On 1 November 1963 , Minh and his co-conspirators overthrew the government in a swift coup . With only the palace guard remaining to defend Diệm and his younger brother Nhu , the generals called the palace offering Diệm exile if he surrendered . That evening , however , Diệm and his entourage escaped via an underground passage to Cha Tam Catholic Church in Cholon , where they were captured the following morning . On November 2 , 1963 , twenty days before the Assassination of John F. Kennedy , the brothers were assassinated together in the back of an M113 armoured personnel carrier with a bayonet and revolver by Captain Nguyễn Văn Nhung , under orders from Minh given while en route to the Vietnamese Joint General Staff headquarters . Diệm was buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery next to the house of the US Ambassador
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Ngo Dinh Diem