Here's an account from Grokpedia that answers most your questions about how US Government involvment allowed for the explosive overthrow of the South Vietnamese Catholic government.
(I think JFK was blind to see the historical international religious drama playing out here.)
Archbishop Thuc would not have lasted a week in Vietnam after the coup d'etat. There was no country to go back to.
But God uses the poor and weak as a contradiction to the rich and proud.
Archbishop Thuc had been fighting communist from the early 1950's.
He retreated to South Vietnam and fought the epic spiritual battle between Babylon and Jerusalem.
The jews, the jew-Pope, the communist and the Masonic US Gov't were on the side of Babylon while the poor Vietnamese Catholic minority of were fighting for Jerusalem:
Downfall of Diệm and Thục's Persecution
Context of Buddhist Protests and Regime Collapse
The Buddhist protests in South Vietnam erupted amid longstanding grievances over the Ngô Đình Diệm regime's perceived favoritism toward Catholics, who comprised a minority of the population but held disproportionate influence in government and military positions.[29]
By early 1963, Buddhists, representing approximately 70% of South Vietnam's population, resented policies that privileged Catholic refugees from the North and restricted Buddhist public expressions, including land allocations and official ceremonies.[30] These tensions were exacerbated in Huế, the regime's former imperial capital and seat of Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục's archdiocese, where Catholic institutions under Thục's oversight, such as schools and the Personalism Training Center, symbolized the fusion of ecclesiastical and state power.[31]
The immediate trigger occurred on May 8, 1963—Vesak, the Buddhist holiday commemorating Buddha's birth—when provincial authorities in Huế enforced a national regulation prohibiting religious flags at public events, denying permission for Buddhist banners while having recently allowed Vatican flags during a Catholic procession honoring Thục's elevation.[32] Protests by approximately 2,500 Buddhists gathered near the radio station turned violent when police and army units responded with gunfire and grenades, killing at least eight civilians, including children, and injuring dozens; regime officials attributed the deaths to a Viet Cong grenade, a claim disputed by eyewitness accounts and foreign observers.[33
] In Huế, Thục's prominence as Diệm's brother and archbishop amplified perceptions of Catholic dominance, with local Buddhists viewing the flag disparity as emblematic of systemic discrimination, though Thục himself did not directly intervene in the initial suppression.[31]
Escalation followed rapidly: by June 11, 1963, monk Thích Quảng Đức's self-immolation in Saigon drew international outrage, captured in iconic photographs that highlighted the regime's intransigence.[29] Further protests led to hunger strikes, additional self-immolations, and demands for religious equality, culminating in August 21 raids on pagodas nationwide under martial law declared by Diệm's brother Ngô Đình Nhu, arresting over 1,400 monks and nuns.[33]
These actions eroded military loyalty and U.S. support, as American officials, previously backing Diệm's anti-communist stabilization, deemed the crackdowns counterproductive to counterinsurgency efforts.[30]
The crisis precipitated the regime's collapse through a cascade of defections: Buddhist unrest unified dissident generals, who, with tacit U.S. approval via Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, launched a coup on November 1, 1963, overthrowing Diệm after failed negotiations.[29]
Thục's association with the regime's Catholic-centric policies positioned him as a lightning rod for Buddhist ire in Huế, where protests originated, underscoring how familial and ecclesiastical ties contributed to the government's loss of legitimacy among the majority faith.[34] The uprising exposed the fragility of Diệm's authoritarian model, reliant on Catholic loyalty amid a Buddhist-majority society, ultimately fracturing elite cohesion and enabling the swift military takeover.[29]
Assassination Aftermath and Family Targeting
Following the assassination of President Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu on November 2, 1963, during the coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh with tacit U.S. support, the Ngô family became primary targets of retribution by the new military regime. Diem's siblings and close relatives, viewed as pillars of the ousted government's Catholic-centric and anti-communist apparatus, faced arrests, hunts, and exile. Ngô Đình Cẩn, the family's de facto ruler in central Vietnam, evaded immediate capture in Huế but was arrested in March 1964 amid purges of Diem loyalists; he was tried by a military tribunal and executed by firing squad on May 9, 1965.[35][36]
Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, absent in Rome for the Second Vatican Council during the coup, encountered direct barriers to resuming his duties in the Archdiocese of Huế. The junta, capitalizing on pre-existing Buddhist grievances against the Ngô regime's perceived Catholic favoritism, prohibited Thục's return, citing his fraternal ties and role in promoting Catholic institutions under Diem. This exclusion stemmed from the new authorities' hostility toward the Ngô clan's influence, which had intertwined church and state affairs; Thục's life was endangered by the regime's anti-Catholic reprisals, including mob violence against church properties in Huế and elsewhere. He relocated to Toulon, France, marking the onset of his permanent exile.[36]
The family's dispersal underscored the junta's aim to dismantle Ngô networks: Ngô Đình Luyện, the ambassador to London, fled abroad, while Madame Ngô Đình Nhu and her children sought sanctuary in Rome under Thục's protection later in 1963. These actions reflected not only political vendettas but also a broader backlash against Catholic privileges accrued during Diem's rule, though the regime's instability soon led to further coups that diluted focused targeting.[37][36]
Escape to Exile
Following the coup d'état of November 1–2, 1963, which resulted in the assassination of President Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục faced immediate threats as a prominent member of the Ngô family. Having departed Vietnam in September 1963 to attend the second session of the Second Vatican Council (September 29–December 4, 1963), Thục was in Rome when news of the regime's collapse reached him, thereby avoiding the arrests, mob violence, and targeted reprisals against Catholic clergy and officials associated with the fallen government in South Vietnam.[4]
The new military junta led by General Dương Văn Minh explicitly barred Thục from returning to his archdiocese in Huế, viewing him as a symbol of the ousted regime's Catholic favoritism and anti-communist stance. This prohibition, enforced amid widespread anti-Ngô sentiment and Buddhist-majority grievances, effectively stranded him abroad and initiated his exile. Thục remained in Rome through the Council's final weeks, where he reportedly sought Vatican intervention for his situation but received no support from Pope Paul VI for reinstatement.[2]
By early 1964, Thục had relocated to Toulon in southern France, supported by French ecclesiastical contacts from his seminary days, as he could neither return to Vietnam nor secure reassignment within the Church hierarchy. This displacement severed his direct oversight of Vietnam's Catholic community, numbering over 1.5 million faithful under his archdiocese, and exposed him to financial strain after leaving substantial assets—including church properties and personal holdings—behind in Huế. His exile persisted for the remainder of his life, shifting between Europe and later the United States, amid ongoing canonical tensions with Rome.[2]
Topic: Autobiography of Archbishop Thuc (Read 93902 times)