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61-635: At the end of the coup, Nhung - having shot Colonel Lê Quang Tung , the loyalist commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces at a grave at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base the day before - executed President Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu . An investigation led by General Trần Văn Đôn , another coup plotter, determined that Nhung had repeatedly stabbed and shot the Ngô brothers while escorting them back to military headquarters after having arrested them. It

122-601: A military junta known as the Military Revolutionary Council. After three months of rule, which was criticised for its lack of direction, General Nguyễn Khánh deposed Minh in a bloodless coup before dawn on 30 January 1964. Minh was briefly put under house arrest , and the next day, reports surfaced that Nhung was dead, the only fatality in the coup or its aftermath. There was initially confusion as various conflicting reports of Nhung's demise surfaced, one source telling journalists that Nhung lived in

183-551: A "lack of a clear political concept". Xuân and his fellow generals were chastised for being "inadequately aware of their heavy responsibility" and of letting "their subordinates take advantage of their positions". They were allowed to remain in Đà Lạt under surveillance with their families. Xuân was barred from commanding troops, as were his colleagues. An office was prepared so that he could participate in "research and planning". Worried that Xuân and his idle colleagues would plot against him, Khánh made arrangements to send them to

244-471: A 1994 interview, General Nguyễn Khánh recalled, "Nhu (Diệm's brother) was alive when they put the knife in to take out some of the organs...the gallbladder. And in the Orient when you are a big soldier, big man - this thing is very important... They do it against Nhu when Nhu was alive... And Diệm had this happen to him, and later on they kill him by pistol and rifle." Đôn and other officers were stunned when

305-723: A bloodless coup before dawn, catching the MRC completely off guard. Khánh had Xuân arrested, along with Minh, Đôn, Kim and Tôn Thất Đính , claiming that they were part of a neutralist plot with the French. Khánh noted they had served in the French-backed Vietnamese National Army in the early 1950s, although he had done so as well. The generals were flown to My Khe beach, near Đà Nẵng and placed under house arrest. On May 28 1964, Khanh put his rivals on trial. The generals were secretly interrogated for five and

366-532: A cottage within the grounds of Minh's villa and shot himself outside his house. These informants speculated that Nhung committed suicide to avoid having to live to see Minh being demoted or humiliated. The time of this incident was reported to be 21:00. Other reports at the time said that Nhung was found dead as a result of strangulation at the Joint General Staff headquarters. According to variations of this line, Nhung either hanged himself in custody or

427-490: A debate over who gave the order. During 1964, Xuân was a member of the ruling junta, and served as the mayor of Saigon and the head of the National Police, during which time he was accused of arresting people for ransom. After three months, the junta was overthrown by General Nguyễn Khánh and Xuân was arrested along with Generals Trần Văn Đôn , Lê Văn Kim and Tôn Thất Đính , accused of plotting to make peace with

488-566: A half hours, mostly about details of their coup against Diệm, rather than the original charge of promoting neutralism. As all of the officers were involved in the plot against Diệm, this did not reveal any information new to them. The court deliberated for over nine hours, and when it reconvened for the verdict on May 29, Khánh stated, "We ask that once you begin to serve again in the army, you do not take revenge on anybody". The tribunal then "congratulated" Xuân and his colleagues, but found that they were of "lax morality", unqualified to command due to

549-462: A jeep and drove them to the edge of the air base. Forced to kneel over two freshly dug holes, the brothers were shot into their graves and buried. By the next morning, the loyalist forces had collapsed. Diệm and his younger brother and chief adviser, Ngô Đình Nhu , agreed to surrender, and coup plotter Đôn promised them safe passage out of the country. In the meantime, Minh left Joint General Staff (JGS) headquarters and travelled to Gia Long Palace in

610-454: A sedan, accompanied by Nhung. He arrived at the palace at 08:00 in full military uniform to supervise the arrest of Diệm and Nhu for the surrender ceremony. However, the Ngô brothers were not there, they had escaped from Gia Long Palace via a secret tunnel to a safehouse in Cholon the previous night. Diệm and Nhu had communicated with the generals via a direct phone link from the safehouse to

