Nguyen Van Nhung
Encyclopedia
Major Nguyễn Văn Nhung was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
(ARVN). After joining the French Army
in 1944 during the colonial era of Vietnam
, he soon met and became the aide-de-camp
and bodyguard of Dương Văn Minh
, and spent the rest of his career in this role as Minh rose up the ranks to become a general. Nhung and Minh later transferred to the French-backed Vietnamese National Army
(VNA) during the First Indochina War
and he became an officer; the VNA then became the ARVN after the creation of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam
). A soft-spoken man, Nhung was a professional military hitman
who was reputed to have etched a line on his revolver
for each of his killings, and ended the lives of 50 people during his career.
Nhung was best known for his role in the November 1963 coup d'état
led by Minh that ousted President Ngô Đình Diệm from office. At the end of the coup, Nhung executed Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, having shot Colonel Lê Quang Tung
, the loyalist commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
, into a grave at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base
the day before. An investigation led by General Trần Văn Đôn
, another coup plotter, determined that Nhung had repeatedly stabbed and shot the Ngô brothers while escorting them back to military headquarters after having arrested them. It was widely believed that Minh had ordered Nhung to execute the Ngô brothers. Following Nguyễn Khánh
's successful January 1964 coup
against Minh's military junta
, Nhung died in mysterious circumstances, the only fatality in the regime change. At the time, various conflicting reports of his death through gunshot and strangulation abounded, in addition to speculation as to whether it was a murder or suicide. It is now believed that Khánh ordered the execution of Nhung. The major's death sparked public demonstrations by those who believed that his demise was a sign that Khánh was going to restore the remaining members of Diệm's regime back to power.
; and, in 1944, Nhung joined the French Army, where he soon met Dương Văn Minh
, who became his superior for the next two decades. Nhung would spend most of his career as Minh's aide-de-camp and bodyguard. He was described as a quiet and slightly built man who smoked a pipe. Following the end of World War II, the French set up the State of Vietnam
, an associated state within the French Union
, and created the Vietnamese National Army
(VNA), and both Minh and Nhung transferred to the VNA, where they were trained and commissioned as officers. As of November 1963, Nhung had killed 47 people in his role as a hitman or executioner and had risen to the rank of captain.
On 1 November 1963, a group of ARVN generals, led by Minh, orchestrated a coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm
. The plotters summoned a group of ARVN officers to the Joint General Staff headquarters at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base
, on the pretext that they were going to attend a lunch meeting. Among those invited was the loyalist commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
, Colonel Lê Quang Tung
. At 13:30 (UTC 06:30), General Trần Văn Đôn
announced that a coup was taking place. Most of the officers rose to applaud, but Tung did not, refusing to join the coup. He was taken away by Nhung, all the while shouting, “Remember who gave you your stars!”
At 16:45, Tung was forced at gunpoint to talk to Diệm on the phone, telling the president that he had ordered his special forces to surrender. Minh then ordered Nhung to execute the Diệm loyalist. Tung had failed to convince the president to surrender and still commanded the loyalty of his men. The other generals had little sympathy for Tung, because the special forces’ commander had disguised his men in regular army uniforms and framed the generals for the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids
in August. The generals were well aware of the threat that Tung posed; they had discussed his elimination during their planning, having contemplated waging an offensive against his special forces. At nightfall, Nhung took Tung and Major Le Quang Trieu—his brother and deputy—hands tied, into a jeep and drove them to the edge of the air base. Forced to kneel over two freshly dug holes, the brothers were shot into their graves and buried.
By the next morning, the loyalist forces had collapsed. Diệm and his younger brother and chief adviser, Ngô Đình Nhu, agreed to surrender, and coup plotter Đôn promised them safe passage out of the country. In the meantime, Minh left Joint General Staff (JGS) headquarters and travelled to Gia Long Palace
in a sedan, accompanied by Nhung. He arrived at the palace at 08:00 in full military uniform to supervise the arrest of Diệm and Nhu for the surrender ceremony.
However, the Ngô brothers were not there—they had escaped from Gia Long Palace
via a secret tunnel to a safehouse in Cholon the previous night. Diệm and Nhu had communicated with the generals via a direct phone link from the safehouse to the palace, giving the false impression that they were still besieged. Having been informed of Diệm and Nhu’s whereabouts, Minh dispatched a group of officers and troops—which included Nhung—to arrest
them. He was aware that the brothers had left the safehouse to go to St. Francis Xavier’s Church. Led by General Mai Hữu Xuân
, the officers took an M-113 armoured personnel carrier
(APC), four jeeps, and several soldiers to Cholon. As they left, Minh gestured to Nhung with two fingers, taken to be an order to shoot the brothers.
