1963

Information Keith White, Bob Coker & Ern Marshall
Timeline Year Span
1847-1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972-1975
The worsening situation in South Vietnam during 1963 prompted measures to evacuate Americans in the event of a general emergency. Saigon street demonstrations by Buddhists and other Vietnamese disaffected with the Diem government occurred throughout the summer. The public self-immolation of several Buddhist monks drew world attention, as did the government's heavy-handed counteractions.
JANUARY

2 - Battle of Ap Bac. ARVN forces with 51 US advisers are defeated by the 514th Viet Cong Battalion(400 men). With superior numbers and firepower5 US helicopters are destroyed and 11 damaged. 65 ARVN are killed with 3 US Advisers. This battle showed the unwillingness of ARVN troops to fight even when the advantage was on their side. This was mainly a result of Diem's poilcy of reprimanding senior officers who suffered heavy casualties in their units. Reports from the battle causes an angry outcry in the United States where the calls for reform by Diem are wanted. Diem ignores the contoversy and allows events to continue as usual.

30 January 1963: Adm. Harry D. Felt, Pacific commander, predicted today that the American-backed Government of Vietnam would win its war against communist guerrillas within three years. --The New York Times
FEBURARY
: . . . barring greatly increased resupply and reinforcement of the Viet Cong by infiltration, the military phase of the war can be virtually won in 1963. --DIA
MARCH
We are winning, this we know. General Harkins tells us so. In the delta, things are rough. In the mountains, mighty tough. But we're winning, this we know. General Harkins tells us so. If you doubt that this is true, McNamara says so too.
APRIL
April 1963: [At the Secretary of Defense's conference in Honolulu] General Harkins said the war would be over by Christmas.
MAY
6 - COMUSMACV General Paul Harkins tells Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara: "
General Paul Harkins
(Left) and (Rright)
Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara
... we are continuing to make progress in the war". McNamara directs the military to prepare a plan for the phasing US forces beginning with the withdrawal of 1,000 advisers by years end.
6 A Pentagon spokesman said today that "the corner has definitely been turned" toward victory in South Vietnam and Defense officials are hopeful that the 12,000 man U.S. force in Vietnam could be reduced in one to three years. --The New York Times
8 - South Vietnamese troops, enforcing a ban on the Buddhist multicolored flag, fire upon 20,000 Buddhists at Hue. The attack begins a series of intensifying protests by Buddhists against the government.
JUNE

1-6-63 Hacking W. F . Sgt 36448 AATTV 30 RAIN F KBA While pulling rifle towards him the trigger snagged and fired.

3 - Budhist monks protest in Hue and the government responds by sending out troops. Nine Budhists are killed. Rioting spreads from Hue to Siagon.

On June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Due, a sixty-six year old monk, sat down in the middle of a busy Saigon road. He was then surrounded by a group of Buddhist monks and nuns who poured petrol over his head and then set fire to him. One eyewitness later commented: "As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him." While Thich Quang Due was burning to death, the monks and nuns gave out leaflets calling for Diem's government to show "charity and compassion " to all religions.
The government's response to this suicide was to arrest thousands of Buddhist monks. Many disappeared and were never seen again. By August another five monks had committed suicide by setting fire to themselves. One member of the South Vietnamese government responded to these self-immolations by telling a newspaper reporter: "Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands." Another offered to supply Buddhists who wanted to commit suicide with the necessary petrol.
 