671-417: A vehicle to drive the president?" Xuân said that it was selected to protect them from "extremists". Xuân ordered the brothers' hands be tied behind their backs before shoving them into the carrier. One officer asked to shoot Nhu, but Xuân turned him down. He didn't want to kill Nhu at that point as he purportedly intended to torture Nhu for money. After the arrest, Nhung and Nghĩa sat with the Ngô brothers in

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732-642: The Catholic -oriented Diệm regime. In the wake of the shootings of nine Buddhist protesters on the birthday of Gautama Buddha for defying a ban on the Buddhist flag , mass protests calling for religious equality erupted around the country. With opposition to Diệm growing, Nhu plotted an attack against Xá Lợi Pagoda , the largest Buddhist centre in Saigon, where the movement was organizing its activities. Tung's Special Forces under Nhu's orders were responsible for

793-748: The Republic of Vietnam National Police Field Force ( Vietnamese : Cãnh Sát Dã Chiên – CSDC). Approximately 5,000 personnel served in the Special Forces during the Vietnam War. After the Fall of Saigon , those who did not manage to escape were sent to reeducation camps . The LLDB's largest operation occurred with the CIDGs, an immense network of ethnic minorities and Montagnards funded and trained with CIA-U.S. Special Forces resources. Historically,

854-518: The APC. Before dispatching the convoy, Minh was reported to have gestured to Nhung with two fingers. This was taken as the order to kill the Ngô brothers. As the convoy on the route to the Joint General Staff headquarters, Xuân ordered the APC to stop over at a National Police station where he brutally tortured Nhu and Diệm, asking them where they had hidden money. When they refused to release

915-580: The ARVN in recruiting and training as well as sending groups into communist areas in South Vietnam to gather information. US Special Forces referred to the LLDB as "LL" or "LIMA-LIMA" using the phonetic alphabet. Over the radio they were called "XRAY" so it would not reveal the unit as CIDG. In March 1970, aware of the impending withdrawal of U.S. Special Forces from Vietnam as part of a general withdrawal,

976-804: The ARVN to the commander of the III Corps that surrounded Saigon, which meant that he controlled the troops near the capital. At the time, French President Charles de Gaulle was contemplating recognising the People's Republic of China and wanted Southeast Asia neutralised as part of his agenda to cultivate relations with the communist bloc. De Gaulle wanted the United States out of South Vietnam. Khánh told various American officials that Generals Xuân, Đôn, Minh, and Lê Văn Kim were "pro-French and pro-neutralist" and part of de Gaulle's plan. Before dawn on 30 January, Khánh and his colleagues seized power in

1037-721: The ARVN's leadership consequently changed. In 1964, the U.S. Army's 5th Special Forces Group was officially assigned to Vietnam. The LLDB worked closely with the U.S. command and although the Americans funded the CIDG camps, the LLDB assumed ultimate responsibility. These camps were commanded by the ARVN Special Forces, supplemented by U.S. Special Forces advisors. From 24 June to 1 July 1964 under Project DELTA , LLDB teams performed five parachute drops into Laos to gather intelligence. By 1965, LLDB personnel were working with

1098-487: The Buddhist community was carried out by Tung's men in 1963. In a small pond near Đà Nẵng, a hugely oversized carp was found swimming. Local Buddhists began to believe the fish was a reincarnation of one of Gautama Buddha's disciples. As pilgrimages to the pond grew larger and more frequent, so did disquiet among the district chief and his officials, who answered to Ngô Đình Cẩn , another younger brother of Diệm. The pond

1159-562: The CIA in the United States and commanded some 1,840 men under the direction of Nhu. Tung's most notable military activity was leading a group run by the CIA, in which ARVN personnel of northern origin were sent into North Vietnam, posing as locals, in order to gather intelligence as well as sabotaging communist infrastructure and communications. They were trained in bases at Nha Trang, Đà Nẵng and sometimes offshore in Taiwan , Guam and Okinawa . Of

