Word: nhu
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Shortly after 1 p.m., the soldiers moved. Throwing roadblocks across the avenues leading from the city to Saigon Airport, army units quickly won over units of Ngo Dinh Nhu's crack "special forces" near the airfield, giving a free hand to air force pilots who were planning to support the coup d'état with rocket-equipped dive bombers...
...Nhu heard the news when she awakened at 7:50 a.m. in Suite 843 of Beverly Hills' Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The day before, disguised in a blonde wig and slacks, she had slipped out to Doctors' Hospital for removal of a cyst. Before attending an All Saints' Day Mass at the Church of the Good Shepherd, she told reporters bitterly: "I believe all the devils of hell are against us, but we will triumph eventually." If the news of the coup was true, "it would be a shame for many Americans." The Diem regime, she claimed...
Musical Interludes. With the coming of dark, a grey drizzle began to fall over the city, and the coup leaders moved in toward the most important target of all-the big Gia Long palace, sheltering Diem, his brother Nhu, and aides. Periodically, Diem's own voice blared out from loudspeakers in the palace grounds, exhorting loyal troops to keep up the fight. "We shall not give in," he cried, his messages interspersed with patches of martial music. Then an eerie silence fell over the huge estate with its seven-foot high fences topped by barbed wire. The rebels were...
...Push. With huge holes now gaping in the fences, and the defenders scattering inside the grounds, the way was clear for the final push. Then suddenly, at 6:15 a.m., everything fell silent again. A rebel general, who throughout the battle had been in constant touch with Diem and Nhu by telephone, had called for a five-minute grace period to allow the besieged President and his party to emerge...
...Official Story. Forgotten for the moment were Diem and Nhu. A few hours later, the ugly facts began to emerge. First, there was the official story. A spokesman for the military junta announced that the pair had slipped out of rebel hands during the ceasefire, boarded a departing truck while wounded were being removed, and somehow reached a Catholic church in the Chinese quarter of suburban Cholon. There, according to the story, both killed themselves...