Reaction To The 1963 South Vietnamese Coup - Communist Policy Response

Communist Policy Response

On 7 November, five days after the coup, the National Liberation Front issued a response to the overthrow of Diem with a list of eight demands:

1. Destroy all strategic hamlets and other disguised camps
2. Release all political detainees
3. Promulgate without delay democratic freedom
4. Root out all vestiges of the fascist and militarist dictatorial regime
5. Stop all persecution and repression and raiding operations
6. Dissolve all nepotist organizations
7. Immediately stop forcible conscription
8. Cancel all kinds of unjustified taxes

Minh's regime could claim that it was in the process of meeting all of the Vietcong demands, except the halting of conscription, so the communists were effectively already preempted. On 17 November, the Central Committee of the NLF issued another series of demands:

1. Eliminate the vestiges of the Diệm regime
2. Establish democratic freedom
3. Eliminate American influence
4. Make social and economic reforms
5. Halt the fighting
6. Establish a coalition government