1220-523: The CIDG. During the rule of President Ngô Đình Diệm , the Special Forces were used mainly for repressing dissidents. Despite the fact that South Vietnam was struggling against the communist insurgency of the Viet Cong in the rural areas, the Special Forces were mostly kept in the capital Saigon , where they were used to prevent coups or harass regime opponents. Under Diệm, the Special Forces were headed by Colonel Lê Quang Tung , who had been trained by

1281-709: The French Army, where he soon met Dương Văn Minh , who became his superior for the next two decades. Nhung would spend most of his career as Minh's aide-de-camp and bodyguard. He was described as a quiet and slightly built man who smoked a pipe. Following the end of World War II, the French set up the State of Vietnam , an associated state within the French Union , and created the Vietnamese National Army (VNA), and both Minh and Nhung transferred to

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1342-778: The French-backed State of Vietnam era in the 1950s in military security. When Diệm became Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, Xuân fought for him as an officer in the Vietnamese National Army (VNA) in the Battle for Saigon in May 1955, against the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate that sought to take over the capital. The VNA dismantled the Bình Xuyên and Xuân was made a general. Xuân turned against Diệm after he

1403-540: The Intelligence Directorate of the Joint General Staff (JGS). This directorate was usually known by the nickname "the 7th Technical Directorate" and was divided into three sections: The ARVN also fielded an airborne-qualified special strike unit, 81st Airborne Ranger group ( Vietnamese : Liên đoàn 81 Biệt cách dù ), under the direct command of the JGS. It can be counted as part of the Special Forces and

1464-416: The Joint General Staff headquarters at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base , on the pretext that they were going to attend a lunch meeting. Among those invited was the loyalist commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces , Colonel Lê Quang Tung . At 13:30 ( UTC 06:30), General Trần Văn Đôn announced that a coup was taking place. Most of the officers rose to applaud, but Tung did not, refusing to join

1525-476: The LLDB and the montagnards. Ultimately, however, the advisers could not exercise complete jurisdiction because the South Vietnamese were technically, though not realistically, in charge of these programs. During the period of Vietnamization (1969–1972), the number of U.S. advisers was reduced, then eliminated, which forced the LLDB to assume complete control over tens of thousands of ethnic troops, which

1586-640: The South Vietnamese considered such minorities inferior, especially the semi-primitive mountain tribes, and this diminished effective cooperation and a mutual sense of purpose between the LLDB and its Central Highland militia. Command and control was frequently strained, a factor that contributed to an unsuccessful rebellion in September 1964, by tribal groups loyal to the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO). The degree to which

1647-514: The Special Forces were formed at Nha Trang in February 1956. During the rule of Ngô Đình Diệm , the Special Forces were run by his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu , until both were assassinated in November 1963 in a coup . The Special Forces were disbanded in 1975 when South Vietnam ceased to exist after the Fall of Saigon . The Special Forces came into being at Nha Trang in February 1956 under

1708-642: The U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) agreed to convert CIDG camps into ARVN Border Ranger camps. The most highly regarded of the CIDG units, the Mobile Strike Force followed the conversion and integration into the ARVN as well. The LLDB were eventually disbanded in December 1970. The former indigenous reconnaissance team personnel previously assigned to work with MACV-SOG (the US military reconnaissance office for MACV) were regrouped into

1769-466: The VNA, where they were trained and commissioned as officers. By November 1963, Nhung had risen to the rank of captain. He was reputed to have etched a line on his revolver for each of his killings, and ended the lives of 50 people during his career. On 1 November 1963, a group of ARVN generals, led by Minh, orchestrated a coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm . The plotters summoned a group of ARVN officers to

1830-516: The autumn of 1961, Special Forces units began Operation Eagle at Bình Hưng with a night parachute assault. In September 1962, United States Special Forces personnel assumed responsibility of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s border surveillance and Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) programs and began working with the ARVN Special Forces. The Special Forces continued to expand and began to increasingly operate with

