Nguyen Chanh Thi
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant General Nguyễn Chánh Thi (February 23, 1923 – June 23, 2007) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
(ARVN). He is best known for frequently being involved in coups in the 1960s and wielding substantial influence as a key member of various juntas that ruled South Vietnam
from 1964 until 1966, when he was overpowered by Vietnam Air Force
chief and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky
in a power struggle
and exiled to the United States. Known for his flamboyant style and hostility to US advice, Thi's ouster was supported by the American leadership, who backed Ky's pro-US regime.
Thi joined the French Army
at the age of 17 and was captured by Japan after they invaded French Indochina
during World War II
. After several months he escaped. He later transferred to the Vietnamese National Army
of the French-backed State of Vietnam
, which in October 1955 became the ARVN and Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) respectively. A paratrooper, Thi fought for then Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
against the Binh Xuyen
organized crime syndicate
in the 1955 Battle for Saigon. This winning performance so impressed the bachelor Diem that he thereafter regarded Thi as an adopted son and put him in command of the Airborne Brigade
. In November 1960, Thi led the paratroopers in a coup against Diem, citing political interference in the military. The rebels gained the upper hand but Thi was reluctant to push for a complete victory, and the coup was defeated after Diem falsely promised reforms in order to buy time for loyalists to rescue him. Thi fled into exile in Cambodia
, but returned after Diem's deposal
and execution in November 1963
. He became the deputy commander of I Corps
under Nguyen Khanh
, and helped his superior to overthrow Diem's conquerors three months later
. Thi became the commander of the 1st Division
, before taking control of I Corps later in the year.
During the year after Khanh's rise to power, Thi helped Khanh stage or put down several coup attempts, making him a key player in South Vietnamese military politics. In September 1964
, he and Ky helped rescue Khanh from a coup attempt by the disgruntled Catholic Generals Lam Van Phat
and Duong Van Duc
. This gave Ky and Thi increased leverage in the junta. Two months later, he was prominent in shutting down
a junta-appointed civilian advisory body after they disapproved of a plan to compulsorily retire all older generals—the younger officers wanted to sideline older rivals. In January 1965, he helped Khanh depose the junta-appointed civilian Prime Minister Tran Van Huong
, but by this time he had turned against Khanh. In February 1965, he helped defeat a coup attempt
by Phat and Pham Ngoc Thao
, and helped to force Khanh's resignation at the same time. Over the next year, Ky and Thi were the foremost officers in the junta, and in June 1965, Thi declined an opportunity to serve as prime minister after being nominated by his fellow officers following the resignation of civilian Phan Huy Quat
. Thi wanted to let a rival take the job and then step in after they had failed, but he never received a second opportunity.
A strong-willed and independent-minded officer, Thi oversaw I Corps with a great deal of autonomy from Saigon, and the other officers felt threatened. This was accentuated by Thi's alignment with Buddhist activist movements in his region, traditionally a Buddhist stronghold. The Buddhists were opposed to expansion of the Vietnam War
and the American leadership viewed Thi very negatively. In early 1966, feeling more confident about his hold on power, Ky orchestrated Thi's removal and announced that Thi would be going to the US for medical treatment, but in reality into exile. Thi refused to go along with Ky's false story and wanted to stay in Vietnam, and this led to civil unrest in I Corps
, where Thi was popular. The disquiet escalated into open rebellion by pro-Thi military units in the I Corps, allied to Buddhist anti-junta activists who were calling for civilian government and an end to the US-driven war expansion policy. After three months of virtual secession, Ky's forces quelled the dissidents, and Thi emigrated to the US, where he lived for the rest of his life.
, then the capital of Vietnam and the seat of the Nguyen Dynasty. At the time, Vietnam was part of the colony of French Indochina
and his father was a low-level mandarin
in the French-controlled monarchy and had served in the French Army
during World War I
. Thi joined the French Army at 17; a few months later, Imperial Japan invaded Indochina during World War II
, wresting control from France. Thi was a Japanese prisoner of war
for several months until he escaped amidst the confusion of an Allied bombing raid on the Japanese military jail. According to family documents, Thi was captured and imprisoned by the communist Vietminh of Ho Chi Minh
for three months at the end of the war in 1945 as they declared independence during the August Revolution
. At the time, a power vacuum emerged as the defeated Japanese withdrew from Vietnam. France attempted to reassert its colonial grip over Indochina, while various Vietnamese groups jockeyed for power at the head of an independent country. In 1946, full-scale conflict erupted between the Vietminh, who had declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) independent, and France. As part of their political effort, the French created the State of Vietnam
(SoV), an associated state in the French Union
, and installed former Emperor Bao Dai
as the head of state. Thi served in the SoV's Vietnamese National Army
(VNA), and rose steadily up the ranks.
In 1954, the Vietminh defeated the French Union forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
and France decided to withdraw from Vietnam. Under the provisions of the Geneva Accords
, the Vietminh's DRV would take control of the northern half of the country, and the SoV the south, pending national reunification elections in 1956. In the meantime, the State of Vietnam remained unstable. The Cao Dai
and Hoa Hao
religious sects had their own private armies and de facto states in the Mekong Delta
, while the Binh Xuyen
organized crime syndicate
controlled the national police, had their own military, and dominated the rampant drug trade, prostitution and illegal gambling in the southern capital Saigon. In April and May 1955, Thi fought in VNA airborne units for Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
against the Binh Xuyen in the Battle for Saigon after Diem gave them an ultimatum to surrender. When they did not, the VNA attacked and decisively dispersed the Binh Xuyen after a few days of heavy street fighting. This performance so impressed the lifelong bachelor Diem that he thereafter referred to Thi as "my son". Diem promoted Thi to the rank of colonel and put him in charge of the Airborne Brigade
, which was expanded into a division a few years later. The Central Intelligence Agency
however, was not so impressed, and one of their reports described Thi as "an opportunist and a man lacking strong convictions". An American military advisor assessed Thi as "tough, unscrupulous, and fearless, but dumb". In October 1955, Diem deposed Bao Dai in a fraudulent referendum overseen by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu
and declared himself the President of the newly-proclaimed Republic of Vietnam. The VNA thus became the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
, and after Diem cancelled the reunification elections, the Vietnam War
ensued.
deputy commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Van Dong
. Dong had become discontented with Diem's arbitrary rule and constant meddling in military affairs. Diem promoted officers on loyalty rather than skill, gave orders directly to individual commanders, and played senior officers against one another in order to weaken the military leadership and prevent them from becoming effective, lest they try to challenge his rule. Dong later asserted that his sole objective was to force Diem to improve the governance of the country. Dong was clandestinely supported by his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trieu Hong and Hong's uncle Hoang Co Thuy, members of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
(VNQDD, Vietnamese Nationalist Party), an anti-communist political organization whose members were marginalized by Diem. The coup was organized with the help of some VNQDD and Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang
(Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam, known as Dai Viet) members, civilians and officers alike. Dong enlisted the cooperation of an armored regiment, a marine unit
and three paratrooper battalions. The operation was launched on November 11 at 05:00.
The coup was executed ineffectually; although the rebels captured the headquarters of the Joint General Staff at Tan Son Nhut Air Base
, they failed to block the roads leading into Saigon and cut off loyalist reinforcements. Thi's men also failed to disconnect phone lines into the palace, which allowed Diem to appeal for aid from loyal units. After taking the key military points, the paratroopers headed towards Independence Palace
. At first, they did not attack, believing that Diem would capitulate. Most of Thi's soldiers had been tricked into thinking that they were attacking in order to save Diem from a Presidential Guard
mutiny. When the attack finally started, Diem was nearly killed in the opening salvoes when gunfire hit his bed, but he had arisen just a few minutes earlier. Despite their numerical advantage, the paratroopers' first assault was repelled by the loyalists. Thi and Dong held fire; they brought in reinforcements and attacked again, but the loyalists held firm. In the meantime, Thi's rebels had captured the national police offices, the studios of Radio Saigon and the Presidential Guard barracks. They had also put most of the Saigon-based generals under house arrest.
Apparently poised for a military victory, the rebels hesitated. Dong wanted to storm the palace and capture the president and his family. On the other hand, Thi was worried Diem could be killed in an attack. Thi felt that despite Diem's shortcomings, he was South Vietnam's best available leader. Thi thought that enforced reform was the best outcome. The rebels wanted Nhu, Diem's younger brother and chief advisor, and his wife Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
—widely regarded as the powers behind Diem's rule—out of the government, although they disagreed over whether to kill or deport the couple. Thi demanded that Diem appoint an officer as Prime Minister and remove Madame Nhu from the palace. Saigon Radio broadcast a speech authorized by Thi's Revolutionary Council, claiming that Diem was being removed for corruption and suppression of liberty. Worried by the uprising, Diem sent representatives to negotiate.
After lengthy talks, the parties agreed to a ceasefire. In the meantime, loyalist forces headed towards the capital. Diem promised to end press censorship, liberalize the economy, and hold free and fair elections. Diem refused to sack Nhu, but he agreed to dissolve his cabinet and form a government that would accommodate members of the Revolutionary Council. In the early hours of November 12, Diem taped a speech detailing the concessions, and Thi broadcast the message on Saigon Radio. When the loyalist reinforcements rolled into the capital aboard tanks and armored vehicles and began to wrest the initiative, the rebels began to break. After a brief but violent battle that killed around 400 people, the coup attempt was crushed. The casualties included a large number of anti-Diem civilians; Thi exhorted them to bring down the Ngo family by charging the palace, and 13 were gunned down by the loyalist soldiers as they invaded the grounds.
