The Caravelle Manifesto, also referred to as the Manifesto of the Eighteen, was written in April 1960 as a public critique of the South Vietnamese government under President Ngô Đình Diệm. The "manifesto" of grievances included the Diệm regime's restrictions on freedom and pushed for reforms in the country. Its eighteen signatories were all old-time anti-communist politicians, leaders of the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo sects, the Đại Việt and the Việt Quốc parties, and dissenting Catholic groups. Eleven signatories had been cabinet ministers; four had been in other high government positions. They organized themselves as the "Bloc for Liberty and Progress," with a platform of constitutional revision toward greater power for the National Assembly against the Presidency. After the November 1960 coup attempt, the government arrested most of the eighteen, and their Bloc disintegrated. The name of the manifest is derived from the fact that the document's contents were presented at a press conference held at the Caravelle Hotel in downtown Saigon, Vietnam. Full text The President of the Republic of VietnamSaigon Mr. President: We the undersigned, representing a group of eminent citizens and personalities, intellectuals of all tendencies, and men of good will, recognize in the face of the gravity of the present political situation that we can no longer remain indifferent to the realities of life in our country. Therefore, we officially address to you today an appeal with the aim of exposing to you the whole truth in the hope that the government will accord it all the attention necessary so as to urgently modify its policies, so as to remedy the present situation and lead the people out of danger. Let us look toward the past, at the time when you were abroad. For eight or nine years, the Vietnamese people suffered many trials due to the war: They passed from French domination to Japanese occupation, from revolution to resistance, from the nationalist imposture behind which hid communism to a pseudo-independence covering up for colonialism; from terror to terror, from sacrifice to sacrifice—in short, from promise to promise, until finally hope ended in bitter disillusion. Thus, when you were on the point of returning to the country, the people as a whole entertained the hope that it would find again under your guidance the peace that is necessary to give meaning to existence, to reconstruct the destroyed homes, put to the plow again the abandoned