Ngo Dinh Can - Downfall and Arrest

Downfall and Arrest

See also: 1963 South Vietnamese coup and Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm

Sparked by the killings in Huế on Vesak, the Buddhists organised nationwide mass protests against the religious bias of the Diệm regime throughout the summer of 1963, demanding religious equality. The protests were met with brutal crackdowns, including ARVN Special Forces attacks on Buddhist pagodas which left hundreds missing, presumed dead. As public discontent heightened, a group of ARVN officers planned and carried out a US-backed coup in November. This came about after Cẩn's protégé Tôn Thất Đính, a 37-year old who became the youngest ever general in the ARVN due to his loyalty to the Diệm regime, switched sides and helped the coup when his corps was expected to remain loyal. Diệm and Nhu were executed at the conclusion of the coup.

Following the downfall of the Ngô family, the White House came under pressure from the South Vietnamese public to take a hard line against Cẩn. Mass graves containing 200 bodies were found on his land. The US consul in Huế, John Helble, confirmed the existence of rows of 18th century style dungeons with filthy, dark cells in an old French arsenal. Although junta member General Trần Văn Đôn asserted that the compound predated the Diệm era, the town's citizens saw Cẩn as a mass murderer. On 4 November, two days after the coup ended, thousands of irate townspeople walked three kilometres to Cẩn's house on the city's southern outskirts — where he lived with his aged mother — demanding vengeance. The junta had ringed the home with barbed wire and armoured cars, sensing that the populace would riot and attack Cẩn. By this time, Cẩn had escaped to a Catholic seminary, but was considering applying to the Americans for political asylum. The U.S. State Department was faced with a dilemma: sheltering Cẩn would associate them with the protection of a corrupt and authoritarian regime that had killed and tortured hundreds of thousands of its own people. Allowing Cẩn to be attacked by angry mobs would damage the reputation of the new American-backed junta. The State Department instructed:

asylum should be granted to Ngô Đình Cẩn if he is in physical danger from any source. If asylum granted explain to Huế authorities further violence would harm international reputation new regime. Also recall to them that U.S. took similar action to protect Thích Trí Quang from the Diệm government and can do no less in Can case.

The White House sent a cable to the US Embassy, Saigon on November 4 agreeing that Cẩn and his mother needed evacuation. General Đổ Cao Trí, the commander of the ARVN I Corps, who had repressed the Buddhists in Huế, privately told Cẩn that the junta would allow him safe passage out of Vietnam. On 5 November, Cẩn sought refuge at the US consulate with a suitcase crammed with US currency. Trí was then told that Cẩn was not safe in Huế and that he was to send Cẩn to Saigon, immediately for his own protection. Trí would only promise safe passage in an American plane to Saigon, where embassy officials would meet Cẩn. On the journey to the capital, Cẩn was accompanied by four Americans: a vice-consul, two military policemen and a lieutenant colonel. He had intended to seek asylum in Japan.

U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. had other ideas. Instead of sending embassy officials to Tân Sơn Nhứt airport, Lodge sent CIA agent Lucien Conein, who had helped the Vietnamese generals to plan the coup. Conein turned Cẩn over to the junta. Lodge said that General Đôn had promised that Cẩn would be dealt with "legally and judicially". The ambassador told Washington that asylum was unnecessary, saying "It seems to me that our reason for giving him asylum therefore no longer exists". He said that the U.S. could not interfere with justice, since Cẩn was "undoubtedly a reprehensible figure who deserves all the loathing which he now receives". Lodge reasoned that since Cẩn would not be killed, protecting him would give the impression that the U.S. backed his activities. Lodge said that General Dương Văn Minh, who was the President, implied that Cẩn would receive clemency even if sentenced to death. This contradicted Conein's assertion that the ARVN officer corps felt that Cẩn should be executed. Cẩn's case was damaged by the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners, who recounted tales of torture at the hands of the Ngô brothers.