After the failed coup, Dong, Thi and several other prominent officers fled to Tan Son Nhut and climbed aboard a C-47. They fled to Cambodia
, where they were given asylum by Prince Norodom Sihanouk
, a long-time Diem opponent. Diem promptly reneged on his promises, and intensified his authoritarian rule and crackdowns on dissidents. Almost three years after the incident, Diem opened the trial for those involved in the coup on July 8, 1963. Thi and his fellow exiled officers were found guilty and sentenced to death in absentia. In the meantime, Thi survived in Cambodia as a farmer for three years.
in a November 1963 coup
, allowing Thi to return to South Vietnam and resume his military service. Soon after arriving home, Thi found himself involved in another coup plot, acting as the link between Nguyen Khanh
and Do Mau
, two generals disgruntled with their position under the military junta of Duong Van Minh
, who oversaw the overthrow of Diem. Mau was one of the principal tacticians in the 1963 coup; although he did not command troops, he had a thorough knowledge of the backgrounds of the ARVN officers and their strengths, weaknesses and characteristics through his role as Diem's director of military security, and this understanding had allowed him to engineer the previous coup. Minh's junta feared Mau's shrewdness and tried to sideline him by making him the Minister of Information, a relatively unimportant position.
Disgruntled, Mau began recruiting for a coup, targeting Khanh, who had been moved to the I Corps
in the far north of South Vietnam to keep him far away from Saigon and the opportunity to stage a putsch. Khanh made no attempt to hide his annoyance at not being given a more important job, and had long been regarded as an ambitious and unscrupulous officer by his colleagues. Mau persuaded the junta to install Thi as Khanh's deputy in I Corps. He tricked the junta by telling them that as Khanh had played a large part in putting down the 1960 coup attempt, Thi would still be harboring resentment. According to Mau, Thi would thus be an ideal mechanism for keeping the disliked Khanh in check. Privately, Mau predicted that Thi would act as a bridge between him in Saigon and Khanh in Hue. He was correct in thinking the 1960 conflict would be irrelevant as allegiances shifted over time and that the pair would work together for their current aims.
The trio were joined by General Tran Thien Khiem
, the disaffected commander of the III Corps
that surrounded Saigon, and an assortment of Marine
, Air Force and Special Forces officers and their units. Other notable recruits were Diem loyalist and former chief of the Civil Guard
, Duong Ngoc Lam, who was under investigation for corruption, and General Duong Van Duc
, who had recently returned from exile in Paris. The cabal scheduled the coup for 04:00 January 30. On January 29, Thi followed Khanh to the capital. The plotters and their agents met in obscure locations spots around town. On the night of January 29, the rebel troops assumed their positions around Saigon. A number of American officers and embassy officials were alerted to be in their offices at 2:00. At 03:00, Khanh took over the Joint General Staff Headquarters at Tan Son Nhut, and by dawn, the coup had succeeded without a shot being fired as Minh's junta was caught unaware. The popular Minh was allowed to stay on as a ceremonial but powerless head of state, but his colleagues were taken into custody. Nevertheless, Minh remained disgruntled and persistently tried to regain his influence through political means. On February 2, 1964, Thi was appointed to be commander of the 1st Division
based in Hue, as part of I Corps. He stayed in the post until October 21; on November 14 he took control of the entire corps. This corps oversaw the five northernmost provinces of central Vietnam and the 1st and 2nd Divisions
.
and Duc, and they launched a coup attempt backed mainly by Catholic elements against Khanh before dawn on September 13. They took over the city without any firing, and used the national radio station to proclaim the deposing of Khanh's junta. There was little initial reaction from most of the military commanders, including Thi.
However, Phat and Duc could not apprehend Khanh, and the Americans decided to support the incumbent after concluding that the rebels did not have a satisfactory plan to rule. Thi and Air Force chief Nguyen Cao Ky
were then prominent in helping to crush the coup. Ky and Thi's role in putting down the coup attempt gave them more leverage in Saigon's military politics. Indebted to Ky, Thi and their so-called Young Turks for maintaining his hold on power, Khanh was now in a weaker position. This group of young officers were headlined by Thi, Ky, IV Corps
commander General Nguyen Van Thieu
, and Admiral Chung Tan Cang
, the head of the Republic of Vietnam Navy
. They publicly called on Khanh to remove "corrupt, dishonest and counterrevolutionary" officers, civil servants and exploitationists, and threatened to remove him if he did not enact their proposed reforms. Some observers accused Ky and Thi of deliberately orchestrating or allowing the plot to develop before putting it down in order to embarrass Khanh, portray themselves as heroes, and therefore gain prominence on the political stage. In later years, Cao Huy Thuan, a professor and Buddhist activist based in the city of Da Nang
in I Corps, claimed Ky and Thi met with him a few days before the coup, and had discussed their plans for joining a coup against Khanh.
At the subsequent military trial of Phat and Duc's faction, the plotters were acquitted. According to the historian George McTurnan Kahin
, Khanh rigged the trial so that Duc and Phat were acquitted so they would be used as a Catholic counterweight to the Young Turks faction of Ky and Thi, who in Khanh's eyes had become increasingly strong and ominous. Khanh also decided to try and build an alliance with the generals from Minh's junta by releasing them from house arrest and recalling them to active roles. However, Thi and Ky were aware of the motives for these moves and adjusted accordingly.
, Le Van Kim
and Mai Huu Xuan
.
The signature of the military-appointed civilian Chief of State Phan Khac Suu
was required to pass the ruling, but he referred the matter to the High National Council
(HNC), a junta-appointed civilian advisory body, to get their opinion. The HNC turned down the request. This was speculated to be due to the fact that many HNC members were old, and did not appreciate the generals' negativity towards seniors. On December 19, the generals dissolved the HNC. The operation was commanded by Thi—who had travelled into Saigon from I Corps—and Ky. The national police, which was under the control and command of the military, moved through the streets before dawn, arresting five HNC members and other politicians and student leaders they deemed to be an obstacle to military rule. Minh and the other aging generals were arrested and flown to Pleiku
, a central highlands
town in a Montagnard area and forcibly retired, while other officers were simply imprisoned in the capital. The junta's forces also arrested around 100 members of the National Salvation Council (NSC) of Le Khac Quyen; the NSC was a new political party active in the I Corps region that opposed the expansion of the war and was aligned with Thi and the Buddhist activist monk Thich Tri Quang
. As Thi was active in the purge, it was believed that Quyen had fallen out with Thi.
The deposal prompted US Ambassador Maxwell D. Taylor
to angrily berate Thieu, Thi, Ky and Cang in a private meeting and threaten to cut off aid if they did not reverse their decision. Although nettled by the outburst, Thi took a perverse pleasure in riling Taylor. He was seen by a CIA officer soon after, grinning. When asked why he was happy, Thi said "Because this is one of the happiest days of my life ... Today I told the American ambassador that he could not dictate to us." The dispute escalated for a few days as the junta threatened to expel Taylor, and Khanh went on a media offensive. A CIA informant reported that the arguments with Taylor had incensed the volatile Thi so much that he had privately vowed to "blow up everything" and "kill Phan Khac Suu, Tran Van Huong
and Nguyen Khanh and put an end to all this. Then we will see what happens." However, the dispute galvanized the officers' nationalist sentiments and they rallied around the embattled Khanh for a time. They ignored Taylor's threats without suffering repercussions because the Americans were too intent on defeating the communists to cut funding in an attempt to force policy change in Saigon.
During this period, Thi became notorious for his involvement in infighting. A CIA dossier compiled in the 1960s said that Thi "is like a card player, placing his bets now on this leader, then on another; he plays his subordinates in the same manner. His only real objective is to continue the game." Time
described him as "vain, ambitious, an inveterate intriguer". The New York Times
described him as "a coup specialist".
In late January 1965, Buddhist protests against junta-appointed civilian Prime Minister Tran Van Huong
broke out across South Vietnam. The unrest came after Huong had unveiled plans to expand conscription and the war against the communists, and demonstrations were at their largest in I Corps, a Buddhist and anti-war escalation stronghold. In Hue, matters degenerated into a riot as 5,000 demonstrators attacked the United States Information Service Library and burned 8,000 books. Khanh and Thi were thought to have turned a blind eye to the rioting in order to allow the disorder to ruin the Huong government and allow them to inherit power. Khanh then decided to have the armed forces replace Huong, and on the morning of January 27, Khanh staged a bloodless putsch with the support of Thi and Ky. However, many of the officers had agreed to Khanh's plan in the hope that he would fail and discredit himself.
Shortly before noon on February 19, the undetected communist agent, Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao
and Phat used tanks and some infantry battalions to seize control of the national military headquarters, post office and the radio station of Saigon. The rebels failed to capture Ky, who fled to Tan Son Nhut, where he ran into Khanh, and the pair flew off together, while some junta figures were arrested there. Thao made a radio announcement stating his desire to get rid of Khanh, whom he described as a "dictator", while some of his fellow rebels made comments eulogizing Diem and indicating that they would start a hardline Catholic regime. This alarmed Thi, as the tone of the comments indicated that the rebels might punish people who had fought against Diem in the past, such as those involved in the 1960 and 1963 coups.
The Americans decided that while they wanted Khanh out, they did not approve of Thao and Phat and their polarizing policies, so they began to lobby Ky and Thi, the two most powerful officers apart from Khanh, to defeat both sides. While Ky used air power to stop the two sides from confrontation by threatening to bomb them if they opened fire, the Americans consulted with Thi and General Cao Van Vien
, the commander of III Corps surrounding Saigon. They wanted Thi and Vien to assemble units hostile to both Khanh and the rebels into a Capital Liberation Force. The Americans provided Thi with a plane so that he could fly in from his I Corps headquarters in Da Nang to lead ground forces against both Khanh and the rebels.
