General Duong Van Minh, the presidential military advisor, attributed the assault to "disgruntled pilots", and noted that no hostile troop movements had occurred. The Civil Guard had remained loyal and its commander ordered his airborne forces to take over Tan Son Nhut Air Base. A spokesperson for Diệm also denied that napalm had been used against the palace. This was widely believed to be due to the fact that the government was sensitive to the ramifications of the RVNAF being revealed to have such weapons in their stocks. He claimed the situation was under "complete control".