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
and the United States were aware of the plot, showing him a Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
article critical of Diệm as "evidence". Quoc had more subordinates but was not sure of their loyalty, so he did not try to recruit them for the attack on the palace. Years after the airstrike, Cu blamed Diệm's treatment of opposition parties as the motivation for his attack. He believed that Diệm had prioritised remaining in power over fighting the Vietcong and that, for six years, Cu had been denied promotion because of Diệm's obsession with hindering political opponents. Cu criticised the American government for its support for Diệm, which he felt had stifled the war effort, saying that "the Americans had slammed the door on those of us who really wanted the fight against the communists".
Attack
Quoc and Cu, who were trained in France and the United States, respectively, were given orders to fly from Saigon to the Mekong DeltaMekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
in an early morning mission against the Vietcong, an armed Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
guerilla army who wished to overthrow the government and who had backing from the Marxist government of North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
. The communists had been involved in attacks on Army of the Republic of Vietnam
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
units 60 km (37.3 mi) south of the capital and had inflicted heavy damage. Instead of proceeding south as ordered, they changed course to attack the Independence Palace, the official presidential residence. This meant that two companies of communist guerrillas were able to retreat after their attack without counter-attack.
At around 07:00, the deer on the expansive lawns of the French colonial-era
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
palace were frightened off as Quoc and Cu—flying American-built A-1 Skyraider
A-1 Skyraider
The Douglas A-1 Skyraider was an American single-seat attack aircraft that saw service between the late 1940s and early 1980s. It became a piston-powered, propeller-driven anachronism in the jet age, and was nicknamed "Spad", after a French World War I fighter...
s (A1H/AD-6 variant) single-seater ground attack planes—flew low over their target to inspect the ruling family’s residence. On their second run, they attacked with bombs and napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
before strafing the presidential compound with rocket and machine-gun fire. The duo continued their runs for 30 minutes before units loyal to the president arrived and launched a counterattack. Taking advantage of poor weather and low cloud cover, the two pilots circled the palace at altitudes of around 150 m (492.1 ft), periodically diving out of the clouds to re-attack before darting back into them. The airstrike caught the Saigon garrison off guard and, in the confusion, they were unable to determine whether the aircraft were acting alone or with ground forces. Loyalist tanks and armoured personnel carriers rushed to their battle stations and anti-aircraft batteries opened fire, nearly hitting the loyalist aircraft from Bien Hoa Air Base
Bien Hoa Air Base
Bien Hoa Air Base is a Vietnam People's Air Force military airfield located in South-Central southern Vietnam about 20 miles from Saigon near the city of Bien Hoa within Dong Nai Province....
in pursuit of the two rebel planes. Two tanks and a number of jeeps armed with 50-calibre machine guns patrolled the smoke-filled streets as a precaution.
The first 500 lb (226.8 kg) bomb penetrated a room in the western wing where Diệm was reading a biography of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
. The bomb failed to detonate, which gave Diệm enough time to seek shelter in a cellar in the eastern wing. He was joined there by his elder brother Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu
Ngo Dinh Nhu
Ngô Ðình Nhu was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Ðình Diệm. Nhu was widely regarded as the architect of the Ngô family's nepotistic and autocratic rule over South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963...
, Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Trần Lệ Xuân , popularly known as Madame Nhu, was considered the first lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu who was the brother and chief adviser to President Ngo Dinh Diem...
—who sustained an arm fracture while running toward the cellar—and their children. Elsewhere within the palace, three servants and guards were killed, and about thirty more staff were injured. Outside the palace grounds, an American contractor died after falling from a rooftop where he had been watching the bombing. Despite the confusion, most of the city's inhabitants went about their usual business, indifferent to the chaos. The attack lasted 30 minutes and although they carried enough bombs to level the palace, the pilots did not expend all their munitions. Quoc's aircraft was damaged by fire from a minesweeper
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
, forcing him to eject over the Saigon River
Saigon River
The Saigon River is a river located in southern Vietnam that rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, flows south and south-southeast for about 140 miles and empties into the Nha Be River, which in its turn empties into the South China Sea some 20 km north-east of the Mekong Delta.The...
and land in Nha Be, suffering minor facial injuries in the landing. He was arrested by a nearby naval patrol, and before being taken away for interrogation reportedly asked, "[d]id I kill that filthy character?". Cu believed the attack had been successful and managed to safely flee to Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. Commenting on the skills of the attackers, a US Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
officer opined that "[w]ith that weather, they did a hell of a job".
Aftermath
In a brief radio address after order had been restored, Diệm dismissed the attack as an "isolated act" and attributed his escape to "divine protection". He visited the soldiers wounded in the attacks, and also promised the rebel pilots' colleagues that they would not bear any responsibility for the bombing. American President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
promptly sent a message denouncing the attack as a "destructive and vicious act", and expressed relief that Diệm was "safe and unharmed". US ambassador Frederick Nolting
Frederick Nolting
Frederick Ernst Nolting , was a World War II naval officer and United States diplomat.-Early life and education:...
determined that the attack had been the result of "two isolated cases" and opined that the incident did not represent widespread dissatisfaction with the regime. The absence of a Vietcong reaction led Nolting to label the bombing as a "limited scope, anti-Communist assassination attempt". The National Assembly, Diệm's rubber stamp
Rubber stamp (politics)
A rubber stamp, as a political metaphor, refers to a person or institution with considerable de jure power but little de facto power; one that rarely disagrees with more powerful organs....
legislative body, urged the president to "take drastic measures against irresponsible elements". General Duong Van Minh
Duong Van Minh
Minh was born on 16 February 1916 in Mỹ Tho Province in the Mekong Delta, the son of a wealthy landowner who served in a prominent position in the Finance Ministry of the French colonial administration...