Late in the night, Phat and Thao met Ky in a meeting organized by the Americans, and insisted that Khanh be removed from power. The coup collapsed when, between midnight and dawn, anti-coup forces swept into the city; it was generally thought that the rebels did not put up a fight after being assured that Khanh would be ousted. Early in the morning, Thi, who gained the support of Ky, proposed a motion within the junta to remove Khanh and force him into exile, and the final vote was unanimous—Khanh was absent from the meeting. Ky, Thi and Thieu then became the key figures in a junta that continued with Suu and Prime Minister Phan Huy Quat
as a civilian front, although General Tran Van Minh
became the nominal commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Thi was a senior member in the ten-man ruling junta, which wanted to expand the military effort against the communists, something that was opposed by the Buddhist protestors. Thi performed a balancing act and accommodated the Buddhists, wanting them to see him as a friend. He allowed the students to publish a magazine that was highly critical of military rule. Thi also manoeuvred to have his trusted subordinate Colonel Pham Van Lieu installed as the head of the national police—a body controlled by the army and effectively a military unit—increasing his political power. Following his ascension, Lieu replaced most of the Saigon district police chiefs with Thi supporters, raising the ire of some other prominent officers. The Buddhist activist leader Thich Tri Quang said that "Thi is nominally a Buddhist, but does not really care about religion". In June 1965, Quat and Suu resigned due to persistent disputes with the military and one another, and Thi had an opportunity to take power. Quat resigned and tried to directly hand over power to Thi, but this was not allowed by the generals. Nevertheless, Thi was offered the prime ministerial position by his colleagues. He was seen as having a similar level of political influence to Ky, and was voted in as prime minister by the ten-man junta. However, he declined the job offer on the private advice of Lieu, who told him that the political conditions were not ideal and that he should let a rival take control and fail before stepping in himself. According to Kahin, "to his [Thi's] own bitter disappointment, he was never given a second chance". Thi's blunder was a great relief to the Americans, who were aware of the fact that Thi—despite being anti-communist—had a hostility towards American advice. Ky and Thieu, both pro-American and supportive of a drastic escalation in anti-communist military activity, became prime minister and head of state respectively, the latter post being largely ceremonial. Regardless of who held the top jobs, no officer had firm control over his peers, and the respective corps commanders were effectively allowed to independently rule their own regions in return for ongoing support of the junta.
In the same year, US ground forces were introduced into combat roles in large numbers, and the first US Marines came ashore at Da Nang in Thi's I Corps. The flamboyant Thi organized for the American troops to be greeted by military bands, welcoming banners and teenage girls who garlanded them with flowers. This caused embarrassment to US military officials who felt the introduction of combat troops and resultant American casualties would not be received well by the public when contrasted with Thi's celebratory fanfare. Soon after the Americans were in position, Thi tipped off Marine Lieutenant General Lewis W. Walt about a major movement of Vietcong insurgents near Chu Lai
in Quang Tri Province
near the border with North Vietnam. This resulted in Operation Starlite
, generally regarded as the first offensive action undertaken by the Americans in the Vietnam War. Occurring between August 18 and 24, it resulted in the 1st Vietcong Regiment being pushed to the coast.
The historian Stanley Karnow
said of Ky and Thi: "Both flamboyant characters who wore gaudy uniforms and sported sinister moustaches, the two young officers had been friends, and their rivalry seemed to typify the personal struggles for power that chronically afflicted South Vietnam. But their dispute mirrored more than individual ambition." Both were also known for their colorful red berets. There were reports Thi was showing insubordination towards Ky. The US military commander in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland
, said that Thi once refused to report to Ky in Saigon when requested. On one occasion, when Ky came to I Corps to remonstrate with him, Thi turned to address his staff and mockingly asked "Should we pay attention to this funny little man from Saigon or should we ignore him?" Thi made this comment rather loudly, within earshot of Ky, and the Vietnamese politician Bui Diem
thought that Ky viewed Thi's comment as a direct and calculated challenge to his authority. Time said Thi "ran it [I Corps] like a warlord of yore, obeying those edicts of the central government that suited him and blithely disregarding the rest". Of the four corps commanders, Thi was seen as the one with the most power and independence from Saigon. Kahin said that Ky may have feared that Thi would secede from Saigon and turn central Vietnam into an independent state. The CIA analyst Douglas Pike
, who worked in Vietnam, speculated that this would have been a large part of Ky’s thinking, as Vietnamese people have often had strong regional tendencies.
Knowing that Westmoreland and the US Embassy were hostile to Thi and supportive of his leadership, Ky mustered the support of eight generals on the 10-man junta, meaning that along with his vote, there were nine officers in favor of Thi's removal. With Thi the only non-supporter, Ky and his colleagues removed Thi from the junta and his corps command on March 10, 1966. Thi claimed that during this meeting, knowing the other generals' antipathy to him, he nettled them by chastising their commitment to the country. He said the populace would never support the generals' war effort as long as they lived so comfortably, and he mocked them for ostentatiously flying their wives and mistresses to Hong Kong
for shopping expeditions. The junta put Thi under house arrest pending his deportation from the country, and appointed General Nguyen Van Chuan
, the erstwhile commander of 1st Division and a Thi subordinate, as the new I Corps commander.
The Americans supported Thi's removal as they regarded him as being soft on communism, and a "virtual warlord". US Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
, Westmoreland and the Defense Secretary Robert McNamara
were supportive of the Ky-Thieu regime, their prosecution of the war against the communists and support of a US escalation, and they opposed Thi, regarding him as lacking firmness against communism. At a White House meeting after news of the dismissal came through, Taylor said that Thi was "a bad character and good riddance". Lodge wrote in a report that Thi "cherished some resentment against the Americans in respect of what he considers political and military interference and infringement of sovereignty", claiming he had contemplated "the possibility of establishing a government in the south which would be of such a character that the bulk of the population including the Vietcong would support it—and presumably neutralization of the country and possibly federation with the North would soon be possible". The Americans wanted to ease Thi out of the corridors of power by offering him an economic future in the US and free education for his children, and Lodge and Westmoreland personally spoke to him in an attempt to convince him to accept, but they were unsuccessful. On the other hand, Thi had the support of Walt, who commanded American forces in I Corps and was the senior advisor to Thi's forces. Unlike his countrymen, Walt thought highly of Thi's character and ability as an officer.
Ky said that Thi was leaving the country to receive medical treatment for his nasal passages, as well as a general health examination. An official announcement said that the junta "had considered and accepted General Thi's application for a vacation". Thi retorted that "The only sinus condition I have is from the stink of corruption." With the health story exposed as a sham, Ky gave a series of reasons for dismissing Thi, accusing him of being too left-wing, ruling I Corps like a warlord, having a mistress who was suspected of being a communist, and being too conspiratorial. Ky knew that Thi supported negotiations with the communists as a means of ending the war, and had a history of consistently removing officials and military figures who promoted such a policy, but did not publicly mention this as a reason.
Thi's dismissal provoked the Buddhist Uprising, led by the "Struggle Movement". Thi was immensely popular in the Buddhist stronghold of Hue, a city of approximately 120,000, and civil unrest erupted throughout the region. When he returned to the former imperial capital five days after being relieved of his command, around 20,000 supporters mobbed him, shouting and trying to touch him. This was part of a gamble by Ky to allow Thi back to his home city in an attempt to placate the dismayed locals, but it did not work. A general strike incapacited 90% of Da Nang, the second biggest city in South Vietnam and the main port in central Vietnam.
During a rally, a Buddhist student leader cried "Do you want the general to stay with us?" to which the students and other protestors answered, "Yes! Yes!" Thi told the large crowd to "Think about our country, not about me". During the tongue-in-cheek speech, he made sarcastic references about his need to go to the US for health treatment. He told a journalist that he would accept "any position which is useful for the country", leading some to think that he wanted Ky or Thieu's job. According to Time magazine, Thi's speeches showed he "was obviously torn between a desire to rally support for a comeback and his soldier's distaste for adding to dissension". Kahin said that "despite the circumspection of his public addresses, [they] undoubtedly helped encourage the Struggle Movement."
The various dissidents formed a pro-Thi, anti-Ky organization called the Military-Civilian Struggle Committee, better known as the Struggle Movement. Their message and influence quickly spread as they called for the end of military rule and took over radio stations and government buildings in I Corps. They intensified their calls for Ky to fulfil his promise to hold democratic elections. Some I Corps units supportive of Thi then decided to join the Struggle Movement and ceased military operations against the Vietcong, instead starting a stand-off against Ky. Throughout April and May there were tense incidents as units loyal to the junta were flown in from Saigon, and the factions came close to warfare.
Thi publicly disassociated himself from the Struggle Movement. However, he remained in I Corps and was still regarded as a significant political influence and motivating factor for the Struggle Movement. Regardless of what he may have thought, the discontent against Ky was by then too much for him to control even if he had wanted to. By June, ARVN loyalists, with the help of the American forces, prevailed. Their superior numbers convinced many in the Struggle Movement to back down and realign with the government, and those who refused were militarily defeated, often in bitter street-to-street fighting. While the Struggle Movement was finally ebbing away, Thi agreed to meet with Ky at an American air base in Chu Lai
to reach a settlement, seeing as the junta was going to prevail in any case. Thi agreed to the original offers of subsidies and the cover story of a medical trip.
, reading books about Asian history. Outspoken and still supported by many Buddhists, Thi tried to return to South Vietnam in February 1972, but troops of the Catholic President Thieu surrounded his plane on the tarmac and prevented him from disembarking; the aircraft eventually took off and returned to the US.
