1964 South Vietnamese 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 Diem. The coup was bloodless and took less than a few hours—after power had been seized Minh's aide and bodyguard, Major Nguyen Van Nhung was arrested and summarily executed.

Distrusted by his colleagues because of his tendency to change sides and his reputation as an intriguer, Khanh was assigned to I Corps in the far north of the country after Diem's overthrow to keep him away from the capital Saigon. Khanh, who had played a minor role in Diem's overthrow, joined forces with Generals Tran Thien Khiem, Nguyen Van Thieu, who felt they deserved better posts in the junta, and Colonels Nguyen Chanh Thi and Do Mau, the latter being the director of military security under Diem and an effective strategist.

During the three months of his rule, Minh, his civilian Prime Minister Nguyen Ngoc Tho, and his leading military colleagues Generals Tran Van Don, Le Van Kim, attempted to defeat the National Liberation Front (Vietcong) non-militarily. They felt that a battleground victory was impractical or impossible and pursued a strategy of trying to politically integrate the insurgents into the mainstream. This meant an intensification of rural non-military initiatives and a reduction in armed operations. This brought them into conflict with the United States, who had plans to start bombing North Vietnam. At the same time, in January 1964, the French government of President Charles de Gaulle proposed the neutralization of Vietnam and the withdrawal of American forces. Khanh and his fellow plotters exploited this to spread rumors that Minh's junta was about to make a deal with Hanoi and then gained the support of the US, most notably through the chief of military forces in Vietnam, General Paul Harkins, who supported Diem and opposed Minh's November coup.

Before dawn on January 30, the coup forces caught the junta completely off-guard and seized power without a fight. Khanh grudgingly decided to keep Minh as a figurehead chief of state while maintaining real power in his hands as Minh was popular within the army and the Americans wanted a show of unity to be maintained. Khanh also tried to consolidate his standing in the military by promoting a group of younger officers, and increasing the pay of the enlisted men. In the meantime, the other key generals in the junta, Don, Kim, Dinh and Xuan were put under house arrest, accused by Khanh of attempting to negotiate a peace deal with North Vietnam. However, when they were brought to a military trial presided over by Khanh, the junta leader did not provide any evidence and convicted them of "lax morality". Khanh then allowed them back to meaningless desk jobs, but the show trial brought him much embarrassment. Khanh later admitted that there was no basis to the charges of neutralism against the four generals, and after a tumultuous year in power, Khanh was himself deposed in February 1965 and forced into exile.

Read more about 1964 South Vietnamese Coup:  Background, First Moves, Final Preparations, Coup, Reaction and Aftermath, Khanh’s Consolidation of Power, Trial

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