In a later meeting with General Harkins, Diệm joked: "I shouldn't have put him in the air force, because I had put his father in jail years ago". Diệm went on to predict that "sometime I'm going to get shot right in the back of the neck. Sometime they'll get me that way". (He and Nhu were deposed and shot dead during the November 1963 coup.) Diệm reacted to the assassination attempt by cracking down on political dissidents and further tightening control of the press. Off the record, one official admitted that "We don't even talk about freedom of the press or ask for other liberties any more ... Diệm had completely surrounded himself in a protective oligarchy". Nhu justified further anti-opposition restrictions, remarking that "There's always going to be an opposition. If we take these people in, there will be another opposition springing up, because they are controversial men." Madame Nhu added, "You open a window to let in light and air, not bullets. We want freedom, but we don't want to be exploited by it."