The soldiers arrived at the church and promptly arrested the brothers, tying them with their hands behind their backs. After the arrest, Nhung and Major Dương Hiếu Nghĩa
sat with Diệm and Nhu inside the APC, and the convoy
departed for Tân Sơn Nhứt. They stopped at a railroad crossing on the return trip where, by all accounts, the brothers were assassinated. An investigation by Đôn later determined that Nghĩa had shot the brothers at point-blank range
with a semi-automatic firearm
and that Nhung sprayed them with bullets before repeatedly stabbing their bodies with a knife.
During the journey back, Nghĩa gave his account of the assassinations to military headquarters: “As we rode back to the Joint General Staff headquarters, Diệm sat silently, but Nhu and the captain [Nhung] began to insult each other. I don’t know who started it. The name-calling grew passionate. The captain had hated Nhu before. Now he was charged with emotion.” When the convoy reached a train crossing, Nghĩa said that Nhung “lunged at Nhu with a bayonet and stabbed him again and again, maybe fifteen or twenty times. Still in a rage, he turned to Diệm, took out his revolver and shot him in the head. Then he looked back at Nhu, who was lying on the floor, twitching. He put a bullet into his head too. Neither Diệm nor Nhu ever defended themselves. Their hands were tied.”
Đôn and other officers were stunned when the corpses arrived at JGS headquarters. Đôn confronted Minh in his office, and while they were remonstrating, Xuân entered the room. Unaware of Đôn’s presence, Xuân snapped to attention
and stated in French
, “Mission accomplie”. Despite Đôn's investigation, nobody was ever prosecuted for the killings.
known as the Military Revolutionary Council. After three months of rule, which was criticised for its lack of direction, General Nguyen Khanh
deposed Minh in a bloodless coup before dawn on 30 January 1964. Minh was briefly put under house arrest
, and the next day, reports surfaced that Nhung was dead, the only fatality in the coup or its aftermath.
There was initially confusion as various conflicting reports of Nhung's demise surfaced, one source telling journalists that Nhung lived in a cottage within the grounds of Minh's villa and shot himself outside his house. These informants speculated that Nhung committed suicide to avoid having to live to see Minh being demoted or humiliated. The time of this incident was reported to be 21:00. Other reports at the time said that Nhung was found dead as a result of strangulation at the Joint General Staff headquarters. According to variations of this line, Nhung either hanged himself in custody or was murdered by an unknown hand.
More recently, historians have come to believe that Khánh ordered that Nhung be liquidated and that the earlier reports were deliberately false material disseminated by Khánh through his subordinates. According to this now-established account, one of Khánh's men took Nhung to the garden of a Saigon villa and forced him to kneel, before executing him with a single gunshot to the back of the head. Nhung's death led to protests among the Saigon public, who took the killing to be a signal that the remaining members of Diệm’s regime would be reinstated to positions of authority.
Nhung was buried on February 1, a day after his death, in the presence of family and friends, at Gia Dinh cemetery. Nhung's death was never formally investigated by an independent body and the official line of suicide continued to be propagated. Minh was said to have been deeply affected by the loss of his long-time aide, and it was reported that the general erected an altar dedicated to Nhung's memory in his office, with the major's portrait on it. Shortly after the coup, Khánh made Minh the figurehead head of state under American advice, hoping that the presence of the popular general would help to unify the armed forces, but Minh made little attempt to help Khánh, partly because of resentment over the loss of his aide.
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). After joining 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...
in 1944 during the colonial era of Vietnam
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....
, he soon met and became the aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
and bodyguard of Dương Văn 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...
, and spent the rest of his career in this role as Minh rose up the ranks to become a general. Nhung and Minh later transferred to the French-backed 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) during the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
and he became an officer; the VNA then became the ARVN after the creation of the Republic of Vietnam (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...
). A soft-spoken man, Nhung was a professional military hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
who was reputed to have etched a line on his revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
for each of his killings, and ended the lives of 50 people during his career.
Nhung was best known for his role in the November 1963 coup d'état
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...
led by Minh that ousted President Ngô Đình Diệm from office. At the end of the coup, Nhung executed Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, having shot Colonel Lê Quang Tung
Le Quang Tung
Colonel Lê Quang Tung was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngo Dinh Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem. A former servant of the Ngô family, Tung's military background was in security and counterespionage...