Thi lived in the American capital until 1975, when he moved to Arkansas
. He lived in the southern state for a short period before settling in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
. He worked in a variety of jobs and occasionally made speeches at universities and to Vietnamese American
organizations and meetings. According to his relatives, Thi remained popular among the Vietnamese American community, most of whom had come to the US after the fall of Saigon
and were stridently anti-communist. His family said their refugee compatriots often recognized him, and usually refused to let him pay for meals at their restaurants. Thi's first marriage to Oanh Nguyen ended in divorce. They had five children, four sons and a daughter. He later remarried Catherine Nguyen, who bore him a daughter. In all, Thi had six children and 12 grandchildren. He died at the Hospice of Lancaster County from heart ailments on June 23, 2007.
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
(ARVN). He is best known for frequently being involved in coups in the 1960s and wielding substantial influence as a key member of various juntas that ruled South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
from 1964 until 1966, when he was overpowered by Vietnam Air Force
Vietnam Air Force
The Vietnam Air Force began with a few hand-picked men chosen to fly alongside French pilots during the State of Vietnam era. It eventually grew into the world’s sixth largest air force at the height of its power, in 1974...
chief and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyễn Cao Kỳ served as the chief of the Vietnam Air Force in the 1960s, before leading the nation as the prime minister of South Vietnam in a military junta from 1965 to 1967...
in a power struggle
Buddhist Uprising
The Buddhist Uprising of 1966 was a period of civil and military unrest in South Vietnam, largely focused in the I Corps area in the north of the country in central Vietnam...
and exiled to the United States. Known for his flamboyant style and hostility to US advice, Thi's ouster was supported by the American leadership, who backed Ky's pro-US regime.
Thi joined the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
at the age of 17 and was captured by Japan after they invaded French Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After several months he escaped. He later transferred to the Vietnamese National Army
Vietnamese National Army
On March 8, 1949, after the Elysee accords, the State of Vietnam was recognized by France as an independent country ruled by Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại. The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army was the State of Vietnam's military force created shortly after that. It was commanded by...
of the French-backed State of Vietnam
State of Vietnam
The State of Vietnam was a state that claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, and replaced the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam . The provisional government was a brief transitional administration between colonial Cochinchina and an independent state...
, which in October 1955 became the ARVN and Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) respectively. A paratrooper, Thi fought for then Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
against the Binh Xuyen
Binh Xuyen
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van "Bay" Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh...
organized crime syndicate
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
in the 1955 Battle for Saigon. This winning performance so impressed the bachelor Diem that he thereafter regarded Thi as an adopted son and put him in command of the Airborne Brigade
Vietnamese Airborne Division
The Vietnamese Airborne Division was one of the earliest components of the State of Vietnam's military forces . The Vietnamese Airborne Division began as companies organised in 1948, prior to any agreement over armed forces in Vietnam...
. In November 1960, Thi led the paratroopers in a coup against Diem, citing political interference in the military. The rebels gained the upper hand but Thi was reluctant to push for a complete victory, and the coup was defeated after Diem falsely promised reforms in order to buy time for loyalists to rescue him. Thi fled into exile in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, but returned after Diem's deposal
1963 South Vietnamese coup
In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong.The...
and execution in November 1963
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, then president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d’état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963...
. He became the deputy commander of I Corps
I Corps (South Vietnam)
The I Corps Tactical Zone was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps which the ARVN oversaw. This was the northernmost region of South Vietnam, bordering North Vietnam...
under Nguyen Khanh
Nguyen Khanh
Nguyễn Khánh is a former general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam who variously served as Head of State and Prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a military junta from January 1964 until February 1965. He was involved in or against many coup attempts, failed and successful,...
, and helped his superior to overthrow Diem's conquerors three months later
1964 South Vietnamese coup
Before dawn on January 30, 1964, General Nguyen Khanh ousted the military junta led by General Duong Van Minh from the leadership of South Vietnam without firing a shot. It came less than three months after Minh's junta had themselves come to power in a bloody coup against then President Ngo Dinh...
. Thi became the commander of the 1st Division
1st Division (South Vietnam)
The 1st Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam —the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975—was part of the I Corps that oversaw the northernmost region of South Vietnam, the centre of Vietnam....
, before taking control of I Corps later in the year.
During the year after Khanh's rise to power, Thi helped Khanh stage or put down several coup attempts, making him a key player in South Vietnamese military politics. In September 1964
September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt
Before dawn on September 13, 1964, the ruling military junta of South Vietnam, led by General Nguyen Khanh, was threatened by a coup attempt headed by Generals Lam Van Phat and Duong Van Duc, who sent dissident units into the capital Saigon. They captured various key points and announced over...
, he and Ky helped rescue Khanh from a coup attempt by the disgruntled Catholic Generals Lam Van Phat
Lam Van Phat
Major General Lâm Văn Phát served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . He is best known for leading two coup attempts against General Nguyễn Khánh in September 1964 and February 1965...
and Duong Van Duc
Duong Van Duc
Major General Dương Văn Đức was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He is best known for leading a coup attempt against General Nguyễn Khánh on September 14, 1964...
. This gave Ky and Thi increased leverage in the junta. Two months later, he was prominent in shutting down
December 1964 South Vietnamese coup
Before dawn on December 19, 1964, the ruling military junta of South Vietnam led by General Nguyen Khanh dissolved the High National Council and arrested some of its members. The HNC was an unelected legislative-style civilian advisory body they had created at the request of the United...
a junta-appointed civilian advisory body after they disapproved of a plan to compulsorily retire all older generals—the younger officers wanted to sideline older rivals. In January 1965, he helped Khanh depose the junta-appointed civilian Prime Minister Tran Van Huong
Tran Van Huong
Trần Văn Hương was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the penultimate president of South Vietnam prior to its surrender to the communist forces of North Vietnam.-Biography:...
, but by this time he had turned against Khanh. In February 1965, he helped defeat a coup attempt
1965 South Vietnamese coup
On February 19, 1965, some units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam commanded by General Lam Van Phat and Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao launched a coup against General Nguyen Khanh, the head of South Vietnam's ruling military junta...
by Phat and Pham Ngoc Thao
Pham Ngoc Thao
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, known to friends as Albert Thảo , a major provincial leader in South Vietnam and infiltrator of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, was a communist agent of the Vietminh and later the Vietnam People's Army...
, and helped to force Khanh's resignation at the same time. Over the next year, Ky and Thi were the foremost officers in the junta, and in June 1965, Thi declined an opportunity to serve as prime minister after being nominated by his fellow officers following the resignation of civilian Phan Huy Quat
Phan Huy Quat
Dr. Phan Huy Quát served as acting Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam and also as Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam.-Biography:On July 2, 1949, Dr. Phan Huy Quát was appointed Minister of Education by Head of State Bảo Đại....
. Thi wanted to let a rival take the job and then step in after they had failed, but he never received a second opportunity.
A strong-willed and independent-minded officer, Thi oversaw I Corps with a great deal of autonomy from Saigon, and the other officers felt threatened. This was accentuated by Thi's alignment with Buddhist activist movements in his region, traditionally a Buddhist stronghold. The Buddhists were opposed to expansion of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and the American leadership viewed Thi very negatively. In early 1966, feeling more confident about his hold on power, Ky orchestrated Thi's removal and announced that Thi would be going to the US for medical treatment, but in reality into exile. Thi refused to go along with Ky's false story and wanted to stay in Vietnam, and this led to civil unrest in I Corps
Buddhist Uprising
The Buddhist Uprising of 1966 was a period of civil and military unrest in South Vietnam, largely focused in the I Corps area in the north of the country in central Vietnam...
, where Thi was popular. The disquiet escalated into open rebellion by pro-Thi military units in the I Corps, allied to Buddhist anti-junta activists who were calling for civilian government and an end to the US-driven war expansion policy. After three months of virtual secession, Ky's forces quelled the dissidents, and Thi emigrated to the US, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Early life
Thi was born on February 23, 1923 in HueHue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
, then the capital of Vietnam and the seat of the Nguyen Dynasty. At the time, Vietnam was part of the colony of French Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
and his father was a low-level mandarin
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...
in the French-controlled monarchy and had served in the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Thi joined the French Army at 17; a few months later, Imperial Japan invaded Indochina during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, wresting control from France. Thi was a Japanese prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
for several months until he escaped amidst the confusion of an Allied bombing raid on the Japanese military jail. According to family documents, Thi was captured and imprisoned by the communist Vietminh of Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
for three months at the end of the war in 1945 as they declared independence during the August Revolution
August Revolution
On August 19, 1945, the Việt Minh under Hồ Chí Minh began the August General Uprising Tổng Khởi Nghĩa, which was soon renamed the August Revolution . Whether or not this series of events should be called a "revolution" is disputable; what is clear is that, from August 19 onwards, demonstrations and...
. At the time, a power vacuum emerged as the defeated Japanese withdrew from Vietnam. France attempted to reassert its colonial grip over Indochina, while various Vietnamese groups jockeyed for power at the head of an independent country. In 1946, full-scale conflict erupted between the Vietminh, who had declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) independent, and France. As part of their political effort, the French created the State of Vietnam
State of Vietnam
The State of Vietnam was a state that claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, and replaced the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam . The provisional government was a brief transitional administration between colonial Cochinchina and an independent state...
(SoV), an associated state in the French Union
French Union
The French Union was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial system, the "French Empire" and to abolish its "indigenous" status.-History:...
, and installed former Emperor Bao Dai
Bao Dai
Bảo Đại , born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy , was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty. From 1926 to 1945, he was king of Annam under French ‘protection’. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam...
as the head of state. Thi served in the SoV's Vietnamese National Army
Vietnamese National Army
On March 8, 1949, after the Elysee accords, the State of Vietnam was recognized by France as an independent country ruled by Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại. The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army was the State of Vietnam's military force created shortly after that. It was commanded by...
