Unknown to Lodge, the Ngo brothers had learned of the conspiracy and Nhu had developed a complex plan to stage a pseudo-coup to find out just who were the plotters were. Nhu's plan consisted of two stages. The first was Bravo I with Diem loyalists pretending to stage a coup, which would be joined by the rebel generals while at the same time the pseudo-coup makers would murder several American advisers and proclaim on the radio station that a "revolutionary government" had come to power, which would tar the real rebel generals with the charge of being pro-Communist. Afterwards, Bravo II would begin with Colonel Tung's Special Forces marching into Saigon to restore Diem's authority and kill all enemies of the Ngo family. Thinking that General Dinh was still loyal, Nhu informed him of his Bravo plans, which the former then revealed to the plotters. Dinh agreed to take part in Nhu's Bravo plan, and told officers loyal to Diem that they would be pretended to be taking part in a coup. On November 1, 1963, at about 10 am, Lodge visited the Gia Long Palace to meet Diem who gave him a two-hour-long lecture about how American ingratitude towards his regime. At about noon, Lodge returned to the embassy for lunch. At about 1 pm, the coup began with many officers thinking that they only taking part in Bravo I plan. However, at a meeting of senior officers, General Đôn announced that the coup was, in fact, real, and invited them to join it; with the exception of Colonel Tung, all stood up and applauded. General Minh ordered his bodyguard, Captain Nguyen Van Nhung, to take Colonel Tung outside and have him shot. Both the Ngo brothers spent the afternoon at the cellar of the Gia Long Palace, confident and relaxed, expecting their Bravo plan were working out perfectly and did only at about 3:30 pm, did they first suspect that they had been betrayed.
