Pham Ngoc Thao - in Hiding, and Death

In Hiding, and Death

While in hiding in Catholic villages, Thảo expressed his willingness to surrender and cooperate with Quát's government, if he and approximately fifty officers involved in the coup were granted amnesty. He also offered to go into exile in the United States, where his family had moved when he was sent there for training in 1964. In May 1965, a military tribunal sentenced both Thảo and Phát to death in absentia. The death sentence was attributed to the influence of Thi, who had assigned hit squads to look for him. After the conclusion of the trial, it was announced that the Armed Forces Council would disband and give the civilians more control in running the government. Thi was believed to have agreed to the transfer of power to a civilian government in return for Thảo's death. As a result, Thảo had little choice but to attempt to seize power in order to save himself and he and Thi began to manoeuvre against one another.

On 20 May, a half dozen officers and around forty civilians, most or all of whom were Catholic, were arrested on charges of attempting to assassinate Quát and kidnap Thi and Kỳ. Several of the arrested were known supporters of Thảo and believed to be abetting him in evading the authorities. Despite this, Thảo himself managed to escape, even as a USD 30,000 bounty was put on him by the junta. On 16 July 1965, he was reported dead in unclear circumstances; an official report claimed that he died of injuries while on a helicopter en route to Saigon, after being captured north of the city. However, it is generally assumed that he was murdered or tortured to death on the orders of some military officials. One report holds that a Catholic priest betrayed Thảo, while another claims General Nguyen Van Thieu caught him. In his memoirs, Kỳ claimed Thảo had been captured by police in Saigon and "died in jail a few weeks later, probably from a beating". After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, a conspiracy theory emerged, maintaining that Thảo went underground and worked in counterintelligence for the communist Central Office of South Vietnam, helping to hunt down Vietcong cadres who had defected to Saigon.