Nguyen Huu Co
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant General Nguyễn Hữu Có served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
and was prominent in several coups and juntas in the 1960s.
In 1963, Co came to prominence for his role in the November coup
that toppled and killed
President Ngo Dinh Diem
. Co’s superior, General Ton That Dinh
, moved him into command of the 7th Division to lock loyalist forces out of Saigon. Co was promoted to brigadier general after the coup and as South Vietnam was inflicted with a cycle of coups over the next two years, he became more prominent as other generals defeated one another in power struggles. By 1965, Co was the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister in a junta headed by Prime Minister and Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky
and General Nguyen Van Thieu
, the figurehead chief of state. Co came under increasing scrutiny for his exorbitant wealth and was widely seen as corrupt, while Ky viewed him as a political threat.
In 1967 Ky fired Co when both men were overseas on diplomatic visits. Ky then organized military forces to prevent Co from flying back, effectively sending him into exile. Over time, Thieu began to eclipse Ky in a power struggle, and allowed Co to return in 1970. Co then stayed out of public life, and worked in banking and business. In 1975, the communists overran the south, and after hesitating in planning his escape from South Vietnam, Co was captured by the communists, who imprisoned him in reeducation camp
s for 12 years. Co chose not to emigrate after being released and still lives in Vietnam.
that fought against Ho Chi Minh
's Vietminh during the First Indochina War
. He led a groupement mobile.
and ended in his assassination
. Colonel Co was the deputy of General Ton That Dinh
, who commanded the III Corps
forces that oversaw the region surrounding the capital Saigon. Dinh was entrusted to command III Corps because the Ngo family trusted him to defend them in the face of any coup attempts. However, in late-1963, Dinh began to plot against Diem along with a group of generals.
As part of the generals' plot, Dinh sent Colonel Co to My Tho to talk to the 7th Division commander, Colonel Bui Dinh Dam
, and two regimental commanders, the armoured unit commander, both of the 7th Division, and the My Tho province chief. At the time, the 7th Division was under the control of the IV Corps
that was commanded by Diem loyalist General Huynh Van Cao
. This division was on the outskirts of Saigon and its stance would be critical in determining the success or failure of a coup. Exhorting the 7th Division officers to join the coup on the grounds that the Diem regime was unable to keep the military going forward, he stated that all the generals except Cao were in the plot, while Dinh was going to do so. According to one account, Dinh had intended that loyalists would report Co's activities to Diem and Nhu so that it would give him an opportunity to orchestrate a stunt to ingratiate himself with the palace and make the coup easier to carry out.
Nhu's agents heard of the conversation and reported to the palace. When the Ngo brothers confronted Dinh with the report of what had happened in My Tho, Dinh feigned astonishment at his deputy's behaviour. He began crying and said "This is my fault, because you have suspected me. I have not really gone to work for the last 15 days but have stayed at home because I was sad. But I am not against you. I was sad because I thought I was discredited with you. So Nguyen Huu Co profited from my absence to make trouble."
Dinh claimed to know nothing of Co's activities and raised his voice, vowing to have his deputy killed. Nhu opposed this and stated that he wanted keep Co alive to catch the plotters, and tried to use Dinh to achieve this.
Nhu ordered Dinh to plan a fake coup against the Ngo family. One of Nhu's objectives was to trick dissidents into joining the false uprising so that they could be identified and eliminated.
Dinh was put in charge of the fake coup and was allowed the additional control of the 7th Division, giving his III Corps complete encirclement of Saigon. This would prevent Cao from storming the capital to save Diem as he had done during the 1960 coup attempt
.
Not trusting Co, Diem put the loyalist Catholic Colonel Lam Van Phat
in command of the 7th Division on October 31. According to tradition, Phat had to pay the corps commander a courtesy visit before assuming control of the division. Dinh refused to see Phat and told him to come back on Friday at 14:00, by which time the real coup had already been scheduled to start. In the meantime, Dinh had General Tran Van Don
sign a counter-order transferring command of the 7th Division to Co.
With a group of his personal rebel officers, Co flew by helicopter to My Tho, the division headquarters, to take command on the morning of the coup, November 1. Reaching the Mekong Delta town two hours before the scheduled start of the coup, he held a ceremony for the division's incumbent officers—who thought the change of command was a routine matter— in a local hall. When the coup started, Co's men charged through the doors with automatic guns and arrested the officers, before taking command. He said "Please remain seated quietly. Anyone who rises will be instantly shot".
