CHARGES PLOT TO OVERTHROW DIEM'S REGIME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200250003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 3, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

S P :3ir)F)
rmvteBIelease 1999/09/17: CIA-RDP75-00149
.CHARGES PLOT Pleads for Protectba
CHARGES vlgh ?
ri
officials said
me
can
d h
th
liht
d
a
e
e
re
they weg toae
W
TO OVERTHR Buddhist leader, 'Thick, Tri
Quang, who. dashed up to the
embassy doors last night shout-
,Let W In, help roe."
DI E M S REGIME This, was taken to mean that
the Unitedr States intended to
pursuo a'tough line on the Budd-
hist issue and possibly ' use ,
Viet Army Strong Man Thicb as a bargaining point to
settle the crisis. Thich Is re-.
Hits C. I. A. Actions garded as one of the architects
of the Buddhist c a m p a i g n
SAIGON Viet fttn ' t. 2 against religious persecution by
Cfteuters -- leading e u meat,
Vietnamese general accused ffl , ,shin,tan, state depart-
"Communists and international,
adventurers" today of plotting ment df is a s Mugger e e,
to overthrow the government A granting to embassy action in
amid a crisis in relations be. granting asylum to the monks.
tween Saigon and Washington. They said the embassy report-
Brig. G e n. Ton That Ding, , ed that Thich Tri Quang might
Saigon military governor who : ledbe killed if he were not admit-
is rated the nation's most pow- .. The report said the two
erful general since the govern- other monks felt they were in
similar peril,
ment crackdown a g a I n s t; Observers also believed the
Buddhists last month, warned ; incident might lead to open
.that the army was ready to> charges by the government that
I crush any plot against Presi-; the United States was actively
i dent Ngo Dinh Diem. , supporting the Buddhist rebel-
! But he refused to say whether
lion
. r . - .
he meant the United States was i Charges BYg s!tpendiu
in league with ?Communists in Still Void 6 Monks . r.
trying to oust the Dientregime. Getr. Dinh told a press con. The Times of diet Nam re-
Paper Accuses CIA Terence today that all except port, quoting a 'reliable foreign
An English-language 'Saigon ? six monks arrested in the gov- I sources," said ,the _CIA had
; erntnent swoop on the pagodas spent 10 to 24 ti 11lign.dollars to
th
t
d th
a
e
newspaper asserte
. American central intelligence , on Aug: 21 had been released. organize a coup Which had the
agency, helped by experts in The six were being held be- blessing of high -American state
engineering coup d'ethts, w as cause of communist connec- department officials.
financing moves to oust Diem. lions. It-said Vietnamese authorities
long had beets aware of CIA
The Times of Viet Nam as.: He said 67 Buddhist . students
serted that one attempted coup' were being temporarily de- efforts to create anti-govern-
was postponed at the last tamed for questioning.- ment Buddhist agitation lead.
moment. Wednesday and said ' During the press conference, Ing to confusion and hysteria
CIA "plotting and $ggitation", ~ Dinh referred to Ngo Dinh Nhu, which would provide fertile
i.
continued in the nation wbicliI~President Dien's brother and ground for a coup.
is torn by a bloody religious :'political adviser, as "our lead CIA agents,. were -helped
dispute. fer," because of his anti-com- by military attaches of. three
It warned that the new Ahier= monist background.. other nations, including 9xp!erts
scan Ambassador Henry Cabot But he sidestepped questions who successfully engineered
Lodge faced an explosive and about whether 'he,considered coups in-Turkey, Gdatemaia.
delicate situation which may' Nhu to be a higher authority and Korea but failed in Iran
I turn out to be as big a debacle than Dien, declaring: ,we and Cuba..
as the Cuban affair. , stand behind any leader who is But the attempted coup,
The reportr--desc{'ibed gs non- anti-communist." : scheduled for 11 p. m.~ Wednes-
sense by an American embassy Nhu, secret police chief and i day, was postponed because
spokesman-came as the Uni-; husband of Viet Nam's power- the Vietnamese knew about it
led States continued to shelter! ful Mine Nhu, is regarded as and were organized to resist to
a I e a d t n g anti-government having effective control of. the the end-even if it meant fight-
Buddhist. government. 1-ing in the streets."
CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200250003-3