Pham Ngoc Thao - 1965 Attempted Coup

1965 Attempted Coup

In late December 1964, Thảo was summoned back to Saigon by Khánh, who correctly suspected him and Khiêm of plotting together with Washington. Thảo suspected Khánh was attempting to have him killed, so he went underground upon returning to Saigon, and began plotting in earnest, having been threatened with being charged for desertion. He sheltered in a house belonging to Tang's friend. The ruling junta appealed to Thảo in newspaper advertisements and broadcasts to follow orders to report, but he ignored them. In mid-January 1965, the regime called for him to report to his superiors in the ARVN, warning that he would be "considered guilty of abandoning his post with all the consequences of such a situation" if he failed to do so.

Due to his Catholic background, Thảo was able to recruit Diệm loyalists such as Phát. With Khánh's grip on power shaky, an anonymous source said that Thảo was worried about how he would be treated if someone else took over: "Thao acted first, out of fear that if he did not, the other generals would overthrow Khanh and get rid of him as well. He knew that if the others overthrew Khanh his fate would be worse than Khanh's." During this time, Thảo kept in touch with elements of the CIA in an attempt to get American backing. Meanwhile, Khiêm had been putting pressure on Khánh for over two months by charging him and the Buddhists of seeking a "neutralist solution" and "negotiating with the communists". At the same time, Khánh's relationship with the Americans—particularly Ambassador and retired General Maxwell Taylor — had broken down over a series of policy disputes and personal arguments, and the Americans were trying to encourage Khánh's colleagues to overthrow him so that more hawkish policies could be enacted. The other generals wanted to overthrow Khánh and were aware that Thảo — who was widely distrusted — was planning to make a move. They anticipated trouble in trying to keep their subordinates, who were becoming impatient with Khánh's ongoing tenure, from joining Thảo. Between January and February, Thảo continued to finalize the details of his own counter-coup, using the contacts he had cultivated over the past decades.

Phát and other pro-Diệm officers opposed the Buddhist influence being exerted on Khánh. Thảo consulted Kỳ — who wanted to seize power for himself — before the plot, and exhorted him to join the coup, but the air force chief claimed that he was remaining neutral. Thảo thus believed Kỳ would not intervene against him, but Kỳ was strongly opposed to Thảo and Phát. American intelligence analysts had believed that General Don was involved in the coup with Phát and Thảo, but this was proven false when the action started. Eight months after the coup was over, Don told the American historian George McTurnan Kahin that he had been plotting with Thảo, who had planned for him to become Defense Minister and Chief of Staff of the military, but that the Dai Viet and Thảo's Catholic civilian allies had insisted on installing Khiêm, a Catholic. A month before the coup, American intelligence analysts had believed that Thảo was planning to replace Khánh as commander-in-chief with Don.

Shortly before noon on 19 February, he used around fifty tanks, their crew and a mixture of infantry battalions to seize control of the military headquarters, the post office and the radio station of Saigon. He surrounded the home of General Khánh and Gia Long Palace, the residence of head of state Phan Khắc Sửu. The tanks were led by Colonel Dương Hiếu Nghĩa, a Catholic member of the Dai Viet. The country was still trying to find stability, with Phan Huy Quát being appointed prime minister just three days earlier. Khánh managed to escape and flee to Vung Tau. His plane lifted off from Tan Son Nhut Air Base, the country's military headquarters, just as rebel tanks were rolling in, attempting to block the runway. Thảo's men tried to capture the Saigon base of the Republic of Vietnam Navy, and its commander, Admiral Chung Tấn Cang, but were foiled, but they did capture a number of junta members at Tan Son Nhut.

Thảo made a radio announcement stating that the sole objective of his military operation was to get rid of Khánh, whom he described as a "dictator". He said that he intended to recall Khiêm to Saigon to lead the Armed Forces Council in place of Khánh, but would retain the civilian cabinet that answered to the generals. In doing so, he caught Khiêm off guard, asleep in his Maryland home. When informed of what was happening, Khiêm sent a cable in which he pledged "total support" to the plot. The coup group made pro-Diệm announcements, claiming then-U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. "was wrong in encouraging the coup against Diem rather than correcting mistakes".