Co then phoned Cao, further south in the Mekong Delta's largest town Can Tho, where the IV Corps was headquartered. The rebel colonel assured Cao that the divisional and corps transfer had taken place smoothly. Co, a central Vietnamese, was afraid that Cao, a Mekong Delta native would recognise his fake southern accent, and realise that he was impersonating Phat, another southerner. However, Cao did not notice the faked accent.
When Cao was informed by his subordinates that there was a coup occurring in the capital, he believed in to be part of the false coup, as he had been told beforehand by Nhu; Cao was one of the regime's most loyal and favourites generals and he was going to help stage the second part of Nhu's plan. However, Cao did tell one regiments and a few tanks to ready themselves for the second part of the plot.
Late during the night of the coup, Cao realised that it was a genuine coup. He sent the 9th Division
under Colonel Bui Dzinh
to move north through My Tho towards Saigon to save Diem, but Co had already made plans to cut off any attempt by Cao to relieve Saigon. When Cao radioed the 7th Division in My Tho, Co identified himself and taunted the corps commander, saying "Didn't you recognise my accent?". Co told the general that he had ordered all the ferries to the Saigon side of the Mekong River, and told Cao not to attempt to cross unless he wanted to die. Seeing that Diem was lost, Cao later expressed solidarity with the coup. After the coup succeeded Co became a general in the ruling Military Revolutionary Council (MRC). Co said that Diem "made so many mistakes", most notably his strong preferential treatment of Roman Catholics, usually from his native central Vietnam, at the expense of Buddhists. Diem also promoted military officers on loyalty, not merit.
was deposed in a January 1964 coup
by General Nguyen Khanh
, and he put several leading generals—Tran Van Don
, Ton That Dinh
and Mai Huu Xuan
—in jail, but Co was not affected.
South Vietnam had a series of short-lived juntas, including military-supervised civilian cabinets over the next 18 months.
In August 1964, Khanh tried to give himself more power, but this provoked strong protests and forced him to back down into a weaker position than before, and his rule became unstable as more concessions were demanded. Khanh promised to dissolve the junta and create a National Assembly within a year. The division among the generals came to a head at a meeting of the junta on August 26–27, as they blamed each other's polcies and machinations for the problems. Thieu and Co called for the replacement of Khanh with Minh, but the latter refused. Minh reportedly claimed that Khanh was the only one who would get funding from Washington, so they support him, prompting angry arguments as to whether Khanh was a puppet. After more arguing between the senior officers, they agreed that Khanh, Minh, and Khiem would rule as a triumvirate for two months, until a new civilian government could be formed. However, the triumvirate did little due to their disunity. Khanh dominated the decisionmaking and sidelined Khiem and Minh.
In January 1965, the junta-appointed Prime Minister Tran Van Huong
introduced a series of measures to expand the military and war effort, most notably by widening the terms of conscription. This provoked widespread anti-Huong demonstrations and riots, mainly from conscription-aged students and pro-negotiations Buddhists. Reliant on Buddhist support, Khanh then decided to have the armed forces take over, removing Huong on January 27, Khanh removed Huong in a bloodless putsch with the support of Thi and Ky. He promised to leave politics once the situation was stabilized and hand over power to a civilian body. It was believed that some of the officers supported Khanh's increased power so that it would give him an opportunity to fail and be removed permanently.
Khanh's deposal of the prime minister nullified a counter-plot involving Huong that had developed during the civil disorders that forced him from office. In an attempt to pre-empt his deposal, Huong had backed a plot led by some Dai Viet-oriented Catholic officers reported to include Generals Co and Thieu. They planned to remove Khanh and bring Tran Thien Khiem
back from Washington. The US Embassy in Saigon was privately supportive of the aim, but was not ready to fully back the move as they regarded it as poorly thought out and potentially a political embarrassment due to the need to use an American plane to transport some plotters, including Khiem, between Saigon and Washington. As a result, they only promised asylum for Huong if necessary.
By this time, the US relationship with Khanh had broken down, and the US became more intent on a regime change as Khanh was reliant on Buddhist support, which they saw as an obstacle to an expansion of the war. In the first week of February, Taylor told the leading officers that the US was "in no way propping up General Khanh or backing him in any fashion".
