Dương Hiếu Nghĩa

After arresting the brothers and tying them with their hands behind their backs, Nghĩa and Major Nguyen Van Nhung sat with Diệm and Nhu inside an M113 armored personnel carrier, and the convoy departed for Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base.

An investigation by General Tran Van Don later determined that Nghĩa had shot the brothers at point-blank range with a semi-automatic firearm and that Nhung sprayed them with bullets before repeatedly stabbing their bodies with a knife.

The plotters, led by General Nguyen Khanh, needed help from Nghĩa, one of the leading Đại Việt officers and temporary head of the Capital Armored Command.

A friend and appointee of Minh, Nghĩa caused difficulties by failing to respond to General Nguyen Van Thieu's order that all armor be moved north out of Saigon to Thiệu's 5th Division headquarters at Biên Hòa, a satellite city on the northeastern edge of the capital.

[3] This caught the plotters off guard, and as Harkins left on his "fieldtrip" at the same time, historian George McTurnan Kahin conjectured that he had actually gone to lobby Nghĩa to support the coup or at least partially back it by agreeing to help depose Minh's confidants Đôn, Ton That Dinh, Le Van Kim and Mai Huu Xuan.

Middle-aged black-haired man lies face half-down on the floor, covered on his face and dark suit and trousers with blood. His hands are behind his back.
The corpse of Ngô Đình Diệm in the back of an armoured personnel carrier, 2 November 1963