The inept performance of the South Vietnamese army was exemplified by failed actions such as the Battle of Ap Bac on 2 January 1963 , in which a small band of Viet Cong won a battle against a much larger and better-equipped South Vietnamese force , many of whose officers seemed reluctant even to engage in combat . During the Battle of Ap Bac South Vietnamese had lost 83 soldiers , 5 US war helicopter that shot down by Vietcong while the Vietcong forces have lost 18 soldiers . The Army of the Republic of Vietnam forces were led by Diệm 's most trusted general , Huỳnh Văn Cao , commander of the IV Corps . Cao was a Catholic who had been promoted due to religion and fidelity rather than skill , and his main job was to preserve his forces to stave off coup attempts ; he had earlier vomited during a communist attack . Some policymakers in Washington began to conclude that Diệm was incapable of defeating the communists and might even make a deal with Ho Chi Minh . He seemed concerned only with fending off coups , and had become more paranoid after attempts in 1960 and 1962 , which he partly attributed to U.S. encouragement . As Robert F. Kennedy noted , " Diệm would n't make even the slightest concessions . He was difficult to reason with ... " Historian James Gibson summed up the situation : Discontent with Diệm 's policies exploded in May 1963 following the Huế Phật Đản shootings of nine unarmed Buddhists who were protesting against the ban on displaying the Buddhist flag on Vesak , the Buddha 's birthday . This resulted in mass protests against discriminatory policies that gave privileges to the Catholic Church and its adherents over the Buddhist majority . Diệm 's elder brother Ngô Đình Thục was the Archbishop of Huế and aggressively blurred the separation between church and state . Thuc 's anniversary celebrations shortly before Vesak had been bankrolled by the government , and Vatican flags were displayed prominently . There had also been reports of Buddhist pagodas being demolished by Catholic paramilitaries throughout Diệm 's rule . Diệm refused to make concessions to the Buddhist majority or take responsibility for the deaths . On 21 August 1963 , the ARVN Special Forces of Colonel Lê Quang Tung , loyal to Diệm 's younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu , raided pagodas across Vietnam , causing widespread damage and destruction and leaving a death toll estimated to range into the hundreds
raided pagodas
Xá Lợi Pagoda raids
Vietnam War