At this stage, the US Embassy thought highly of three officers as possible replacements for Khanh: Thieu, Co the commander of II Corps
and Admiral Chung Tan Cang
the commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy
. A US Defense Department report stated that Co was an "outstanding officer...friendly to Americans". At the same time, the CIA knew that Co had become disillusioned with Khanh and had stopped attending junta meetings after Khanh accused him of "having been bought off by the Americans".
However, the relatively cautious Thieu, Co and Cang's preparations were well behind that of Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao
, a communist spy who was an endless creator of plots. Co and the other American-preferred officers maintained a guarded approach, waiting to see what others would do, rather than boldly taking the initiative, and Thao struck first. The Americans did not agree with Thao's ideology and with their support, Ky and Thi defeated the coup and then overthrew Khanh as well, becoming the most important officers in the resulting junta.
In mid-1965 Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky
became prime minister and General Nguyen Van Thieu
as the figurehead president. They headed a 10-man junta of which Co was a part until elections were held in 1967. Co was the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister.
Co was generally regarded as being corrupt. As a general, he had a base pay of USD177 a month, but he managed to purchase three villas in Saigon and had property estimated at USD600,000 near Tan Son Nhut Air Base
on the capital's outskirts. Co's wealth was believed to have come from bribes from subordinate officers who wanted postings away from danger, usually desk jobs, as well as charging up to USD3,400 a head for draft evaders, depending on how rich they were. Co was also accused of using his position as defense minister to pocket the rent collected from the American military for building US bases on land rented from the Saigon government. Co's wife was known to be a gambling addict during his halcyon days and was reputed to have once lost USD8,500 in one outing.
Co was seen as a political threat to Ky and a magnet for dissidents. For his part, Co deemed Ky to be "immature". In early 1967, Ky sent Co to Taiwan
, ostensibly to represent the junta at a ceremony to opening direct air services from Taipei
to Saigon. In the meantime, Ky made a state visit to Australia
. With Co out of the country and unable to stage a coup, and Ky not within striking distance in case anyone wanted to capture him, news of Co's removal was broken in Saigon.
Co expressed a desire to return to Saigon, but was threatened with arrest and trial, and soldiers were deployed to the airport. Co spent three years in exile in Hong Kong
. When President Thieu sidelined Ky from real power, he allowed Co to return to South Vietnam in 1970. Co stayed away from politics and worked as a commercial banker and then a businessman.
occurred and the communists took control. Co made plans to leave but hesitated and was not evacuated by the US military. He considered leaving by boat, but deemed it too risky with 11 children.
In June 1975, Co was told to report to a re-education camp along with the vast majority of public servants and military officers. They were told to bring clothes for one month, but were kept much longer, 12 years in the case of Co. Co was initially held at Quang Trung Training Camp, about 15 km north of Ho Chi Minh City, which had been an ARVN training center for newly enlisted men. According to him, the conditions were good, although there were political propaganda lectures.
In June 1976, he was suddenly moved by an airplane in the middle of the night to Yen Bay in the north of the country where he was forced to perform manual labor. In 1978, he and some other ARVN generals were relocated to Ha Tay, in the Red River Delta
east of the capital Hanoi
, where he was imprisoned in an Interior Ministry facility, where he was asked to write what he knew about South Vietnam's. military strategies and government mechanisms.
In 1979, Co was moved by himself to Nam Ha and then Thanh Lam
, where he was made to undergo propaganda lessons and manual labor alongside a mixture of military and civilian personnel. In he was returned to Ha Tay to be reunited with the other generals. In 1983 he was moved back to Nam Ha, where he stayed until his release in 1987, after 12 years in captivity.
While he was imprisoned, his wife, who had previously always been a housewife, took her first job, in a knitting factory. Co opted to remain in Vietnam under communist rule after being released.
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
and was prominent in several coups and juntas in the 1960s.
In 1963, Co came to prominence for his role in the November coup
1963 South Vietnamese coup
In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong.The...
that toppled and killed
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, then president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d’état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963...
President Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
. Co’s superior, General Ton That Dinh
Ton That Dinh
Major General Tôn Thất Đính is a retired officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that deposed and resulted in the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam .A favourite of...