, the presidential military advisor, attributed the assault to "disgruntled pilots", and noted that no hostile troop movements had occurred. The Civil Guard had remained loyal and its commander ordered his airborne forces to take over Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base was a Republic of Vietnam Air Force facility. It is located near the city of Saigon in southern Vietnam. The United States used it as a major base during the Vietnam War , stationing Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine units there...
. A spokesperson for Diệm also denied that napalm had been used against the palace. This was widely believed to be due to the fact that the government was sensitive to the ramifications of the air force being revealed to have such weapons in their stocks. He also claimed that the situation was under “complete control”.
The VNAF reacted to the two pilots’ actions by sending a resolution to Diệm, saying that the attack was an “absolutely isolated and foolish” event that “impaired the prestige of the air force” and was “detrimental to the national effort in the present struggle and is profitable to the Communists in their work of subversion”. The National Revolutionary Movement, an organization used by the Ngo family to stage orchestrated mass demonstrations in support of themselves, called for the death penalty against the two pilots and further asked Diệm to enact the “strictest measures to insure discipline in the military”.
As a result of the attack, Diệm ordered that all VNAF aircraft be grounded and all aerial combat missions were suspended while his security officials investigated fighter pilots for any possible anti-regime tendencies. This was achieved by placing tanks on the runway at Bien Hoa Air Base. Without assistance from accompanying fighter craft, it was deemed too risky for American helicopters to operate in the jungles against the communists. On March 2, three days after the attack, Diệm allowed the air force to resume combat operations, having concluded that Cu and Quoc’s sentiments were not representative of the air force. For a few days after the attack, the areas around the palace were cordoned off and tanks were stationed at prominent streets in the capital.
Quoc was imprisoned for his actions, while Cu remained in exile in Cambodia where he worked as a language teacher. Diệm asked Cambodia to extradite Cu, but this request was refused. Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
and Diệm had extremely hostile relations, and the Ngo family had tried to depose him in the past by funding coup attempts. In 1959, Nhu tried to assassinate Sihanouk by sending him a parcel bomb. As a result, Sihanouk routinely gave asylum to political refugees who had tried to depose or kill Diệm. In November 1960, he had given asylum to a group of paratroopers
Vietnamese Airborne Division
The Vietnamese Airborne Division was one of the earliest components of the State of Vietnam's military forces . The Vietnamese Airborne Division began as companies organised in 1948, prior to any agreement over armed forces in Vietnam...
who tried to depose Diệm
1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt
On November 11, 1960, a failed coup attempt against President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was led by Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Van Dong and Colonel Nguyen Chanh Thi of the Airborne Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam ....
.
In the meantime, Diệm’s police sought to track down Cu’s father, who had gone into hiding following the assassination attempt. After Diệm's assassination in November 1963
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, then president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d’état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963...
, Quoc was released from prison and Cu returned from exile on November 16, and they resumed their service in the air force. Quoc then advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 18 months before being killed in an air raid over North Vietnam on April 20, 1965.
Diệm reaction
In a later meeting with General Paul D. Harkins
Paul D. Harkins
Paul Donal Harkins was Deputy Chief of Staff during World War II to George S. Patton Jr. and later became a U.S. Army General and the first Military Assistance Command, Vietnam commander from 1962 to 1964.-Early life:...
, head of the US military mission to Vietnam, Diệm joked: "I shouldn't have put him in the air force, because I had put his father in jail years ago". Diệm went on to predict that "sometime I'm going to get shot right in the back of the neck. Sometime they'll get me that way". He was shot dead after a successful coup in 1963
1963 South Vietnamese coup
In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong.The...
. Diệm reacted to the assassination attempt by cracking down on political dissidents and further tightening control of the press. Off the record, one official admitted that "[w]e don't even talk about freedom of the press or ask for other liberties any more ... [Diệm] had completely surrounded himself in a protective oligarchy". Nhu justified anti-opposition restrictions, remarking that "[t]here's always going to be an opposition. If we take these people in, there will be another opposition springing up, because they are controversial men." Madame Nhu added, "[y]ou open a window to let in light and air, not bullets. We want freedom, but we don't want to be exploited by it."
US reaction
The attack generated speculation that the US would respond by deploying combat troops in South Vietnam. At that time, US military personnel officially held only advisory capacities. In the response to media concerns about the stability of the Diệm government, US Secretary of State Dean RuskDean Rusk
David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...
denied that the US had plans to deploy combat forces. He also ruled out negotiations with the Vietcong, saying "the root of the trouble" was communist violations of the Geneva Accords
Geneva Conference (1954)
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...
. United States Ambassador to India
United States Ambassador to India
American Embassy New Delhi was established Nov 1, 1946, with George R. Merrell as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.-Chiefs of Mission to India:-See also:*Embassy of India, Washington, D.C.*India – United States relations*Foreign relations of India...
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...
lobbied Kennedy against the deployment of combat troops, believing that it would lead to endless South Vietnamese requests for more troops. Galbraith further believed that wasting US resources in the jungles of Vietnam would be playing into the hands of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. According to one US observer, the palace bombing provoked "full scale plotting against Diệm". Galbraith noted that "[w]hen the man in power is on the way down, anything is better" and considered that any change in South Vietnamese leadership would bring an improvement.