Pham Ngoc Thao - Participation in Military Junta

Participation in Military Junta

See also: 1964 South Vietnamese coup and September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt

After the fall of the Diệm regime, Thảo was designated by the head of state Minh and the civilian Prime Minister Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ to create the nucleus of a group called the Council of Notables, and promote it to the public. which, as an interim body of prominent civilians, would advise the military junta before it handed over power to an elected legislature under civilian rule. The Council of 60 people, 58 men and 2 women, held its first meeting on 1 January 1964 in Saigon. The council was composed almost entirely of well-known professionals and academics and, as such, was hardly representative of South Vietnamese society; there were no delegates from the agricultural or labour sectors of the economy. It gained a reputation for being a forum of debate, rather than a means of enacting policy change and government programs for the populace. Thơ and Minh assigned Thảo with the task of encouraging a transition to democracy by facilitating the formation of a few political parties. This was ineffective, as many political parties with only a handful of members sprang up and squabbled. Within 45 days of the coup, 62 parties had formed but nothing meaningful resulted. In the end, these efforts proved to be irrelevant as Minh's junta and the accompanying Council of Notables were overthrown before the end of the month. During this period, Thảo served as the head of military security and played a role in replacing Colonel Đỗ Khắc Mai with Nguyễn Cao Kỳ as the head of the Vietnam Air Force. In the aftermath of the coup, Vietcong attacks increased markedly amid infighting among the Saigon leadership, which Thảo had helped to stir up.

The generals sent Thảo to Fort Leavenworth in the United States for six months to learn conventional warfare tactics. He also spent a month in England before returning to Vietnam. By this time, Minh's junta had been replaced in a 1964 January coup by Khánh. It is suspected that one of the generals' motives for deploying Thảo overseas was his continual involvement in plotting. Khánh appointed Thảo as his press officer as well as an unofficial political adviser.

Later that same year, Khánh became involved in a power struggle with his deputy Khiêm as well as Minh, who had been retained as the titular head of state. Thảo was a close friend of Khiêm, so when Khánh prevailed in the power struggle, Khánh despatched Khiêm to Washington as the ambassador with Thảo was his press attaché. In August 1964, Khánh's leadership became increasingly troubled after he tried to augment his powers by declaring a state of emergency. This only provoked large-scale protests and riots calling for an end to military rule, with Buddhist activists at the forefront. Fearful of losing power, Khánh began making concessions to the protesters and promised democracy in the near future, which encouraged more groups to demand changes, and Khánh demoted certain Catholic pro-Diệm supporters. On 13 September, a Catholic-dominated group led by Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức, both of whom had been demoted, moved troops into Saigon but then withdrew after it became obvious they did not have the numbers to remove Khánh. Khiêm and Thảo were implicated in helping to plot Phát and Đức's attempted putsch; both were sent abroad by Khánh.