, moved him into command of the 7th Division to lock loyalist forces out of Saigon. Co was promoted to brigadier general after the coup and as South Vietnam was inflicted with a cycle of coups over the next two years, he became more prominent as other generals defeated one another in power struggles. By 1965, Co was the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister in a junta headed by Prime Minister and Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyễn Cao Kỳ served as the chief of the Vietnam Air Force in the 1960s, before leading the nation as the prime minister of South Vietnam in a military junta from 1965 to 1967...
and General Nguyen Van Thieu
Nguyen Van Thieu
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was president of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1975. He was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , became head of a military junta, and then president after winning a fraudulent election...
, the figurehead chief of state. Co came under increasing scrutiny for his exorbitant wealth and was widely seen as corrupt, while Ky viewed him as a political threat.
In 1967 Ky fired Co when both men were overseas on diplomatic visits. Ky then organized military forces to prevent Co from flying back, effectively sending him into exile. Over time, Thieu began to eclipse Ky in a power struggle, and allowed Co to return in 1970. Co then stayed out of public life, and worked in banking and business. In 1975, the communists overran the south, and after hesitating in planning his escape from South Vietnam, Co was captured by the communists, who imprisoned him in reeducation camp
Reeducation camp
Reeducation camp is the official title given to the prison camps operated by the government of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. In such "reeducation camps", the government imprisoned several hundred thousand former military officers and government workers from the former regime of...
s for 12 years. Co chose not to emigrate after being released and still lives in Vietnam.
Early career
Co was a field commander for the French-backed Vietnamese National ArmyVietnamese National Army
On March 8, 1949, after the Elysee accords, the State of Vietnam was recognized by France as an independent country ruled by Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại. The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army was the State of Vietnam's military force created shortly after that. It was commanded by...
that fought against Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
's Vietminh during the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
. He led a groupement mobile.
Diem overthrow
He was a participant in the 1963 coup that deposed President Ngo Dinh DiemNgo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
and ended in his assassination
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, then president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d’état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963...
. Colonel Co was the deputy of General Ton That Dinh
Ton That Dinh
Major General Tôn Thất Đính is a retired officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that deposed and resulted in the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam .A favourite of...
, who commanded the III Corps
III Corps (South Vietnam)
III Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975...
forces that oversaw the region surrounding the capital Saigon. Dinh was entrusted to command III Corps because the Ngo family trusted him to defend them in the face of any coup attempts. However, in late-1963, Dinh began to plot against Diem along with a group of generals.
As part of the generals' plot, Dinh sent Colonel Co to My Tho to talk to the 7th Division commander, Colonel Bui Dinh Dam
Bui Dinh Dam
Major General Bùi Đình Đạm was a general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam .-Military education:* Officers School of Vietnam, Class 1 of Phan Boi Chau* U.S...
, and two regimental commanders, the armoured unit commander, both of the 7th Division, and the My Tho province chief. At the time, the 7th Division was under the control of the IV Corps
IV Corps (South Vietnam)
The IV Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975...
that was commanded by Diem loyalist General Huynh Van Cao
Huynh Van Cao
Major General Huỳnh Văn Cao was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was born on September 26, 1927.He is married and has ten children and more than 20 grandchildren. In 1950, he graduated from Military school in Huế. He then attended College of Tactics and graduated in Hanoi in...
. This division was on the outskirts of Saigon and its stance would be critical in determining the success or failure of a coup. Exhorting the 7th Division officers to join the coup on the grounds that the Diem regime was unable to keep the military going forward, he stated that all the generals except Cao were in the plot, while Dinh was going to do so. According to one account, Dinh had intended that loyalists would report Co's activities to Diem and Nhu so that it would give him an opportunity to orchestrate a stunt to ingratiate himself with the palace and make the coup easier to carry out.
Nhu's agents heard of the conversation and reported to the palace. When the Ngo brothers confronted Dinh with the report of what had happened in My Tho, Dinh feigned astonishment at his deputy's behaviour. He began crying and said "This is my fault, because you have suspected me. I have not really gone to work for the last 15 days but have stayed at home because I was sad. But I am not against you. I was sad because I thought I was discredited with you. So Nguyen Huu Co profited from my absence to make trouble."
