1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing

1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing
Independence Palace before the bombing
LocationIndependence Palace, Saigon
Date27 February 1962
TargetNgô Đình Diệm
Attack type
Airstrike
Weapons2 A-1 Skyraiders
Injured3 killed, 30 injured
PerpetratorNguyễn Văn Cử
Phạm Phú Quốc

On 27 February 1962, the Independence Palace in Saigon, South Vietnam, was bombed by two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots, Second Lieutenant Nguyễn Văn Cử and First Lieutenant Phạm Phú Quốc. The pilots targeted the building, the official residence of the President of South Vietnam, with the aim of assassinating President Ngô Đình Diệm and his immediate family, who acted as political advisors.

The pilots later said they attempted the assassination in response to Diệm's autocratic rule, in which he focused more on remaining in power than on confronting the Viet Cong (VC), a Marxist–Leninist guerilla army who were threatening to overthrow the South Vietnamese government. Cử and Quốc hoped that the airstrike would expose Diệm's vulnerability and trigger a general uprising, but this failed to materialize.

One bomb penetrated a room in the western wing where Diệm was reading but failed to detonate, leading the president to claim that he had "divine" protection. Except for Diệm's sister-in-law Madame Nhu, who suffered minor injuries, the Ngô family was unscathed. Three palace staff died, and 30 were injured. Afterward, Cử escaped to Cambodia, but Quốc was arrested and imprisoned.

In the wake of the airstrike, Diệm became hostile towards the American presence in South Vietnam. Diệm claimed that the American media was seeking to bring him down, and he introduced new restrictions on press freedom and political association. The media speculated that the United States would use the incident to justify the deployment of combat troops to South Vietnam; in the event, the U.S. remained circumspect. Domestically, the incident was reported to have increased plotting against Diệm by his officers.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Karnow, pp. 280–281.
  2. ^ Tucker, p. 302.
  3. ^ Langguth, pp. 163–164.