Nov. 7, 1963 - The United States extended recognition to South Vietnam’s provisional Government tonight. Recognition came less than a week after a group of dissident military officers engineered the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The military council, led by General Duong Van Minh, installed the provisional Government, naming Ngyuen Ngoc Tho as the Premier. Mr. Tho was a Vice President in the old Government. Although tonight’s diplomatic formality had been expected, it symbolized what appeared to be a new climate of confidence between Washington and Saigon since the coup. It signaled Washington’s wish that the war against the Communist Viet Cong guerrillas be pressed with a new intensity. The State Department announced recognition of the Government of military and civilian leaders at 6:25 p.m. The announcement was timed to coincide with delivery of a note of recognition by Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry in Saigon. Washington’s recognition paves the way for resumption of a key economic program that had helped to finance the Saigon Government’s commercial imports. The program, which involves about $95 million annually, was suspended in August in an effort to force the Diem Government to make political reforms.