1891-501: The brothers at point-blank range with a semi-automatic firearm and that Nhung sprayed them with bullets before repeatedly stabbing their bodies with a knife. During the journey back, Nghĩa gave his account of the assassinations to military headquarters: "As we rode back to the Joint General Staff headquarters, Diệm sat silently, but Nhu and the captain [Nhung] began to insult each other. I don't know who started it. The name-calling grew passionate. The captain had hated Nhu before. Now he

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1952-478: The brothers had died in an accident. He went to confront Minh in his office. At this time, Xuân walked into Minh's office through the open door, unaware of Đôn's presence. Xuân snapped to attention and stated " Mission accomplie ". Although the blame was widely placed on Minh, U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. thought that Xuân was partly culpable asserting that "Diệm and Nhu had been assassinated, if not by Xuân personally, at least at his direction." Under

2013-439: The brothers. The soldiers arrived at the church and promptly arrested the brothers, tying them with their hands behind their backs. After the arrest, Nhung and Major Dương Hiếu Nghĩa sat with Diệm and Nhu inside the APC, and the convoy departed for Tân Sơn Nhứt. They stopped at a railroad crossing on the return trip where, by all accounts, the brothers were assassinated. An investigation by Đôn later determined that Nghĩa had shot

2074-437: The communists and making South Vietnam a neutral state. Khánh was able to find evidence and his military tribunal convicted them of "lax morality", and being unqualified to command due to a "lack of a clear political concept". Xuân and his colleagues were put under house arrest for a period, before being released and compulsorily retired after a service limit was introduced. Xuân served under Prime Minister Nguyễn Văn Tâm during

2135-511: The convoy: Major Dương Hiếu Nghĩa and Captain Nguyễn Văn Nhung , Minh's bodyguard. When the officers arrived, Diệm requested that the convoy stop at the palace so that he could gather personal items before being exiled. Xuân turned him down, clinically stating that his orders were to take the brothers directly to headquarters. Nhu expressed disgust that they were to be transported in an armoured personnel carrier (APC), asking "You use such

2196-480: The corpses arrived at JGS headquarters. Đôn confronted Minh in his office, and while they were remonstrating, Xuân entered the room. Unaware of Đôn's presence, Xuân snapped to attention and stated in French, “Mission accomplie” . Despite Đôn's investigation, no one was ever charged with the killings. Following the coup, Nhung's commanding officer, General Minh, became the President of South Vietnam, ruling through

2257-499: The coup. He was taken away by Nhung, all the while shouting, "Remember who gave you your stars!" At 16:45, Tung was forced at gunpoint to talk to Diệm on the phone, telling the president that he had ordered his special forces to surrender. Minh then ordered Nhung to execute the Diệm loyalist. Tung had failed to convince the president to surrender and still commanded the loyalty of his men. The other generals had little sympathy for Tung, because

2318-654: The designation of the First Observation Battalion/Group (FOG). By 1960, most Special Forces units were involved in the FOG program. At Long Thành , they were trained in intelligence gathering, sabotage and psychological operations (PSYOP). The main duties of the Special Forces entailed the recruitment and training of one-to-four man teams in intelligence, sabotage, and psychological warfare missions in North Vietnam . The success of these missions

2379-499: The eighty groups of operatives, numbering six or seven per group, that were deployed in 1963 via parachute drops or night time sampan journeys, nearly all were captured or killed. Those who were captured were often used for propaganda by the North Vietnamese. Tung was heavily criticised for his management of the operations. In 1963, South Vietnam faced civil unrest in the face of Buddhist protests against discrimination by

2440-465: The ethnic troops resented. Mai H%E1%BB%AFu Xu%C3%A2n Major General Mai Hữu Xuân was a general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and a participant in the November 1963 coup that deposed President Ngô Đình Diệm and ended in his assassination . Xuân started his career in the Vietnamese National Army of the French-backed State of Vietnam and worked in military security and

