Following the November 1 coup and execution of President Ngo Dinh Diem, coup leader General Dương Văn Minh takes over leadership of South Vietnam.
In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm and the Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of both the Buddhist crisis and the Viet Cong threat to the regime. In South Vietnam, the coup was referred to as Cách mạng 1-11-63 ("1 November 1963 Revolution").The Kennedy administration had been aware of the coup planning, but Cable 243 from the United States Department of State to U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., stated that it was U.S. policy not to try to stop it. Lucien Conein, the Central Intelligence Agency's liaison between the U.S. Embassy and the coup planners, told them that the U.S. would not intervene to stop it. Conein also provided funds to the coup leaders.The coup was led by General Dương Văn Minh and started on 1 November. It proceeded smoothly as many loyalist leaders were captured after being caught off-guard and casualties were light. Diệm was captured and executed the next day along with his brother and adviser Ngô Đình Nhu.