11 - After riots in Hue, South Vietnam, Buddhist monks commit suicide by setting themselves alight. Diem's wife outrages the world by referring to the act as a "barbecue".
Buddhist immolation


JULY
A. The Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam has highlighted and intensified a widespread and longstanding dissatisfaction with the Diem regime and its style of government. If--as is likely--Diem fails to carry out truly and promptly the commitments he has made to the Buddhists, disorders will probably flare again and the chances of a coup or assassination attempts against him will become better than even. (Paras. 4, 14)
B. The Diem regime's underlying uneasiness about the extent of the US involvement in South Vietnam has been sharpened by the Buddhist affair and the firm line taken by the US. This attitude will almost certainly persist and further pressure to reduce the US presence in the country is likely. (Paras. 10-12)
C. Thus far, the Buddhist issue has not been effectively exploited by the Communists, nor does it appear to have had any appreciable effect on the counterinsurgency effort. We do not think Diem is likely to be overthrown by a Communist coup. Nor do we think the Communists would necessarily profit if he were overthrown by some combination of his non-Communist opponents. A non-Communist successor regime might be initially less effective against the Viet Cong, but, given continued support from the US, could provide reasonably effective leadership for the government and the war effort. (Paras. 7, 15-17)
AUGUST

21 - Diem's brother Nhu orders an elite military unit to raid the Budhists pagodas in the early hours.

Ngô Ðình Nhu
Several hundred are arrested(1,400). President Kennedy denounces the attacks.

23 - Two South Vietnamese Generals contact the US Embassy in Saigon and 'feel out' what the US attitude would be in the event of a coup.
24 - The US take this opportunity to move against the Diem Regime.
A cable is drafted to the new US Ambassador in Saigon, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr:
....Ambassador and country team should urgently examine all possible alternative leadership and make plans as to how we might bring about Diem's replacement if this should become necessary". US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Averell Harriman approves the cable. President Kennedy agrees provided his senior advisers concur. They concur and the cable is sent. General Maxwel Taylor the President's military adviser is shocked by the news knowing that this represented a major change in Vietnam policy. Later he is to state that the cable would never have been approved had not the anti-Diem faction in Washington made what he called an "egregious end run" during the absence of high-level officials". Bobby Kennedy recalls later that the President(his brother) regretted the decision and viewed the cable as a "major mistake".
25 - Ambassador Lodge in Siagon having seen the cable as an order from the President to encourage the South Vietnamese military to launch a coup, calls a meeting to consider how to organise a coup and puts the CIA in charge of the operation. The CIA contact General Tran Thiem and General Nguyen Khanh and tell them that the Nghu's(Diem's brother and sister-in-law) have to go and leave the question of retaining Diem up to them.

General Nguyen Khanh
27 - CIA Vietnam expert, William Colby,

William Colby

describes the situation in Saigon as quiet and said unrest had not spread to the countryside.
31 August 1963: [Secretary of State Rusk added] that he believes we have good proof that we have been winning the war, particularly the contrast between the first six months of 1962 and the first six months of 1963. --Unidentified NSC principal
SEPTEMBER
9 - President Kennedy at a news conference, when asked about the Domino Theory states: "...I beleive it. China is so large, looms so high just beyond the frontiers, that if South Vietnam went, it would not only give them an improved geographical position for a guerrilla assault on Malaya, but would also give the impression that the wave of the future in Southeast Asia was China and the Communists. So I believe it ".
President Kennedy's Television Interviews on Vietnam, September 2 and 9, 1963
TIM WEINER, "Kennedy Had Plan for Early Vietnam Exit," New York Times, December 23, 1997

17 - President Kennedy sends Ambassador Lodge in Saigon, a 'conciliatory' cable outlining reforms under which the United States would accept continuing rule by Diem.
23 - Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara and General Maxwell
Robert McNamara and
General Maxwell

 visit Vietnam on fact finding and discussions to assess the situation and report back to President Kennedy.
29 - Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara and General Maxwell meet with Diem and express concern over South Vietnam's political unrest and that the unrest and repression it had triggered endangered the war effort and the US support. Therefore the repression must stop and the unrest be resolved. Diem flatly rejects these assertions blaming the press for attacking his government. A report is drafted for the President on the visit.
OCTOBER