2501-610: The far north of Vietnam. Khánh had wanted a transfer to the IV Corps in the Mekong Delta close to Saigon, close to the political intrigue. Khánh joined forces with other ambitious officers who resented the MRC for giving jobs they felt were insignificant. These included Brigadier General Đỗ Mậu , the Minister of Information, Colonel Nguyễn Chánh Thi , and General Khiệm , who had been demoted from being Chief of Staff of

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2562-448: The head. Nhung's death led to protests among the Saigon public, who took the killing to be a signal that the remaining members of Diệm's regime would be reinstated to positions of authority. Nhung was buried on 1 February, the day after his death, in the presence of family and friends, at Gia Đính cemetery. Nhung's death was never formally investigated by an independent body and the official line of suicide continued to be propagated. Minh

2623-445: The information, Xuân killed them with his pistol. An investigation by Đôn later determined Nghĩa shot the brothers at point-blank range with a semi-automatic firearm and that Nhung sprayed them with bullets before repeatedly stabbing the bodies with a knife without realizing that both the brothers had already been killed by Xuân. The generals were shocked to see the dead bodies and Đôn ordered another officer to tell reporters that

2684-487: The loss of his aide. Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces ( Vietnamese : Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng Hòa , or LLDB ; Chữ Hán : 力量特別軍力越南共和) were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) . Following the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as South Vietnam ) in October 1955,

2745-434: The military junta, Xuân served as the national police chief. He was accused of arresting people en masse , before releasing them in return for bribes and pledges of loyalty. Xuân did not survive long in his new post. General Khánh , disgruntled that Minh and the other leading generals did not offer him a position in the 12-man junta, began to plot. Khánh was transferred to command I Corps , based around Huế and Đà Nẵng in

2806-530: The palace, giving the false impression that they were still besieged. Having been informed of Diệm and Nhu’s whereabouts, Minh dispatched a group of officers and troops—which included Nhung—to arrest them. He was aware that the brothers had left the safehouse to go to St Francis Xavier's Church. Led by General Mai Hữu Xuân , the officers took an M113 armored personnel carrier (APC), four jeeps, and several soldiers to Cholon. As they left, Minh gestured to Nhung with two fingers, taken to be an order to shoot

2867-432: The raid on 21 August 1963, in which 1,400 monks were arrested and hundreds were estimated to have been killed, as well as extensive property damage. These attacks were replicated across the country in a synchronised manner. Following the attacks, U.S. officials threatened to withhold aid to the Special Forces unless they were used in fighting communists, rather than attacking dissidents. Another infamous religious assault on

2928-428: The siege on the palace, agreed to surrender. The coup leader, General Dương Văn Minh dispatched a convoy to pick them up from their hideout in Cholon . The convoy was led by Xuân and consisted of Colonels Nguyễn Văn Quan and Dương Ngọc Lắm. Quan was Minh's deputy, and Lắm had been the commander of Diệm's Civil Guard until defecting mid-way through the coup once a rebel victory seemed assured. Two further officers made up

2989-542: The special forces' commander had disguised his men in regular army uniforms and framed the generals for the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids in August. The generals were well aware of the threat that Tung posed; they had discussed his elimination during their planning, having contemplated waging an offensive against his special forces. At nightfall, Nhung took Tung, and his brother and deputy, Major Lê Quang Triệu, with their hands tied, to

3050-474: The tribal minorities influenced the war cannot be underestimated. They provided intelligence, acted as scouts, and in many cases became effective guerrilla soldiers. Thus, the South Vietnamese, despite their racist attitudes, needed the assistance they received from the Montagnards, and U.S. Special Forces and Australian Special Air Service (SAS) advisers acted as intermediaries when clashes occurred between

