JFK's Final Days: November 2, 1963
On Saturday, November 2, 1963 (50 years ago today) President John F. Kennedy learned of the deaths of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu in the coup led by General Duong Van Minh. Kennedy was doubtful of CIA accounts that the two leaders had committed suicide while in custody. Here is how author Thurston Clarke describes how JFK received the news, from his recent book JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President at pages 279-80:
[Kennedy] was presiding at a meeting on Saturday morning when [adviser Michael] Forrestal handed him a telegram reporting that Diem and Nhu had committed suicide after surrendering. He jumped to his feet and rushed from the room with what [General Maxwell] Taylor called "a look of shock and dismay on his face which I have never seen before." He was in turmoil all day. [Arthur] Schlesinger thought he looked "somber and shaken." Forrestal believed that the deaths "shook him personally," bothering him "as a moral and religious matter. Jackie noticed that he had "that awful look that he had at the time of the Bay of Pigs," adding, "I mean he was just - just wounded."
As shocked as he was by Diem's death, he could not have been entirely surprised. He had after all sent Macdonald on a secret mission to warn Diem that his life was in danger, and would later tell Cardinal Spellman of New York that he had known that Diem might be killed, but could not control the situation.
He believed that Devout Catholics like Diem and Nhu would not have committed suicide, and told [Robert] McNamara, "We must bear a good deal of responsibility for it. He ranted to Fay about Madam Nhu. "She's responsible for the death of that kind man," he said. "You know, it's so totally unnecessary to have that kind man die because that bitch stuck her nose in and boiled up the whole situation down there." While Jackie was at Wexford, he invited Mary Meyer to the White House for the first time since the previous spring. She signed in around one o'clock and stayed several hours. They may have resumed their affair, but it is also possible that he simply wanted her there to comfort him. He had not taken up again with Marlene Dietrich when she visited in September, nor continued his affair with Mimi Beardsley after [his son] Patrick's death, so his encounter with Meyer may have also been innocent.
By the time he reconvened his advisers that afternoon, it appeared that Diem and Nhu had been executed while riding in the back of an army personnel carrier. "There is some question in some of our minds as to how much we want to know about this," Hilsman said. "It is becoming more and more clear that this is an assassination." [John] McCone agreed, saying "I would suggest that we not get into - into this story." After learning that General Duong Van ("Big Minh") Minh, who had led the coup, may have ordered the assassinations, Kennedy said in a soft voice, "Pretty stupid."
[Kennedy] was presiding at a meeting on Saturday morning when [adviser Michael] Forrestal handed him a telegram reporting that Diem and Nhu had committed suicide after surrendering. He jumped to his feet and rushed from the room with what [General Maxwell] Taylor called "a look of shock and dismay on his face which I have never seen before." He was in turmoil all day. [Arthur] Schlesinger thought he looked "somber and shaken." Forrestal believed that the deaths "shook him personally," bothering him "as a moral and religious matter. Jackie noticed that he had "that awful look that he had at the time of the Bay of Pigs," adding, "I mean he was just - just wounded."
As shocked as he was by Diem's death, he could not have been entirely surprised. He had after all sent Macdonald on a secret mission to warn Diem that his life was in danger, and would later tell Cardinal Spellman of New York that he had known that Diem might be killed, but could not control the situation.
He believed that Devout Catholics like Diem and Nhu would not have committed suicide, and told [Robert] McNamara, "We must bear a good deal of responsibility for it. He ranted to Fay about Madam Nhu. "She's responsible for the death of that kind man," he said. "You know, it's so totally unnecessary to have that kind man die because that bitch stuck her nose in and boiled up the whole situation down there." While Jackie was at Wexford, he invited Mary Meyer to the White House for the first time since the previous spring. She signed in around one o'clock and stayed several hours. They may have resumed their affair, but it is also possible that he simply wanted her there to comfort him. He had not taken up again with Marlene Dietrich when she visited in September, nor continued his affair with Mimi Beardsley after [his son] Patrick's death, so his encounter with Meyer may have also been innocent.
By the time he reconvened his advisers that afternoon, it appeared that Diem and Nhu had been executed while riding in the back of an army personnel carrier. "There is some question in some of our minds as to how much we want to know about this," Hilsman said. "It is becoming more and more clear that this is an assassination." [John] McCone agreed, saying "I would suggest that we not get into - into this story." After learning that General Duong Van ("Big Minh") Minh, who had led the coup, may have ordered the assassinations, Kennedy said in a soft voice, "Pretty stupid."