Ton That Dinh - Early Years

Early Years

A native of central Vietnam, Đính enlisted in the Vietnamese National Army (VNA) of the French-backed State of Vietnam at Phu Bai in 1949 and trained as a paratrooper in France. He became a protege of Ngô Đình Cần, a younger brother of Prime Minister Diệm. Cần, who unofficially controlled the region of central Vietnam near Huế, was impressed by what he considered to be an abundance of courage on the part of Đính. Within six years of enlisting in the military, Đính had risen to the rank of colonel and was made the inaugural commander of the newly formed 32nd Division based in Da Nang in the centre of the country on 1 January 1955. Đính led the unit until November 1956, during which time it was renamed the 2nd Division.

Diệm deposed head of state Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum in 1955 and proclaimed himself president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as South Vietnam). The VNA thus became the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Born into a nominally Buddhist family, Đính had converted to Catholicism in the hope of advancing his career. The change of religion was widely perceived to be a factor in his rapid promotion above more capable officers. A devout member of the Catholic minority, Diệm dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary and heavily disenfranchised and disadvantaged the Buddhist majority.

Đính once described himself as "fearless and arrogant" and Diệm's adopted son—the president was a lifelong bachelor. In August 1957, he was appointed commander of the 1st Division based in Huế, the old imperial capital and Cần's base. Đính served there for one year, until he became a one-star general and received a wider-reaching command in August 1958, making him the youngest ever ARVN general. Đính's favour among the Ngô family saw him appointed in 1958 to head the military wing of the Cần Lao, the secret organisation of Vietnamese Catholics loyal to the Ngô family that maintained the family's grip on power.

Despite the high regard in which the Ngô family held him, Đính had a poor reputation among his colleagues. Regarded by his peers as ambitious, vain and impulsive, he was known mainly for heavily drinking in Saigon's nightclubs, and the Central Intelligence Agency labelled him a "basic opportunist". He was known for always wearing a paratrooper's uniform with a red beret at a steep angle, and being accompanied by a tall, uncommunicative Cambodian bodyguard. Senior Australian Army officer Ted Serong, who worked with Đính, called him "a young punk with a gun—and dangerous".