, the loyalist commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . Following the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955, the Special Forces were formed at Nha Trang in February 1956...
, into a grave at Tân Sơn Nhứt 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...
the day before. An investigation led by General Trần Văn Đôn
Tran 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:...
, another coup plotter, determined that Nhung had repeatedly stabbed and shot the Ngô brothers while escorting them back to military headquarters after having arrested them. It was widely believed that Minh had ordered Nhung to execute the Ngô brothers. Following Nguyễn Khánh
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,...
's successful January 1964 coup
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...
against Minh's military junta
Military junta
A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...
, Nhung died in mysterious circumstances, the only fatality in the regime change. At the time, various conflicting reports of his death through gunshot and strangulation abounded, in addition to speculation as to whether it was a murder or suicide. It is now believed that Khánh ordered the execution of Nhung. The major's death sparked public demonstrations by those who believed that his demise was a sign that Khánh was going to restore the remaining members of Diệm's regime back to power.
Early career
Nhung was born in either 1919 or early 1920. At the time, Vietnam was a French colony within French IndochinaFrench 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, in 1944, Nhung joined the French Army, where he soon met Dương Văn 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 became his superior for the next two decades. Nhung would spend most of his career as Minh's aide-de-camp and bodyguard. He was described as a quiet and slightly built man who smoked a pipe. Following the end of World War II, the French set up 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...
, an associated state within 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 created 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...
(VNA), and both Minh and Nhung transferred to the VNA, where they were trained and commissioned as officers. As of November 1963, Nhung had killed 47 people in his role as a hitman or executioner and had risen to the rank of captain.
Tung assassination
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...
. The plotters summoned a group of ARVN officers to the Joint General Staff headquarters at Tân Sơn Nhứt 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...
, on the pretext that they were going to attend a lunch meeting. Among those invited was the loyalist commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . Following the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955, the Special Forces were formed at Nha Trang in February 1956...
, Colonel Lê Quang Tung
Le Quang Tung
Colonel Lê Quang Tung was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngo Dinh Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem. A former servant of the Ngô family, Tung's military background was in security and counterespionage...
. At 13:30 (UTC 06:30), General Trần Văn Đôn
Tran 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:...
announced that a coup was taking place. Most of the officers rose to applaud, but Tung did not, refusing to join the coup. He was taken away by Nhung, all the while shouting, “Remember who gave you your stars!”
At 16:45, Tung was forced at gunpoint to talk to Diệm on the phone, telling the president that he had ordered his special forces to surrender. Minh then ordered Nhung to execute the Diệm loyalist. Tung had failed to convince the president to surrender and still commanded the loyalty of his men. The other generals had little sympathy for Tung, because the special forces’ commander had disguised his men in regular army uniforms and framed the generals for the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids
Xa Loi Pagoda raids
The Xa Loi Pagoda raids were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagodas in the major cities of South Vietnam shortly after midnight on August 21, 1963...
in August. The generals were well aware of the threat that Tung posed; they had discussed his elimination during their planning, having contemplated waging an offensive against his special forces. At nightfall, Nhung took Tung and Major Le Quang Trieu—his brother and deputy—hands tied, into a jeep and drove them to the edge of the air base. Forced to kneel over two freshly dug holes, the brothers were shot into their graves and buried.
Diệm and Nhu assassination
Ho Chi Minh City Museum
Ho Chi Minh City Museum is an historical site in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The museum is situated at the corner of Lý Tự Trọng street and Nam Kỳ khởi nghĩa street, near Reunification Palace, originally Independence Palace.-History:The building now occupied by the museum was built during the...
in a sedan, accompanied by Nhung. He arrived at the palace at 08:00 in full military uniform to supervise the arrest of Diệm and Nhu for the surrender ceremony.
However, the Ngô brothers were not there—they had escaped from Gia Long Palace
Ho Chi Minh City Museum
Ho Chi Minh City Museum is an historical site in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The museum is situated at the corner of Lý Tự Trọng street and Nam Kỳ khởi nghĩa street, near Reunification Palace, originally Independence Palace.-History:The building now occupied by the museum was built during the...
via a secret tunnel to a safehouse in Cholon the previous night. Diệm and Nhu had communicated with the generals via a direct phone link from the safehouse to the palace, giving the false impression that they were still besieged. Having been informed of Diệm and Nhu’s whereabouts, Minh dispatched a group of officers and troops—which included Nhung—to arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
them. He was aware that the brothers had left the safehouse to go to St. Francis Xavier’s Church. Led by General Mai Hữu Xuân
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 officers took an M-113 armoured personnel carrier
M113 Armored Personnel Carrier
The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier that has formed the backbone of the United States Army's mechanized infantry units from the time of its first fielding in Vietnam in April 1962. The M113 was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S...
