DepTel 243

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DEPTEL 243 , also known as Telegram 243 , or most commonly Cable 243 , was a wire decree sent by the United States Department of State on August 24, 1963 to Henry Cabot Lodge junior U.S. Ambassador to the United States Embassy in Saigon .

Reason and consequences

The wire decree came after the Ngô Đình Diệm regime's midnight attacks on August 21 against Buddhist pagodas across southern Vietnam , killing hundreds. The raids were orchestrated by Diem's ​​brother Ngô Đình Nhu and led to a change in US policy. The wire decree stated that the Washington government would no longer tolerate Nhu and ordered Lodge to force Diem to remove his brother. It said that if Diem refused, Americans would explore the possibility of alternative leadership in South Vietnam. The wire decree empowered Lodge to give officers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) the green light to launch a coup against Diem if he does not voluntarily remove Nhu from power. The wire decree marked a turning point in US-Diem relations and was described as "controversial" in the Pentagon Papers . John W. Newman described it as the most controversial wire decree of the Vietnam War.

The wire decree also pointed to two camps in the Kennedy Cabinet , with anti-Diem officials at the State Department prevailing over generals and Defense Department officials who remained optimistic that the Vietnam War was going well under Diem. This was underscored by the way in which the wire edict was prepared before it was sent to Lodge.

excerpt

In the first paragraphs of the wire decree it says:

It is now clear that whether the military proposed martial law or seduced them into making Nhu use his position to smash pagodas with the police and Tung's special forces who were loyal to him, and so the military in the eyes of the Vietnamese and make the world appear responsible. It is also clear that Nhu has maneuvered himself into the commanding position.

The US government cannot tolerate a situation where power is in Nhu's hands. Diem must be given the chance to break free from Nhu and his community and replace them with the best available military and political figures.

If, despite your best efforts, Diem remains obstinate and refuses, we must face the possibility that Diem himself cannot be saved.

The wire decree then directed Lodge to tell Diem that the US could not accept the raids and called for effective action to be taken to deal with the Buddhist crisis .

Lodge was asked to say the following to the South Vietnamese military:

The US would not consider it possible to continue to provide military and economic support to the government of South Vietnam unless the above steps are taken immediately and we recognize that the Nhus must be removed from the power scene. We want to give Diem a reasonable opportunity to remove Nhu [the couple], but if he persists we are ready to accept the obvious assumptions that we can no longer support Diem. You can also tell [the] appropriate military commanders that we will assist them directly in any intervening period of [the] central government mechanism's collapse.

The wire decree also informed Lodge of the need to relieve the ARVN of responsibility for the pagoda attacks. It asked Lodge to approve a Voice of America broadcast that took responsibility for Nhu. Lodge was also asked to find an alternative leadership to replace Diem.

Authors

Trivia

The telegram was drawn on Saturday, August 24, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy , Secretary of State Dean Rusk , Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, and CIA Director John McCone were all out of town.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William R. Haycraft, Unraveling Vietnam: How American Arms and Diplomacy Failed in Southeast Asia, [1]
  2. ↑ John Newman, Special Collection Librarian and University Archivist , Colorado State University , Masters in History from Colorado State University, and Masters in Librarianship from Washington State University , published articles on history and bureaucratic journals. [2] , SOURCE: John F. Kennedy Library, National Archives and Records Administration : John Newman Papers, Notebook "August 24-31, 1963." [3] [4] M.
  3. ^ Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, Rowman & Littlefield 1950–1963, p. 161
  4. ↑ Lê Quang Tung (born June 13, 1919, † November 1, 1963 November 1, 1963), was a Catholic who was subordinate to the Luc Luong Dac Biet (LLDB, Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces ). see. edited by Spencer C. Tucker, The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military, p. 649
  5. ^ The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May – November, 1963 . In: The Pentagon Papers . Pp. 201-276.
  6. ↑ White House Recordings of President Kennedy Debating Vietnam Coup Released by JFK Presidential Library, [5]