(VNA), and rose steadily up the ranks.
Diem era
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that...
and France decided to withdraw from Vietnam. Under the provisions of the Geneva Accords
Geneva Conference (1954)
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...
, the Vietminh's DRV would take control of the northern half of the country, and the SoV the south, pending national reunification elections in 1956. In the meantime, the State of Vietnam remained unstable. The Cao Dai
Cao Dai
Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, officially established in the city of Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. Đạo Cao Đài is the religion's shortened name, the full name is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ...
and Hoa Hao
Hoa Hao
Hòa Hảo is a religious tradition, based on Buddhism, founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ, a native of the Mekong River Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider Sổ to be a prophet, and Hòa Hảo a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known as Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương...
religious sects had their own private armies and de facto states in the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
, while the Binh Xuyen
Binh Xuyen
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van "Bay" Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh...
organized crime syndicate
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
controlled the national police, had their own military, and dominated the rampant drug trade, prostitution and illegal gambling in the southern capital Saigon. In April and May 1955, Thi fought in VNA airborne units for Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
against the Binh Xuyen in the Battle for Saigon after Diem gave them an ultimatum to surrender. When they did not, the VNA attacked and decisively dispersed the Binh Xuyen after a few days of heavy street fighting. This performance so impressed the lifelong bachelor Diem that he thereafter referred to Thi as "my son". Diem promoted Thi to the rank of colonel and put him in charge of the Airborne Brigade
Vietnamese Airborne Division
The Vietnamese Airborne Division was one of the earliest components of the State of Vietnam's military forces . The Vietnamese Airborne Division began as companies organised in 1948, prior to any agreement over armed forces in Vietnam...
, which was expanded into a division a few years later. The Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
however, was not so impressed, and one of their reports described Thi as "an opportunist and a man lacking strong convictions". An American military advisor assessed Thi as "tough, unscrupulous, and fearless, but dumb". In October 1955, Diem deposed Bao Dai in a fraudulent referendum overseen by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu
Ngo Dinh Nhu
Ngô Ðình Nhu was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Ðình Diệm. Nhu was widely regarded as the architect of the Ngô family's nepotistic and autocratic rule over South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963...
and declared himself the President of the newly-proclaimed Republic of Vietnam. The VNA thus became the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
, and after Diem cancelled the reunification elections, the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
ensued.
Failed coup against Diem
In 1960, Thi led a revolt against Diem after lobbying by his Airborne DivisionVietnamese Airborne Division
The Vietnamese Airborne Division was one of the earliest components of the State of Vietnam's military forces . The Vietnamese Airborne Division began as companies organised in 1948, prior to any agreement over armed forces in Vietnam...
deputy commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Van Dong
Vuong Van Dong
Lieutenant Colonel Vương Văn Đông was an officer of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam who led the failed coup attempt of 1960 against President Ngô Đình Diệm. After the failed coup, he fled to Cambodia with the other coup leaders aboard a commandeered air force C-47. Đông was allowed to quietly...
. Dong had become discontented with Diem's arbitrary rule and constant meddling in military affairs. Diem promoted officers on loyalty rather than skill, gave orders directly to individual commanders, and played senior officers against one another in order to weaken the military leadership and prevent them from becoming effective, lest they try to challenge his rule. Dong later asserted that his sole objective was to force Diem to improve the governance of the country. Dong was clandestinely supported by his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trieu Hong and Hong's uncle Hoang Co Thuy, members of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng , also known as the Việt Quốc and the Vietnamese Kuomintang, is the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, a revolutionary socialist political party that sought independence from French colonial rule in Vietnam during the early 20th century...
(VNQDD, Vietnamese Nationalist Party), an anti-communist political organization whose members were marginalized by Diem. The coup was organized with the help of some VNQDD and Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang
Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang
Đại Việt Quốc dân đảng , often known simply as Đại Việt, was a nationalist and anti-communist political party and militant organisation that was active in Vietnam in the 20th century. The party was founded by Trương Tử Anh, known as Anh Cả Phương...
(Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam, known as Dai Viet) members, civilians and officers alike. Dong enlisted the cooperation of an armored regiment, a marine unit
Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps
The Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps ) was part of the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam . It was established by Ngo Dinh Diem in 1954 when he was Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, which became the Republic of Vietnam in 1955. The longest-serving commander was Lieutenant General Le...
and three paratrooper battalions. The operation was launched on November 11 at 05:00.
The coup was executed ineffectually; although the rebels captured the headquarters of the Joint General Staff at Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base was a Republic of Vietnam Air Force facility. It is located near the city of Saigon in southern Vietnam. The United States used it as a major base during the Vietnam War , stationing Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine units there...
, they failed to block the roads leading into Saigon and cut off loyalist reinforcements. Thi's men also failed to disconnect phone lines into the palace, which allowed Diem to appeal for aid from loyal units. After taking the key military points, the paratroopers headed towards Independence Palace
Reunification Palace
Reunification Palace formerly known as Independence Palace , built on the site of the former Norodom Palace, is a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was designed by architect Ngô Viết Thụ and was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War...
. At first, they did not attack, believing that Diem would capitulate. Most of Thi's soldiers had been tricked into thinking that they were attacking in order to save Diem from a Presidential Guard
Presidential Guard (South Vietnam)
The Presidential Guard was a military unit of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam that was assigned to personally protect the President of the Republic of Vietnam, the nation-state that existed from 1955 to 1975....
mutiny. When the attack finally started, Diem was nearly killed in the opening salvoes when gunfire hit his bed, but he had arisen just a few minutes earlier. Despite their numerical advantage, the paratroopers' first assault was repelled by the loyalists. Thi and Dong held fire; they brought in reinforcements and attacked again, but the loyalists held firm. In the meantime, Thi's rebels had captured the national police offices, the studios of Radio Saigon and the Presidential Guard barracks. They had also put most of the Saigon-based generals under house arrest.
Apparently poised for a military victory, the rebels hesitated. Dong wanted to storm the palace and capture the president and his family. On the other hand, Thi was worried Diem could be killed in an attack. Thi felt that despite Diem's shortcomings, he was South Vietnam's best available leader. Thi thought that enforced reform was the best outcome. The rebels wanted Nhu, Diem's younger brother and chief advisor, and his wife Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu
Trần Lệ Xuân , popularly known as Madame Nhu, was considered the first lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu who was the brother and chief adviser to President Ngo Dinh Diem...
—widely regarded as the powers behind Diem's rule—out of the government, although they disagreed over whether to kill or deport the couple. Thi demanded that Diem appoint an officer as Prime Minister and remove Madame Nhu from the palace. Saigon Radio broadcast a speech authorized by Thi's Revolutionary Council, claiming that Diem was being removed for corruption and suppression of liberty. Worried by the uprising, Diem sent representatives to negotiate.
After lengthy talks, the parties agreed to a ceasefire. In the meantime, loyalist forces headed towards the capital. Diem promised to end press censorship, liberalize the economy, and hold free and fair elections. Diem refused to sack Nhu, but he agreed to dissolve his cabinet and form a government that would accommodate members of the Revolutionary Council. In the early hours of November 12, Diem taped a speech detailing the concessions, and Thi broadcast the message on Saigon Radio. When the loyalist reinforcements rolled into the capital aboard tanks and armored vehicles and began to wrest the initiative, the rebels began to break. After a brief but violent battle that killed around 400 people, the coup attempt was crushed. The casualties included a large number of anti-Diem civilians; Thi exhorted them to bring down the Ngo family by charging the palace, and 13 were gunned down by the loyalist soldiers as they invaded the grounds.
After the failed coup, Dong, Thi and several other prominent officers fled to Tan Son Nhut and climbed aboard a C-47. They fled to Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, where they were given asylum by Prince Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
, a long-time Diem opponent. Diem promptly reneged on his promises, and intensified his authoritarian rule and crackdowns on dissidents. Almost three years after the incident, Diem opened the trial for those involved in the coup on July 8, 1963. Thi and his fellow exiled officers were found guilty and sentenced to death in absentia. In the meantime, Thi survived in Cambodia as a farmer for three years.
1964 coups with Nguyen Khanh
Diem was killedArrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, then president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d’état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963...
in a November 1963 coup
1963 South Vietnamese coup
In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong.The...
, allowing Thi to return to South Vietnam and resume his military service. Soon after arriving home, Thi found himself involved in another coup plot, acting as the link between Nguyen Khanh
Nguyen Khanh
Nguyễn Khánh is a former general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam who variously served as Head of State and Prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a military junta from January 1964 until February 1965. He was involved in or against many coup attempts, failed and successful,...
and Do Mau
Do Mau
Brigadier General Ðỗ Mậu was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam best known for his roles as a recruiting strategist in both the 1963 coup that toppled President Ngo Dinh Diem and the 1964 coup led by General Nguyen Khanh that deposed the junta of General Duong Van Minh...
, two generals disgruntled with their position under the military junta of Duong Van Minh
Duong Van Minh
Minh was born on 16 February 1916 in Mỹ Tho Province in the Mekong Delta, the son of a wealthy landowner who served in a prominent position in the Finance Ministry of the French colonial administration...
, who oversaw the overthrow of Diem. Mau was one of the principal tacticians in the 1963 coup; although he did not command troops, he had a thorough knowledge of the backgrounds of the ARVN officers and their strengths, weaknesses and characteristics through his role as Diem's director of military security, and this understanding had allowed him to engineer the previous coup. Minh's junta feared Mau's shrewdness and tried to sideline him by making him the Minister of Information, a relatively unimportant position.