(APC), four jeeps, and several soldiers to Cholon. As they left, Minh gestured to Nhung with two fingers, taken to be an order to shoot the brothers.
Duong Hieu Nghia
Colonel Dương Hiếu Nghĩa, born in Sa Đéc in 1925, was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Nghia graduated from the Da Lat National Military Academy. During the Vietnam War, he served in various infantry and armored units. His highest administrative position was Province Chief of Vinh...
sat with Diệm and Nhu inside the APC, and the convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
departed for Tân Sơn Nhứt. They stopped at a railroad crossing on the return trip where, by all accounts, the brothers were assassinated. An investigation by Đôn later determined that Nghĩa had shot the brothers at point-blank range
Point-blank range
In external ballistics, point-blank range is the distance between a firearm and a target of a given size such that the bullet in flight is expected to strike the target without adjusting the elevation of the firearm. The point-blank range will vary with the firearm and its particular ballistic...
with a semi-automatic firearm
Semi-automatic firearm
A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...
and that Nhung sprayed them with bullets before repeatedly stabbing their bodies with a knife.
During the journey back, Nghĩa gave his account of the assassinations to military headquarters: “As we rode back to the Joint General Staff headquarters, Diệm sat silently, but Nhu and the captain [Nhung] began to insult each other. I don’t know who started it. The name-calling grew passionate. The captain had hated Nhu before. Now he was charged with emotion.” When the convoy reached a train crossing, Nghĩa said that Nhung “lunged at Nhu with a bayonet and stabbed him again and again, maybe fifteen or twenty times. Still in a rage, he turned to Diệm, took out his revolver and shot him in the head. Then he looked back at Nhu, who was lying on the floor, twitching. He put a bullet into his head too. Neither Diệm nor Nhu ever defended themselves. Their hands were tied.”
Đôn and other officers were stunned when the corpses arrived at JGS headquarters. Đôn confronted Minh in his office, and while they were remonstrating, Xuân entered the room. Unaware of Đôn’s presence, Xuân snapped to attention
At attention
The position of At attention, or Standing at attention is a military posture which involves the following general postures:* Standing upright with an assertive and correct posture: famously "chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach in"....
and stated in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, “Mission accomplie”. Despite Đôn's investigation, nobody was ever prosecuted for the killings.
Death
Following the coup, Nhung's commanding officer, General Minh, became the President of South Vietnam, ruling through a military juntaMilitary junta
A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...
known as the Military Revolutionary Council. After three months of rule, which was criticised for its lack of direction, General 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,...
deposed Minh in a bloodless coup before dawn on 30 January 1964. Minh was briefly put under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
, and the next day, reports surfaced that Nhung was dead, the only fatality in the coup or its aftermath.
There was initially confusion as various conflicting reports of Nhung's demise surfaced, one source telling journalists that Nhung lived in a cottage within the grounds of Minh's villa and shot himself outside his house. These informants speculated that Nhung committed suicide to avoid having to live to see Minh being demoted or humiliated. The time of this incident was reported to be 21:00. Other reports at the time said that Nhung was found dead as a result of strangulation at the Joint General Staff headquarters. According to variations of this line, Nhung either hanged himself in custody or was murdered by an unknown hand.
More recently, historians have come to believe that Khánh ordered that Nhung be liquidated and that the earlier reports were deliberately false material disseminated by Khánh through his subordinates. According to this now-established account, one of Khánh's men took Nhung to the garden of a Saigon villa and forced him to kneel, before executing him with a single gunshot to the back of the head. Nhung's death led to protests among the Saigon public, who took the killing to be a signal that the remaining members of Diệm’s regime would be reinstated to positions of authority.
Nhung was buried on February 1, a day after his death, in the presence of family and friends, at Gia Dinh cemetery. Nhung's death was never formally investigated by an independent body and the official line of suicide continued to be propagated. Minh was said to have been deeply affected by the loss of his long-time aide, and it was reported that the general erected an altar dedicated to Nhung's memory in his office, with the major's portrait on it. Shortly after the coup, Khánh made Minh the figurehead head of state under American advice, hoping that the presence of the popular general would help to unify the armed forces, but Minh made little attempt to help Khánh, partly because of resentment over the loss of his aide.