3111-444: Was charged with emotion." When the convoy reached a train crossing, Nghĩa said that Nhung "lunged at Nhu with a bayonet and stabbed him again and again, maybe fifteen or twenty times. Still in a rage, he turned to Diệm, took out his revolver and shot him in the head. Then he looked back at Nhu, who was lying on the floor, twitching. He put a bullet into his head too. Neither Diệm nor Nhu ever defended themselves. Their hands were tied." In

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3172-406: Was launched by the ARVN against Diệm. Knowing Tung was a loyalist who would order his Special Forces to defend Diệm, the generals invited him to Joint General Staff (JGS) headquarters on the pretext of a routine meeting. He was arrested and later executed along with his deputy and younger brother, Lê Quang Triệu. Diệm and Nhu were also executed after being captured at the end of the successful coup and

3233-445: Was made an ARVN general, but was later put into a minor job by Diệm. During the coup against Diệm, Xuân led trainee enlisted men in a successful attack on the headquarters of the National Police, and the secret police. Xuân then led a group that arrested Diệm and his younger brother and chief adviser, Ngô Đình Nhu , after their hiding place was discovered. During the trip back to headquarters, the Ngô brothers were assassinated, leading to

3294-462: Was mined, but the fish swam on unhindered. After raking the pond with machine gun fire, the fish still lived. To deal with the problem, Tung's forces were called in. The pond was grenaded , killing the carp. The incident generated more publicity as newspapers across the world ran stories about the miraculous fish. ARVN helicopters began landing at the site, with ARVN paratroopers filling their bottles with water which they believed had magical powers. Tung

3355-407: Was murdered by an unknown hand. More recently, historians have come to believe that Khánh ordered that Nhung be liquidated and that the earlier reports were deliberately false material disseminated by Khánh through his subordinates. According to this account, one of Khánh's men took Nhung to the garden of a Saigon villa and forced him to kneel, before executing him with a single gunshot to the back of

3416-427: Was poor. Although minor sabotage and unrest was fomented, Hanoi declared that all agents were to be killed or captured. Those who were captured were interrogated and executed. In 1961, the Special Forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) 1st Infantry Division , based in the northernmost area of South Vietnam, conducted a joint operation against Communist infiltrators in northern Quảng Trị Province . In

3477-585: Was relegated to a minor job, and he readily joined the plot against Diệm as opposition to his rule grew in 1963. The ARVN conducted a coup against Diệm on 1 November 1963, and Xuân led some of the units. He used some newly enlisted troops from the Quang Trung National Training Center to capture the headquarters of the National Police, which included the secret police under the direct control of Diệm's brother and adviser, Nhu . The next morning Diệm and Nhu, who had escaped from

3538-461: Was reported to have been planning an operation at the request of Nhu to stage a government organised student demonstration outside the US Embassy, Saigon . In this plan, Tung and his operatives would assassinate U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. , other key officials and Buddhist leader Thích Trí Quang , who was given asylum after being targeted in the pagoda raids. On 1 November 1963, a coup

3599-458: Was said to have been deeply affected by the loss of his long-time aide, and it was reported that the general erected an altar dedicated to Nhung's memory in his office, with the major's portrait on it. Shortly after the coup, Khánh made Minh the figurehead head of state under American advice, hoping that the presence of the popular general would help to unify the armed forces, but Minh made little attempt to help Khánh, partly because of resentment over

3660-530: Was under the Special Forces command, later being placed under the JGS command. The unit was bloodied during the 1968 Tet Offensive and the 1972 Easter Offensive when it was launched into battle to relieve the garrison of An Lộc northwest of Saigon from a People's Army of Vietnam siege. Some former LLDB personnel were formed into a new clandestine unit, the Vietnamese Special Mission Service (SMS), while others went to serve in

3721-475: Was widely believed that Minh had ordered Nhung to execute the Ngô brothers. Following Nguyễn Khánh 's successful January 1964 coup against Minh's military junta , Nhung died in mysterious circumstances, the only fatality in the otherwise bloodless regime change. Nhung was born in either 1919 or early 1920. At the time, Vietnam was a French colony within French Indochina ; and, in 1944, Nhung joined

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