A Catholic rebel officer made a speech extolling Diệm, and mourning his loss. This gave the impression that the coup plotters wanted to roll back the country to a Diệm-era position and punish those who had been involved in Diệm's overthrow and execution. Thảo's group also promised to aggressively fight the Vietcong and cooperate with the United States. Throughout the day, a series of anti-Khánh speeches were broadcast on radio, and the rebels claimed to have the support of four divisions, something that was regarded as dubious. U.S. government analysts concluded that the rebellion was "primarily a move by die-hard neo-Diemists and Catholic militants, disturbed at the rise of Buddhist influence, opposed to Khánh and — in a vague, ill-thought way — desirous of turning back the clock and undoing some of the results of the November 1963 ouster of Diem." Among the civilians linked to Thảo's plot were Catholic academics and a militant priest.

As Diệm had strongly discriminated along religious lines, the rebels' commented caused a negative response among the Buddhist majority. The Buddhist activist monk Thich Tam Chau called on Buddhists to support the incumbent junta. The pro-Diệm speeches also alarmed pro-Buddhist and anti-Diệm generals, such as Nguyễn Chánh Thi and Nguyen Huu Co, who had been part of the failed 1960 and successful 1963 coups against Diệm respectively. They thought that Thảo and Phat might seek revenge, driving many anti-Diệm officers who may have otherwise been neutral or sympathetic to the coup, to swing more towards Khánh.

Although Taylor and US military commander General William Westmoreland wanted Khánh out, the pro-Diệm political ideology expressed by Thảo's supporters alienated them, as they feared that the coup plotters would destabilize and polarize the country if they took power. The Americans worried that Phat and Thảo could galvanize support for Khánh through their extreme views, which had the potential to provoke large-scale sectarian divisions, playing into the hands of the communists and hindering wider American objectives. They were also worried by Thảo's intention to remove Quát and the civilian government, whom he saw was "too susceptible to Buddhist peacemongering". The U.S. saw civilian participation in governance as a necessity. They worried that a Khánh victory would enhance his prestige, so they wanted to see some third force emerge and defeat both the Thảo and Khánh factions. Westmoreland and Taylor decided to work for the failure of both Thảo and Khánh, and helped organize US advisers for the purpose.

Phat was supposed to seize the Bien Hoa Air Base to prevent air force chief Kỳ from mobilising air power against them, but he failed to reach the airfield before Kỳ, who circled Tan Son Nhut and threatened to bomb the rebels. Most of the forces of the III and IV Corps surrounding the capital disliked both Khánh and the rebels, and took no action. However as night came, senior military opinion began to turn against Thảo and Phát, although it was not clear at this stage whether the anti-Thảo forces being organised and led by Thi were hostile to Khánh as well.

At 20:00, Phát and Thảo met with Kỳ, and insisted that Khánh be removed from power. The coup collapsed when, between midnight and dawn, anti-Thảo forces swept into the city from the south along with some components of the 7th Airborne Brigade loyal to Kỳ from Bien Hoa in the north. Whether the rebels were genuinely defeated by the overwhelming show of strength or whether a deal was struck with Kỳ to end the revolt in exchange for Khánh's removal is disputed, although a large majority support the latter. According to the latter version, Phát and Thảo agreed to free the members of the Armed Forces Council that they had arrested and withdraw in exchange for Khánh's complete removal from power. Possibly as a means of saving face, Phát and Thảo were given an appointment with the figurehead chief of state Sửu, who was under close control by the junta, to "order" him to sign a decree stripping Khánh of his military leadership, and organizing a meeting of the junta and Prime Minister Quát's civilian cabinet. During the early morning, while the radio station was still in the hands of Thảo's men, a message attributed to Sửu was read out; it claimed that the chief of state had sacked Khánh. However, the authenticity of the announcement was put into doubt when loyalists took control of the station and Sửu spoke in person, claiming otherwise. There were no injuries or deaths in the coup.

Before fleeing, Thảo broadcast a premature message claiming the coup had been effective in removing Khánh, and the Armed Forces Council later adopted a vote of no confidence in Khánh later that day, and forced him into exile. Later in the morning, while on the run, Thảo made a broadcast using a military radio system to call for Khanh's departure and defend his actions, which he described as being in the best interest of the nation. Phat and Thảo were stripped of their ranks, but nothing was initially done as far as prosecuting or sentencing them for their involvement in the coup.