Dinh claimed to know nothing of Co's activities and raised his voice, vowing to have his deputy killed. Nhu opposed this and stated that he wanted keep Co alive to catch the plotters, and tried to use Dinh to achieve this.
Nhu ordered Dinh to plan a fake coup against the Ngo family. One of Nhu's objectives was to trick dissidents into joining the false uprising so that they could be identified and eliminated.
Dinh was put in charge of the fake coup and was allowed the additional control of the 7th Division, giving his III Corps complete encirclement of Saigon. This would prevent Cao from storming the capital to save Diem as he had done during the 1960 coup attempt
1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt
On November 11, 1960, a failed coup attempt against President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was led by Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Van Dong and Colonel Nguyen Chanh Thi of the Airborne Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam ....
.
Not trusting Co, Diem put the loyalist Catholic Colonel Lam Van Phat
Lam Van Phat
Major General Lâm Văn Phát served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . He is best known for leading two coup attempts against General Nguyễn Khánh in September 1964 and February 1965...
in command of the 7th Division on October 31. According to tradition, Phat had to pay the corps commander a courtesy visit before assuming control of the division. Dinh refused to see Phat and told him to come back on Friday at 14:00, by which time the real coup had already been scheduled to start. In the meantime, Dinh had General Tran Van Don
Tran Van Don
Trần Văn Đôn was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and one of the principal figures in the coup d'état which deposed Ngô Đình Diệm from the presidency of South Vietnam.-Family:...
sign a counter-order transferring command of the 7th Division to Co.
With a group of his personal rebel officers, Co flew by helicopter to My Tho, the division headquarters, to take command on the morning of the coup, November 1. Reaching the Mekong Delta town two hours before the scheduled start of the coup, he held a ceremony for the division's incumbent officers—who thought the change of command was a routine matter— in a local hall. When the coup started, Co's men charged through the doors with automatic guns and arrested the officers, before taking command. He said "Please remain seated quietly. Anyone who rises will be instantly shot".
Co then phoned Cao, further south in the Mekong Delta's largest town Can Tho, where the IV Corps was headquartered. The rebel colonel assured Cao that the divisional and corps transfer had taken place smoothly. Co, a central Vietnamese, was afraid that Cao, a Mekong Delta native would recognise his fake southern accent, and realise that he was impersonating Phat, another southerner. However, Cao did not notice the faked accent.
When Cao was informed by his subordinates that there was a coup occurring in the capital, he believed in to be part of the false coup, as he had been told beforehand by Nhu; Cao was one of the regime's most loyal and favourites generals and he was going to help stage the second part of Nhu's plan. However, Cao did tell one regiments and a few tanks to ready themselves for the second part of the plot.
Late during the night of the coup, Cao realised that it was a genuine coup. He sent the 9th Division
9th Division (South Vietnam)
The 9th Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam —the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975—was part of the IV Corps that oversaw the southernmost region of South Vietnam, the Mekong Delta....
under Colonel Bui Dzinh
Bui Dzinh
Bùi Dzinh is a former Vietnamese military commander. He was born in the village of Xuan Hoa in the Lệ Thủy district of Vietnam's Quảng Bình Province. He was educated at the Vietnamese National Military Academy in Đà Lạt, graduating as valedictorian in 1951. He was then assigned to 21 Battalion...
to move north through My Tho towards Saigon to save Diem, but Co had already made plans to cut off any attempt by Cao to relieve Saigon. When Cao radioed the 7th Division in My Tho, Co identified himself and taunted the corps commander, saying "Didn't you recognise my accent?". Co told the general that he had ordered all the ferries to the Saigon side of the Mekong River, and told Cao not to attempt to cross unless he wanted to die. Seeing that Diem was lost, Cao later expressed solidarity with the coup. After the coup succeeded Co became a general in the ruling Military Revolutionary Council (MRC). Co said that Diem "made so many mistakes", most notably his strong preferential treatment of Roman Catholics, usually from his native central Vietnam, at the expense of Buddhists. Diem also promoted military officers on loyalty, not merit.
Junta
The MRC led by General Duong Van MinhDuong Van Minh
Minh was born on 16 February 1916 in Mỹ Tho Province in the Mekong Delta, the son of a wealthy landowner who served in a prominent position in the Finance Ministry of the French colonial administration...
was deposed in a January 1964 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...
by General Nguyen Khanh
Nguyen Khanh
Nguyễn Khánh is a former general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam who variously served as Head of State and Prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a military junta from January 1964 until February 1965. He was involved in or against many coup attempts, failed and successful,...