Disgruntled, Mau began recruiting for a coup, targeting Khanh, who had been moved to the I Corps
I Corps (South Vietnam)
The I Corps Tactical Zone was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps which the ARVN oversaw. This was the northernmost region of South Vietnam, bordering North Vietnam...
in the far north of South Vietnam to keep him far away from Saigon and the opportunity to stage a putsch. Khanh made no attempt to hide his annoyance at not being given a more important job, and had long been regarded as an ambitious and unscrupulous officer by his colleagues. Mau persuaded the junta to install Thi as Khanh's deputy in I Corps. He tricked the junta by telling them that as Khanh had played a large part in putting down the 1960 coup attempt, Thi would still be harboring resentment. According to Mau, Thi would thus be an ideal mechanism for keeping the disliked Khanh in check. Privately, Mau predicted that Thi would act as a bridge between him in Saigon and Khanh in Hue. He was correct in thinking the 1960 conflict would be irrelevant as allegiances shifted over time and that the pair would work together for their current aims.
The trio were joined by General Tran Thien Khiem
Tran Thien Khiem
General Trần Thiện Khiêm was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. During the 1960s he was involved in several coups. He helped President Ngo Dinh Diem put down a November 1960 coup attempt and was rewarded with promotion...
, the disaffected commander of the III Corps
III Corps (South Vietnam)
III Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975...
that surrounded Saigon, and an assortment of Marine
Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps
The Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps ) was part of the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam . It was established by Ngo Dinh Diem in 1954 when he was Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, which became the Republic of Vietnam in 1955. The longest-serving commander was Lieutenant General Le...
, Air Force and Special Forces officers and their units. Other notable recruits were Diem loyalist and former chief of the Civil Guard
South Vietnamese Popular Force
During the Vietnam War, the South Vietnamese Popular Force consisted of local militias that protected their home villages from attacks by first National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam forces and later by People's Army of Vietnam units...
, Duong Ngoc Lam, who was under investigation for corruption, and General Duong Van Duc
Duong Van Duc
Major General Dương Văn Đức was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He is best known for leading a coup attempt against General Nguyễn Khánh on September 14, 1964...
, who had recently returned from exile in Paris. The cabal scheduled the coup for 04:00 January 30. On January 29, Thi followed Khanh to the capital. The plotters and their agents met in obscure locations spots around town. On the night of January 29, the rebel troops assumed their positions around Saigon. A number of American officers and embassy officials were alerted to be in their offices at 2:00. At 03:00, Khanh took over the Joint General Staff Headquarters at Tan Son Nhut, and by dawn, the coup had succeeded without a shot being fired as Minh's junta was caught unaware. The popular Minh was allowed to stay on as a ceremonial but powerless head of state, but his colleagues were taken into custody. Nevertheless, Minh remained disgruntled and persistently tried to regain his influence through political means. On February 2, 1964, Thi was appointed to be commander of the 1st Division
1st Division (South Vietnam)
The 1st Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam —the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975—was part of the I Corps that oversaw the northernmost region of South Vietnam, the centre of Vietnam....
based in Hue, as part of I Corps. He stayed in the post until October 21; on November 14 he took control of the entire corps. This corps oversaw the five northernmost provinces of central Vietnam and the 1st and 2nd Divisions
2nd Division (South Vietnam)
The 2nd Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam —the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975—was part of the I Corps that oversaw the northernmost region of South Vietnam, the centre of Vietnam....
.
Defeating the September 1964 coup
In August, Khanh gave himself more powers, provoking widespread riots and demonstrations across the nation, with Buddhist activists prominent in expressing opposition against Khanh. The anarchy forced Khanh to back down and make concessions, and he ended up in a weaker position than before. Among the concessions he made was to remove or demote some Catholic officials who had been close to Diem's religiously discriminatory rule, angering the minority Catholic community. Among those demoted were Catholic Generals Lam Van PhatLam Van Phat
Major General Lâm Văn Phát served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . He is best known for leading two coup attempts against General Nguyễn Khánh in September 1964 and February 1965...
and Duc, and they launched a coup attempt backed mainly by Catholic elements against Khanh before dawn on September 13. They took over the city without any firing, and used the national radio station to proclaim the deposing of Khanh's junta. There was little initial reaction from most of the military commanders, including Thi.
However, Phat and Duc could not apprehend Khanh, and the Americans decided to support the incumbent after concluding that the rebels did not have a satisfactory plan to rule. Thi and Air Force chief Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyễn Cao Kỳ served as the chief of the Vietnam Air Force in the 1960s, before leading the nation as the prime minister of South Vietnam in a military junta from 1965 to 1967...
were then prominent in helping to crush the coup. Ky and Thi's role in putting down the coup attempt gave them more leverage in Saigon's military politics. Indebted to Ky, Thi and their so-called Young Turks for maintaining his hold on power, Khanh was now in a weaker position. This group of young officers were headlined by Thi, Ky, IV Corps
IV Corps (South Vietnam)
The IV Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975...
commander General Nguyen Van Thieu
Nguyen Van Thieu
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was president of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1975. He was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , became head of a military junta, and then president after winning a fraudulent election...
, and Admiral Chung Tan Cang
Chung Tan Cang
Admiral Chung Tấn Cang was the commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy from 1963 to 1965...
, the head of the Republic of Vietnam Navy
Republic of Vietnam Navy
The Republic of Vietnam Navy was the naval force of the former Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. The early fleet consisted of boats from France. After 1955 and the transfer of the armed forces to Vietnamese control, the fleet was supplied from the United States...
. They publicly called on Khanh to remove "corrupt, dishonest and counterrevolutionary" officers, civil servants and exploitationists, and threatened to remove him if he did not enact their proposed reforms. Some observers accused Ky and Thi of deliberately orchestrating or allowing the plot to develop before putting it down in order to embarrass Khanh, portray themselves as heroes, and therefore gain prominence on the political stage. In later years, Cao Huy Thuan, a professor and Buddhist activist based in the city of Da Nang
Da Nang
Đà Nẵng , occasionally Danang, is a major port city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea at the mouth of the Han River. It is the commercial and educational center of Central Vietnam; its well-sheltered, easily accessible port and its location on the path of...
in I Corps, claimed Ky and Thi met with him a few days before the coup, and had discussed their plans for joining a coup against Khanh.
At the subsequent military trial of Phat and Duc's faction, the plotters were acquitted. According to the historian George McTurnan Kahin
George McTurnan Kahin
George McTurnan KahinSometimes referred to as George Kahin or George McT. Kahin. Some, but fewer, sources may also cite him as George M. Kahin. was an American historian and political scientist. He was one of the leading experts on Southeast Asia and a critic of United States involvement in the...
, Khanh rigged the trial so that Duc and Phat were acquitted so they would be used as a Catholic counterweight to the Young Turks faction of Ky and Thi, who in Khanh's eyes had become increasingly strong and ominous. Khanh also decided to try and build an alliance with the generals from Minh's junta by releasing them from house arrest and recalling them to active roles. However, Thi and Ky were aware of the motives for these moves and adjusted accordingly.
Dissolution of the High National Council
The Young Turks and Khanh wanted to forcibly retire officers with more than 25 years of service, ostensibly because they thought them to be lethargic, out of touch, and ineffective. However, the unspoken and most important reason was because they viewed the older generals as rivals for power. Specific targets of this proposed policy were Minh and other senior officers in his short-lived junta, Tran Van DonTran Van Don
Trần Văn Đôn was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and one of the principal figures in the coup d'état which deposed Ngô Đình Diệm from the presidency of South Vietnam.-Family:...
, Le Van Kim
Le Van Kim
Lieutenant General Lê Văn Kim is a former general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was the brother in law of General Trần Văn Đôn and together with General Dương Văn Minh, the trio organised the 1963 South Vietnamese coup which toppled President Ngô Đình Diệm and ended in his arrest and...
and Mai Huu Xuan
Mai Huu Xuan
Major General Mai Hữu Xuân was a general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and a participant in the November 1963 coup that deposed President Ngô Đình Diệm and ended in his assassination....
.
The signature of the military-appointed civilian Chief of State Phan Khac Suu
Phan Khac Suu
Phan Khắc Sửu was President of South Vietnam from 1964–1965.-Biography:He was an octogenarian, a trained agricultural engineer and was a member of the Cao Đài religion.He was a member of Emperor Bảo Đại’s political cabinet....
was required to pass the ruling, but he referred the matter to the High National Council
High National Council (South Vietnam)
The High National Council was a body of 17 civilians appointed by the ruling Military Revolutionary Council of South Vietnam in October 1964 to give a semblance of civilian rule. They chose the figurehead chief of state Phan Khac Suu, who chose the civilian Prime Minister Tran Van Huong, although...
(HNC), a junta-appointed civilian advisory body, to get their opinion. The HNC turned down the request. This was speculated to be due to the fact that many HNC members were old, and did not appreciate the generals' negativity towards seniors. On December 19, the generals dissolved the HNC. The operation was commanded by Thi—who had travelled into Saigon from I Corps—and Ky. The national police, which was under the control and command of the military, moved through the streets before dawn, arresting five HNC members and other politicians and student leaders they deemed to be an obstacle to military rule. Minh and the other aging generals were arrested and flown to Pleiku
Pleiku
Pleiku is a town in central Vietnam, located in that nation's central highland region. It is the capital of the Gia Lai Province; it is inhabited primarily by the Bahnar and Jarai ethnic groups, sometimes known as the Montagnards or Degar....
, a central highlands
Tây Nguyên
Tây Nguyên, translated as Western Highlands and sometimes also called Central Highlands, is one of the regions of Vietnam. It contains the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lâm Đồng....
town in a Montagnard area and forcibly retired, while other officers were simply imprisoned in the capital. The junta's forces also arrested around 100 members of the National Salvation Council (NSC) of Le Khac Quyen; the NSC was a new political party active in the I Corps region that opposed the expansion of the war and was aligned with Thi and the Buddhist activist monk Thich Tri Quang
Thich Tri Quang
Thích Trí Quang is a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk best known for his role in leading South Vietnam’s Buddhist population during the Buddhist crisis in 1963....
