South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm was assassinated in 1963.

Diệm was assassinated along with his brother in the back of an armored car, after the US overthrew his government.

Former President John F. Kennedy, who had previously supported his rule in the 1950s, approved the coup. Diệm's death led to more US troops entering Vietnam.

As Newsweek's Jeff Stein wrote, the coup and Diệm's assassination led to "a nightmare that ended up killing 58,000 Americans (and 1.5 million Vietnamese), ripped the US apart and spawned a deep-rooted cynicism about the American political establishment that persists today."