On August 24, 1963, in the wake of raids against Buddhist pagodas across the country by Nhu's special forces, Hilsman, along with Forrestal and Harriman, drafted and sent Cable 243, an important message from the State Department to U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. In South Vietnam. The message declared that Washington would no longer tolerate Nhu remaining in a position of power and ordered Lodge to pressure Diệm to remove his brother and that if Diệm refused, the United States would explore the possibility for alternative leadership in South Vietnam. The cable had the overall effect of giving tacit American approval for a coup against the regime. Hilsman was the point man for the cable – some contemporaries referred to it as the "Roger Hilsman cable" – as it was approved and sent while many higher-ranking officials were out of town, and each of the officials who were called to approve it did so because he thought some other official had approved it. The events surrounding the sending of the cable led to Kennedy's becoming quite upset over the disorganization within his government. The events have also long been criticized as at best an example of a bizarrely poor decisionmaking process and at worst a case in which a small group of secondary, anti-Diệm figures was able to circumvent normal procedures with a consequent harmful effect on the situation in Vietnam.