Averell Harriman

[kjell roald]

Is this factual? ( 5 minutes out in the clip )

"Without presidential approval and behind Kennedy's back while he was vacationing at Hyannis Port, ( Averell ) Harriman and his cronies cabled Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the American ambassador in Saigon, to green light South Vietnamese officers to launch a coup to overthrow President Diem of South Vietnam (Cable 243).

John Kennedy was outraged, and in the ensuing Executive Branch furor over the August 24 cable, Attorney General Robert Kennedy blamed Harriman for this "major mistake," realizing that "the government was broken in two in a very disturbing way.

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DiZrYdHzQ4

[Phil Dragoo]

James Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he died and why it matters; Chapter Four: Marked Out for Assassination; page 163:Even the select few in the State Department whom Kennedy was consulting on Vietnam did not serve him well. In late August, Averell Harriman, who had returned triumphantly from the test ban negotiations in Moscow, and Roger Hilsman, now in charge of the Vietnam desk, precipitated a decision for U.S. support of a coup against Diem. On August 24, during a weekend when Kennedy was in Hyannis Port, Hilsman, working with Harriman and Kennedy's aide Michael Forrestal, drafted an urgent telegram to newly appointed Saigon ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. The telegram authorized US. Support of a looming coup by rebel South Vietnamese generals, if Diem refused to remove from power his brother Nhu and sister-inlaw Madame Nhu.

[kenmurray]

The Old Crocodile Of Diplomacy:https://adst.org/oral-history/fascinati ... diplomacy/

[bobspez2]

I don't know about Harriman, but I was told by an Air Force flight officer who was stationed in the air base near Saigon the day of the coup that they were told to stay in their quarters and all flights were cancelled for the day. Looking out the window of his quarters he saw anglo pilots in gray flight suits without insignia board the planes that bombed the palace that day. So without those (presumably CIA) flight crews the coup would not have been carried off.I was at U.C. Berkeley when the coup occurred. I attended a speech given on campus by Madame Nhu on 10/29/63. She stated quite forcefully that the US government was planning to remove her husband's brother Diem from power. Two days later on 11/1/63 the coup took place and Diem and his brother Nhu were executed. JFK was assassinated just 3 weeks later. So it's likely the Saigon coup was one step in the planned US coup of 11/22/63.