Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngo Dinh Diem became the first president of South Vietnam in 1955, a Catholic nationalist and staunch anti-communist backed by the United States. His government grew increasingly repressive and nepotistic, and his handling of Buddhist protests in 1963 alienated much of the population and his American patrons. In November 1963 he was overthrown and killed in a military coup that the Kennedy administration had signalled it would not oppose. His fall deepened the instability that drew the United States further into the Vietnam War.