Feb. 28, 1962 - One of the two pilots who attacked South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s palace was quoted today as having said similar attacks would be launched as long as the President remained in power. Pictured below is President Diem’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Dinh Nhu Ngo, surveying the damaged palace after the bombing. Second Lieut. Nguyen Van Cu, who crash-landed near Pnompenh, Cambodia, after the attack, described himself as a nationalist, not a Communist. The pilot sought to justify the attack by saying it was inspired by hatred of the Diem regime. He said: “It is less Ngo Dinh Diem — sometimes well-intentioned toward the population — than his family and supporters, who are hated by the army and the population.” It was suggested by observers in Saigon today that the attempt to assassinate President Diem might have been a more broadly-based plot than was first supposed.
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