. As Thi was active in the purge, it was believed that Quyen had fallen out with Thi.
The deposal prompted US Ambassador Maxwell D. Taylor
Maxwell D. Taylor
General Maxwell Davenport "Max" Taylor was an United States Army four star general and diplomat of the mid-20th century, who served as the fifth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after having been appointed by the President of the United States John F...
to angrily berate Thieu, Thi, Ky and Cang in a private meeting and threaten to cut off aid if they did not reverse their decision. Although nettled by the outburst, Thi took a perverse pleasure in riling Taylor. He was seen by a CIA officer soon after, grinning. When asked why he was happy, Thi said "Because this is one of the happiest days of my life ... Today I told the American ambassador that he could not dictate to us." The dispute escalated for a few days as the junta threatened to expel Taylor, and Khanh went on a media offensive. A CIA informant reported that the arguments with Taylor had incensed the volatile Thi so much that he had privately vowed to "blow up everything" and "kill Phan Khac Suu, Tran Van Huong
Tran Van Huong
Trần Văn Hương was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the penultimate president of South Vietnam prior to its surrender to the communist forces of North Vietnam.-Biography:...
and Nguyen Khanh and put an end to all this. Then we will see what happens." However, the dispute galvanized the officers' nationalist sentiments and they rallied around the embattled Khanh for a time. They ignored Taylor's threats without suffering repercussions because the Americans were too intent on defeating the communists to cut funding in an attempt to force policy change in Saigon.
During this period, Thi became notorious for his involvement in infighting. A CIA dossier compiled in the 1960s said that Thi "is like a card player, placing his bets now on this leader, then on another; he plays his subordinates in the same manner. His only real objective is to continue the game." Time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
described him as "vain, ambitious, an inveterate intriguer". The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described him as "a coup specialist".
In late January 1965, Buddhist protests against junta-appointed civilian Prime Minister Tran Van Huong
Tran Van Huong
Trần Văn Hương was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the penultimate president of South Vietnam prior to its surrender to the communist forces of North Vietnam.-Biography:...
broke out across South Vietnam. The unrest came after Huong had unveiled plans to expand conscription and the war against the communists, and demonstrations were at their largest in I Corps, a Buddhist and anti-war escalation stronghold. In Hue, matters degenerated into a riot as 5,000 demonstrators attacked the United States Information Service Library and burned 8,000 books. Khanh and Thi were thought to have turned a blind eye to the rioting in order to allow the disorder to ruin the Huong government and allow them to inherit power. Khanh then decided to have the armed forces replace Huong, and on the morning of January 27, Khanh staged a bloodless putsch with the support of Thi and Ky. However, many of the officers had agreed to Khanh's plan in the hope that he would fail and discredit himself.
1965 coup against Nguyen Khanh
By this time, Taylor's relationship with Khanh had already broken down irreparably over the issue of the HNC, and the US became increasingly intent on a regime change as Khanh was becoming more reliant on Buddhist support, which they saw as an obstacle to their war expansion plans. In the first week of February, Taylor told the leading South Vietnamese officers that the US was "in no way propping up General Khanh or backing him in any fashion". Despite their mutual alignment with Buddhist activists, Thi was known to have become personally hostile to Khanh by this time. During this time, many officers were organizing separate plots against Khanh.Shortly before noon on February 19, the undetected communist agent, Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao
Pham Ngoc Thao
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, known to friends as Albert Thảo , a major provincial leader in South Vietnam and infiltrator of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, was a communist agent of the Vietminh and later the Vietnam People's Army...
and Phat used tanks and some infantry battalions to seize control of the national military headquarters, post office and the radio station of Saigon. The rebels failed to capture Ky, who fled to Tan Son Nhut, where he ran into Khanh, and the pair flew off together, while some junta figures were arrested there. Thao made a radio announcement stating his desire to get rid of Khanh, whom he described as a "dictator", while some of his fellow rebels made comments eulogizing Diem and indicating that they would start a hardline Catholic regime. This alarmed Thi, as the tone of the comments indicated that the rebels might punish people who had fought against Diem in the past, such as those involved in the 1960 and 1963 coups.
The Americans decided that while they wanted Khanh out, they did not approve of Thao and Phat and their polarizing policies, so they began to lobby Ky and Thi, the two most powerful officers apart from Khanh, to defeat both sides. While Ky used air power to stop the two sides from confrontation by threatening to bomb them if they opened fire, the Americans consulted with Thi and General Cao Van Vien
Cao Van Vien
Cao Văn Viên was a Vietnamese soldier who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and rose to the position of Chairman of the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff...
, the commander of III Corps surrounding Saigon. They wanted Thi and Vien to assemble units hostile to both Khanh and the rebels into a Capital Liberation Force. The Americans provided Thi with a plane so that he could fly in from his I Corps headquarters in Da Nang to lead ground forces against both Khanh and the rebels.
Late in the night, Phat and Thao met Ky in a meeting organized by the Americans, and insisted that Khanh be removed from power. The coup collapsed when, between midnight and dawn, anti-coup forces swept into the city; it was generally thought that the rebels did not put up a fight after being assured that Khanh would be ousted. Early in the morning, Thi, who gained the support of Ky, proposed a motion within the junta to remove Khanh and force him into exile, and the final vote was unanimous—Khanh was absent from the meeting. Ky, Thi and Thieu then became the key figures in a junta that continued with Suu and Prime Minister Phan Huy Quat
Phan Huy Quat
Dr. Phan Huy Quát served as acting Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam and also as Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam.-Biography:On July 2, 1949, Dr. Phan Huy Quát was appointed Minister of Education by Head of State Bảo Đại....
as a civilian front, although General Tran Van Minh
Tran Van Minh
Lieutenant General Sylvain Trần Văn Minh is a Vietnamese diplomat and a general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was sometimes known as “Little Minh” to distinguish him from the huge Dương Văn Minh.In 1942, he passed the entry exam for the St Cyr/St Maxient Military Academy organized...
became the nominal commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Thi was a senior member in the ten-man ruling junta, which wanted to expand the military effort against the communists, something that was opposed by the Buddhist protestors. Thi performed a balancing act and accommodated the Buddhists, wanting them to see him as a friend. He allowed the students to publish a magazine that was highly critical of military rule. Thi also manoeuvred to have his trusted subordinate Colonel Pham Van Lieu installed as the head of the national police—a body controlled by the army and effectively a military unit—increasing his political power. Following his ascension, Lieu replaced most of the Saigon district police chiefs with Thi supporters, raising the ire of some other prominent officers. The Buddhist activist leader Thich Tri Quang said that "Thi is nominally a Buddhist, but does not really care about religion". In June 1965, Quat and Suu resigned due to persistent disputes with the military and one another, and Thi had an opportunity to take power. Quat resigned and tried to directly hand over power to Thi, but this was not allowed by the generals. Nevertheless, Thi was offered the prime ministerial position by his colleagues. He was seen as having a similar level of political influence to Ky, and was voted in as prime minister by the ten-man junta. However, he declined the job offer on the private advice of Lieu, who told him that the political conditions were not ideal and that he should let a rival take control and fail before stepping in himself. According to Kahin, "to his [Thi's] own bitter disappointment, he was never given a second chance". Thi's blunder was a great relief to the Americans, who were aware of the fact that Thi—despite being anti-communist—had a hostility towards American advice. Ky and Thieu, both pro-American and supportive of a drastic escalation in anti-communist military activity, became prime minister and head of state respectively, the latter post being largely ceremonial. Regardless of who held the top jobs, no officer had firm control over his peers, and the respective corps commanders were effectively allowed to independently rule their own regions in return for ongoing support of the junta.
In the same year, US ground forces were introduced into combat roles in large numbers, and the first US Marines came ashore at Da Nang in Thi's I Corps. The flamboyant Thi organized for the American troops to be greeted by military bands, welcoming banners and teenage girls who garlanded them with flowers. This caused embarrassment to US military officials who felt the introduction of combat troops and resultant American casualties would not be received well by the public when contrasted with Thi's celebratory fanfare. Soon after the Americans were in position, Thi tipped off Marine Lieutenant General Lewis W. Walt about a major movement of Vietcong insurgents near Chu Lai
Chu Lai
Chu Lai is a sea port, urban and industrial area in Dung Quat Bay, Núi Thành district, Quang Nam province of Vietnam. The city is served by Chu Lai Airport.-Vietnam War:...
in Quang Tri Province
Quang Tri Province
Quảng Trị is a province on the North Central Coast of Vietnam, north of the former imperial capital of Huế.-Geography:Located in North Central Vietnam, Quang Tri Province is surrounded by Quang Binh Province on the north, Thua Thien-Hue Province on the south, Savannakhet Province of Laos on the...
near the border with North Vietnam. This resulted in Operation Starlite
Operation Starlite
Operation Starlite was the first offensive military action conducted by a purely U.S. military unit during the Vietnam War. The operation was launched based on intelligence provided by Major General Nguyen Chanh Thi, the commander of the South Vietnamese forces in northern I Corps area. Lieutenant...
, generally regarded as the first offensive action undertaken by the Americans in the Vietnam War. Occurring between August 18 and 24, it resulted in the 1st Vietcong Regiment being pushed to the coast.
