Page wo THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, July 2, 1971 WAR STUDY DISCLOSURES US. tacitly encouraged Diem coup -4 WASHINGTON 1) - At 4:30 Pentagon study observed laconic- p.m. Saigon time on Nov. 1, 1963, ally. "He confined himself to con- President Ngo Dinh Diem of cern for Diem's physical safety." South Vietnam knew for sure he Later it added that by choosing was isolated. "to do nothing to prevent the Senior generals led by Duong coup and to tacitly support it"_ Van Minh - "Big Minh"-were the United States "must accept demanding his resignation, the its full share of responsibility." Pentagon papers on the Vietnait Diem, that same night, slip- war recount. The papers were ped away from the palace with made available to newsmen Tues- his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Using day night and Wednesday by Sen. a secret passage they reached a Mike Gravel, (D-Alaska.) hideaway in Cholon, a suburb of The account relates that Diem's Saigon. Next morning the pal- opponents surrounded the presi- ace fell. The brothers were hunt- dential palace. ed down. On the way back to In a last ditch bid to save him- headquarters they were murder- self and his regime Diem called ed in the back of an armored Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge personnel carrier. and asked where the United The Pentagon study described States stood. the ouster of Diem as "one of "Lodge was noncommital," the those critical events in the his- >.OIY~6Y ODY E(Y* c W.t? TONIGHT! 9:30-1:30a.m featuring My Friends no increase in price. 50c coverV Sun. July 46:30 p.m 2:30a.m. Mon , JulyS , 12:00-2:30 a.m. !2081.Huron t 0a + - tory of U.S. policy that could have altered our commitment.' The coup "inadvertently deep- ened the American involvement," it continued. And by interfering in internal Vietnamese affairs the United States "assumed a sig- nificant responsibility for the regime." The Pentagon analysis pin- pointed May 8, 1963, as the start- ing point of a chain of events that culminated with Diem's murder 178 days later. For on that day - Buddha's birthday - Diem set out violent- ly to crush a Buddhist religicits protest in the town of Hue. Nine people were killed, 4 injured. Under the pressure of Ameri- can and world opinion, Diem reached something of an agree- ment by mid-June with the Budd- hists but it merely postponed th.' real crisis. Efforts of Osen Anerican as- bassador Frederick N o 1 ti ng, failed to persuade Diem to change tack. So too did the tough- er tactics of the U.S. deputy chief of mission, William Tree- hart, who went as far as to threaten American dissociation from Diem's policy toward the Buddhists. President Kennedy, according- ly announced in late June that Lodge w