# People who were around in 1968, what would your reaction have been if THIS happened?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-were-around-in-1968-what-would-your-reaction-have-been-if-this-happened/1000858>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 28, 2024, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-were-around-in-1968-what-would-your-reaction-have-been-if-this-happened/1000858 "2024-04-28T04:10:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-were-around-in-1968-what-would-your-reaction-have-been-if-this-happened/1000858/21 "2024-04-29T22:30:40Z")

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> [@Ranchoth](#):
>
> In the south—something happened, less flashy if not less dramatic, behind closed doors, with fuzzy reports of some kind of attempted putsch or palace coup, actually uncertain if related to the ongoing Tet Offensive. Thiệu and Kỳ are both dead, but some ARVN Colonel no one’s heard of somehow popped up and is keeping things together.

It’s not talked about much anymore, but [that’s pretty much exactly what happened in early November, 1963](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_South_Vietnamese_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat). South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Dien was captured by a group of ARVN officers and assassinated along with his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, the next day.

The U.S. denied any knowledge or involvement in the coup, but it was later revealed that America had assured the ARVN insurgents they would not interfere with the removal of Ngo…

The North Vietnamese government was caught by surprise and said very little immediately. After mulling it over, they decided the coup was a colossal mistake by the U.S. and that any successor government in South Vietnam would be inherently unstable and weak.

With American urging the military first installed Ngo’s Vice President as leader, but within a week, junta leader Duong Van Minh was named president and chief of the military, with new president Tho downgraded to prime minister. The pro Ngo National Assembly was dissolved, and the 1956 Constitution was suspended. The U.S. formally recognized the new government.

It turned out North Vietnam’s assessment was on the mark. The new government foundered and Minh was deposed in a bloodless coup by General Nguyen Khanh in January 1964.

And the war went on.

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