, and he put several leading generals—Tran Van Don
Tran Van Don
Trần Văn Đôn was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and one of the principal figures in the coup d'état which deposed Ngô Đình Diệm from the presidency of South Vietnam.-Family:...
, Ton That Dinh
Ton That Dinh
Major General Tôn Thất Đính is a retired officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that deposed and resulted in the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam .A favourite of...
and Mai Huu Xuan
Mai Huu Xuan
Major General Mai Hữu Xuân was a general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and a participant in the November 1963 coup that deposed President Ngô Đình Diệm and ended in his assassination....
—in jail, but Co was not affected.
South Vietnam had a series of short-lived juntas, including military-supervised civilian cabinets over the next 18 months.
In August 1964, Khanh tried to give himself more power, but this provoked strong protests and forced him to back down into a weaker position than before, and his rule became unstable as more concessions were demanded. Khanh promised to dissolve the junta and create a National Assembly within a year. The division among the generals came to a head at a meeting of the junta on August 26–27, as they blamed each other's polcies and machinations for the problems. Thieu and Co called for the replacement of Khanh with Minh, but the latter refused. Minh reportedly claimed that Khanh was the only one who would get funding from Washington, so they support him, prompting angry arguments as to whether Khanh was a puppet. After more arguing between the senior officers, they agreed that Khanh, Minh, and Khiem would rule as a triumvirate for two months, until a new civilian government could be formed. However, the triumvirate did little due to their disunity. Khanh dominated the decisionmaking and sidelined Khiem and Minh.
In January 1965, the junta-appointed Prime Minister Tran Van Huong
Tran Van Huong
Trần Văn Hương was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the penultimate president of South Vietnam prior to its surrender to the communist forces of North Vietnam.-Biography:...
introduced a series of measures to expand the military and war effort, most notably by widening the terms of conscription. This provoked widespread anti-Huong demonstrations and riots, mainly from conscription-aged students and pro-negotiations Buddhists. Reliant on Buddhist support, Khanh then decided to have the armed forces take over, removing Huong on January 27, Khanh removed Huong in a bloodless putsch with the support of Thi and Ky. He promised to leave politics once the situation was stabilized and hand over power to a civilian body. It was believed that some of the officers supported Khanh's increased power so that it would give him an opportunity to fail and be removed permanently.
Khanh's deposal of the prime minister nullified a counter-plot involving Huong that had developed during the civil disorders that forced him from office. In an attempt to pre-empt his deposal, Huong had backed a plot led by some Dai Viet-oriented Catholic officers reported to include Generals Co and Thieu. They planned to remove Khanh and bring Tran Thien Khiem
Tran Thien Khiem
General Trần Thiện Khiêm was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. During the 1960s he was involved in several coups. He helped President Ngo Dinh Diem put down a November 1960 coup attempt and was rewarded with promotion...
back from Washington. The US Embassy in Saigon was privately supportive of the aim, but was not ready to fully back the move as they regarded it as poorly thought out and potentially a political embarrassment due to the need to use an American plane to transport some plotters, including Khiem, between Saigon and Washington. As a result, they only promised asylum for Huong if necessary.
By this time, the US relationship with Khanh had broken down, and the US became more intent on a regime change as Khanh was reliant on Buddhist support, which they saw as an obstacle to an expansion of the war. In the first week of February, Taylor told the leading officers that the US was "in no way propping up General Khanh or backing him in any fashion".
At this stage, the US Embassy thought highly of three officers as possible replacements for Khanh: Thieu, Co the commander of II Corps
II Corps (South Vietnam)
The II Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps in the ARVN, and it oversaw the region of the central highlands region, north of the capital Saigon...
and Admiral Chung Tan Cang
Chung Tan Cang
Admiral Chung Tấn Cang was the commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy from 1963 to 1965...
the commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy
Republic of Vietnam Navy
The Republic of Vietnam Navy was the naval force of the former Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. The early fleet consisted of boats from France. After 1955 and the transfer of the armed forces to Vietnamese control, the fleet was supplied from the United States...