Buddhist Uprising of 1966
Air Marshal Ky, the prime minister and the most powerful member of the junta feared Thi as a rival. Many political observers in Saigon thought Thi actively wanted to depose Ky, and regarded him as the biggest threat to the other officers' factions and the junta's stability. According to Ky’s memoirs, Thi was a "born intriguer" who had "left-wing inclinations". Time magazine published a piece in February 1966 claiming Thi was more dynamic than Ky and could seize power at any time. The historian Robert Topmiller thought Ky may have seen the article as destabilizing and therefore decided to move against Thi, who was known to have the "deep-rooted" loyalty of his soldiers. A large part of the South Vietnamese military was the Regional and Popular Forces, militia that served in their native areas, and they appreciated a commander with whom they had a regionalistic rapport. The support from the Buddhists, his troops and the regionalistic tendencies gave Thi a strong power base and made it hard for the other generals and the Americans to move against him. The outspoken Thi was also known as the general most likely to question and speak out against US policy.Stanley Karnow
Stanley Karnow is an American journalist and historian.After serving with the United States Army Air Forces in Asia during World War II, he graduated from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in 1947; in 1947 and 1948 he attended the Sorbonne, and from 1948 to 1949 the Institut d'Études Politiques de...
said of Ky and Thi: "Both flamboyant characters who wore gaudy uniforms and sported sinister moustaches, the two young officers had been friends, and their rivalry seemed to typify the personal struggles for power that chronically afflicted South Vietnam. But their dispute mirrored more than individual ambition." Both were also known for their colorful red berets. There were reports Thi was showing insubordination towards Ky. The US military commander in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland
William Westmoreland
William Childs Westmoreland was a United States Army General, who commanded US military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak , during the Tet Offensive. He adopted a strategy of attrition against the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese Army. He later served as...
, said that Thi once refused to report to Ky in Saigon when requested. On one occasion, when Ky came to I Corps to remonstrate with him, Thi turned to address his staff and mockingly asked "Should we pay attention to this funny little man from Saigon or should we ignore him?" Thi made this comment rather loudly, within earshot of Ky, and the Vietnamese politician Bui Diem
Bui Diem
Bùi Diễm was South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. He played a key role in the last desperate attempt to secure US$700 million in military aid to defend South Vietnam against the North in 1975...
thought that Ky viewed Thi's comment as a direct and calculated challenge to his authority. Time said Thi "ran it [I Corps] like a warlord of yore, obeying those edicts of the central government that suited him and blithely disregarding the rest". Of the four corps commanders, Thi was seen as the one with the most power and independence from Saigon. Kahin said that Ky may have feared that Thi would secede from Saigon and turn central Vietnam into an independent state. The CIA analyst Douglas Pike
Douglas Pike
Douglas E. Pike was a leading historian and foremost scholar on the Vietnam War and the Viet Cong based at Texas Tech University from 1997, was director of the Indochina Archive at the University of California, Berkeley from 1981 and prior to that served as Foreign Service Officer in Asia, with...
, who worked in Vietnam, speculated that this would have been a large part of Ky’s thinking, as Vietnamese people have often had strong regional tendencies.
Knowing that Westmoreland and the US Embassy were hostile to Thi and supportive of his leadership, Ky mustered the support of eight generals on the 10-man junta, meaning that along with his vote, there were nine officers in favor of Thi's removal. With Thi the only non-supporter, Ky and his colleagues removed Thi from the junta and his corps command on March 10, 1966. Thi claimed that during this meeting, knowing the other generals' antipathy to him, he nettled them by chastising their commitment to the country. He said the populace would never support the generals' war effort as long as they lived so comfortably, and he mocked them for ostentatiously flying their wives and mistresses to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
for shopping expeditions. The junta put Thi under house arrest pending his deportation from the country, and appointed General Nguyen Van Chuan
Nguyen Van Chuan
Major General Nguyen Van Chuan was an officer of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He served as the commander of I Corps, which oversaw the northernmost part of the country, from 14 March 1966 until 9 April of the same year, when he was replaced by Lieutenant General Ton That Dinh.Tucker, pp....
, the erstwhile commander of 1st Division and a Thi subordinate, as the new I Corps commander.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
, Westmoreland and the Defense Secretary Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
were supportive of the Ky-Thieu regime, their prosecution of the war against the communists and support of a US escalation, and they opposed Thi, regarding him as lacking firmness against communism. At a White House meeting after news of the dismissal came through, Taylor said that Thi was "a bad character and good riddance". Lodge wrote in a report that Thi "cherished some resentment against the Americans in respect of what he considers political and military interference and infringement of sovereignty", claiming he had contemplated "the possibility of establishing a government in the south which would be of such a character that the bulk of the population including the Vietcong would support it—and presumably neutralization of the country and possibly federation with the North would soon be possible". The Americans wanted to ease Thi out of the corridors of power by offering him an economic future in the US and free education for his children, and Lodge and Westmoreland personally spoke to him in an attempt to convince him to accept, but they were unsuccessful. On the other hand, Thi had the support of Walt, who commanded American forces in I Corps and was the senior advisor to Thi's forces. Unlike his countrymen, Walt thought highly of Thi's character and ability as an officer.
Ky said that Thi was leaving the country to receive medical treatment for his nasal passages, as well as a general health examination. An official announcement said that the junta "had considered and accepted General Thi's application for a vacation". Thi retorted that "The only sinus condition I have is from the stink of corruption." With the health story exposed as a sham, Ky gave a series of reasons for dismissing Thi, accusing him of being too left-wing, ruling I Corps like a warlord, having a mistress who was suspected of being a communist, and being too conspiratorial. Ky knew that Thi supported negotiations with the communists as a means of ending the war, and had a history of consistently removing officials and military figures who promoted such a policy, but did not publicly mention this as a reason.
Thi's dismissal provoked the Buddhist Uprising, led by the "Struggle Movement". Thi was immensely popular in the Buddhist stronghold of Hue, a city of approximately 120,000, and civil unrest erupted throughout the region. When he returned to the former imperial capital five days after being relieved of his command, around 20,000 supporters mobbed him, shouting and trying to touch him. This was part of a gamble by Ky to allow Thi back to his home city in an attempt to placate the dismayed locals, but it did not work. A general strike incapacited 90% of Da Nang, the second biggest city in South Vietnam and the main port in central Vietnam.
During a rally, a Buddhist student leader cried "Do you want the general to stay with us?" to which the students and other protestors answered, "Yes! Yes!" Thi told the large crowd to "Think about our country, not about me". During the tongue-in-cheek speech, he made sarcastic references about his need to go to the US for health treatment. He told a journalist that he would accept "any position which is useful for the country", leading some to think that he wanted Ky or Thieu's job. According to Time magazine, Thi's speeches showed he "was obviously torn between a desire to rally support for a comeback and his soldier's distaste for adding to dissension". Kahin said that "despite the circumspection of his public addresses, [they] undoubtedly helped encourage the Struggle Movement."
The various dissidents formed a pro-Thi, anti-Ky organization called the Military-Civilian Struggle Committee, better known as the Struggle Movement. Their message and influence quickly spread as they called for the end of military rule and took over radio stations and government buildings in I Corps. They intensified their calls for Ky to fulfil his promise to hold democratic elections. Some I Corps units supportive of Thi then decided to join the Struggle Movement and ceased military operations against the Vietcong, instead starting a stand-off against Ky. Throughout April and May there were tense incidents as units loyal to the junta were flown in from Saigon, and the factions came close to warfare.
Thi publicly disassociated himself from the Struggle Movement. However, he remained in I Corps and was still regarded as a significant political influence and motivating factor for the Struggle Movement. Regardless of what he may have thought, the discontent against Ky was by then too much for him to control even if he had wanted to. By June, ARVN loyalists, with the help of the American forces, prevailed. Their superior numbers convinced many in the Struggle Movement to back down and realign with the government, and those who refused were militarily defeated, often in bitter street-to-street fighting. While the Struggle Movement was finally ebbing away, Thi agreed to meet with Ky at an American air base in Chu Lai
Chu Lai
Chu Lai is a sea port, urban and industrial area in Dung Quat Bay, Núi Thành district, Quang Nam province of Vietnam. The city is served by Chu Lai Airport.-Vietnam War:...
to reach a settlement, seeing as the junta was going to prevail in any case. Thi agreed to the original offers of subsidies and the cover story of a medical trip.
Exile
After the uprising was crushed, Thi was deported to the US and lived in a small apartment on Connecticut Avenue on Washington's Dupont Circle. Although the apartment was small, Kahin, who interviewed Thi after his exile, described it as "handsome". However, The New York Times called it "shabby". Thi left his uniforms in his closet in Vietnam and disposed of all his medals. The only thing he kept from his military career was an army blanket. As part of his removal from South Vietnam, the American government gave him a substantial living allowance and paid for all his children's education fees. Around 1973, the payments were suddenly discontinued. During his life in Washington, Thi spent much of his time at the Library of CongressLibrary of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, reading books about Asian history. Outspoken and still supported by many Buddhists, Thi tried to return to South Vietnam in February 1972, but troops of the Catholic President Thieu surrounded his plane on the tarmac and prevented him from disembarking; the aircraft eventually took off and returned to the US.
Thi lived in the American capital until 1975, when he moved to Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
. He lived in the southern state for a short period before settling in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
. He worked in a variety of jobs and occasionally made speeches at universities and to Vietnamese American
Vietnamese American
A Vietnamese American is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American group....
organizations and meetings. According to his relatives, Thi remained popular among the Vietnamese American community, most of whom had come to the US after the fall of Saigon
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front on April 30, 1975...
and were stridently anti-communist. His family said their refugee compatriots often recognized him, and usually refused to let him pay for meals at their restaurants. Thi's first marriage to Oanh Nguyen ended in divorce. They had five children, four sons and a daughter. He later remarried Catherine Nguyen, who bore him a daughter. In all, Thi had six children and 12 grandchildren. He died at the Hospice of Lancaster County from heart ailments on June 23, 2007.