2 - Meeting between the President, McNamara and Maxwell: They brief the President on the trip to South Vietnam(SVN) and discuss the removal of 1,000 advisers from SVN. The President convenes the National Security Council on the matters contained in the report and stresses that the US needed to find effective ways of persuading Diem to change the political atmosphere in Siagon. The President endorses the withdrawal of 1,000 advisers from Vietnam by December 31, 1963.
Summary Record of the 519th Meeting of the National Security Council White House, Washington, October 2, 1963
U.S. POLICY ON VIET-NAM: WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT, OCTOBER 2, 1963
5 - The President states his approval for the section of the report relating to coup planning. In essence is says, "Our policy should be to seek urgently to identify and build contacts with an alternative leadership if and when it appears". The CIA in Siagon are cabled instructions to that effect.
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 263, October 11, 1963
25 - Lodge cables Washington that plotting amongst SVN Generals was now far advanced, "we should not thwart the coup".
NOVEMBER

1 - Transcript of the phone call between Diem and Henry Cabot Lodge.
2 - South Vietnamese President Diem is assassinated. Diem and his brother are reported to have "committed sucicide". Diem and his brother were placed in an APC with their hands tied behind their backs for transport to Joint General Staff HQ in Siagon.

When the carriers arrived at the HQ both Diem and his brother Nhu were dead. Both had been shot and Nhu had been stabbed several times. Diem's killing shocked the US President.
In response to the overthrow of the Diem government, U.S. naval forces again concentrated off South Vietnam and prepared to ferry evacuees by helicopter from Saigon to transport them by boat from the nearby Vung Tau Peninsula. When the political unrest in the capital once again quickly subsided, the fleet steamed from the South Vietnamese coast and resumed normal operations.
6 -General Duong Van Minh Called "Big Minh".

Duong Van Minh Known popularly as "Big Minh"
Born 1916. Military adviser to Diem. takes over the leadership of South Vietnam.
11 - Keith White joined the ARA.
14 - President Kennedy ,when asked; "Are we going to give up in Vietnam ?", states, "The most important program of course, is our national security, but I don't want the United States to have to put troops there".
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO.273a, November 21, 1963
15. President John F.Kennedy announces the withdrawal of 1,000 advisers for December, of what was meant to be an overall reduction of US Forces in Vietnam.
22. John F Kennedy is assassinated at Dallas, Texas.

 Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President.

Robert McNamra reflects in his book, 'In Retrospect'; "Having reviewed the record in detail, and with the advantage of hindsight, I think it highly probable that, had President Kennedy lived, he would have pulled us out of Vietnam. He would have concluded that the South Vietnamese were incapable of defending themselves, and that Siagon's grave political weakness made it unwise to offset the limitations of of South Vietnamese forces by sending US combat troops on a large scale".
General Tran Van Don, South Vietnamese Army;
24 - President Johson makes it clear that he wants to win the war and wanted priority given to military operations, over 'so called' social reforms.
"I feel that we shall achieve victory in 1964" . General Paul D. Harkins, US Commander in Vietnam;
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 273, November 26, 1963
A policy was to emerge, "to assist the people and Government of South Vietnam to win their contest against directed and supported conspiracy' through training support and without the application of overt US military force".
 "I can safely say that the end of the war is in sight"

DECEMBER

13 - Reports from the US Defence Intelligence Agency(DIA) state that the Viet Cong had not scored spectacular gains over the past year, however they had sustained and even improved their combat capabilities.
21 - Robert McNamara reports to the President; "The situation is very disturbing, current trends, unless reversed in the next 2-3 months, will lead to neutralization at best or more likely to a Communist controlled state".
US Advisers total 16,300 - US KIA 78
Throughout 1963 and 1964, detachments from SEAL Team 1 (the Pacific Fleet unit) deployed to South Vietnam and instructed American advisors, South Vietnamese "frogmen," or LDNN (Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai), and Coastal Force Biet Hai commandos in related skills.
General Tran Van Don, South Vietnamese Army; "I feel that we shall achieve victory in 1964" .
General Paul D. Harkins, US Commander in Vietnam;

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