Ellen Joy Hammer (September 17, 1921 – January 28, 2001) was an American historian who specialized in 20th-century Vietnamese history.
Born in New York City, the daughter of David and Rea (Welt) Hammer,[1] she received a bachelor's degree from Barnard College in 1941 and worked for a few years on the research staff of the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan.
She was regarded as one of the first Americans to become scholars of Vietnamese history, often traveling to the Asian country for extended periods.
A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963 was published in 1987, and Thomas Omestad wrote in a New York Times Book Review, "The title of this carefully researched book refers to the death of Ngo Dinh Diem, president of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963, and that of his brother and adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu."
[2] It documents the events leading up to the 1963 South Vietnamese coup in November, which saw the Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the first President of South Vietnam, and follows the downfall of the Diem regime amid mass protests following the Hue Vesak shootings, in which nine Buddhists were shot dead by government forces while protesting a ban on the Buddhist flag.