. A US Defense Department report stated that Co was an "outstanding officer...friendly to Americans". At the same time, the CIA knew that Co had become disillusioned with Khanh and had stopped attending junta meetings after Khanh accused him of "having been bought off by the Americans".
However, the relatively cautious Thieu, Co and Cang's preparations were well behind that of Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao
Pham Ngoc Thao
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, known to friends as Albert Thảo , a major provincial leader in South Vietnam and infiltrator of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, was a communist agent of the Vietminh and later the Vietnam People's Army...
, a communist spy who was an endless creator of plots. Co and the other American-preferred officers maintained a guarded approach, waiting to see what others would do, rather than boldly taking the initiative, and Thao struck first. The Americans did not agree with Thao's ideology and with their support, Ky and Thi defeated the coup and then overthrew Khanh as well, becoming the most important officers in the resulting junta.
In mid-1965 Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyen Cao Ky
Nguyễn Cao Kỳ served as the chief of the Vietnam Air Force in the 1960s, before leading the nation as the prime minister of South Vietnam in a military junta from 1965 to 1967...
became prime minister and General Nguyen Van Thieu
Nguyen Van Thieu
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was president of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1975. He was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam , became head of a military junta, and then president after winning a fraudulent election...
as the figurehead president. They headed a 10-man junta of which Co was a part until elections were held in 1967. Co was the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister.
Co was generally regarded as being corrupt. As a general, he had a base pay of USD177 a month, but he managed to purchase three villas in Saigon and had property estimated at USD600,000 near Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base was a Republic of Vietnam Air Force facility. It is located near the city of Saigon in southern Vietnam. The United States used it as a major base during the Vietnam War , stationing Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine units there...
on the capital's outskirts. Co's wealth was believed to have come from bribes from subordinate officers who wanted postings away from danger, usually desk jobs, as well as charging up to USD3,400 a head for draft evaders, depending on how rich they were. Co was also accused of using his position as defense minister to pocket the rent collected from the American military for building US bases on land rented from the Saigon government. Co's wife was known to be a gambling addict during his halcyon days and was reputed to have once lost USD8,500 in one outing.
Co was seen as a political threat to Ky and a magnet for dissidents. For his part, Co deemed Ky to be "immature". In early 1967, Ky sent Co to Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, ostensibly to represent the junta at a ceremony to opening direct air services from Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
to Saigon. In the meantime, Ky made a state visit to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. With Co out of the country and unable to stage a coup, and Ky not within striking distance in case anyone wanted to capture him, news of Co's removal was broken in Saigon.
Co expressed a desire to return to Saigon, but was threatened with arrest and trial, and soldiers were deployed to the airport. Co spent three years in exile in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. When President Thieu sidelined Ky from real power, he allowed Co to return to South Vietnam in 1970. Co stayed away from politics and worked as a commercial banker and then a businessman.
Imprisonment by the communists
In April 1975, the fall of SaigonFall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front on April 30, 1975...
occurred and the communists took control. Co made plans to leave but hesitated and was not evacuated by the US military. He considered leaving by boat, but deemed it too risky with 11 children.
In June 1975, Co was told to report to a re-education camp along with the vast majority of public servants and military officers. They were told to bring clothes for one month, but were kept much longer, 12 years in the case of Co. Co was initially held at Quang Trung Training Camp, about 15 km north of Ho Chi Minh City, which had been an ARVN training center for newly enlisted men. According to him, the conditions were good, although there were political propaganda lectures.
In June 1976, he was suddenly moved by an airplane in the middle of the night to Yen Bay in the north of the country where he was forced to perform manual labor. In 1978, he and some other ARVN generals were relocated to Ha Tay, in the Red River Delta
Red River Delta
The Red River Delta is the flat plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries joining in the Thai Binh River in northern Vietnam. The delta measuring some 15,000 square km is well protected by a network of dikes. It is an agriculturally rich area and densely populated...
east of the capital Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, where he was imprisoned in an Interior Ministry facility, where he was asked to write what he knew about South Vietnam's. military strategies and government mechanisms.
In 1979, Co was moved by himself to Nam Ha and then Thanh Lam
Thanh Lam
Thanh Lam is a Vietnamese singer and song-writer who has been a long-standing Diva in Vietnamese contemporary music.-Early life and education:...
, where he was made to undergo propaganda lessons and manual labor alongside a mixture of military and civilian personnel. In he was returned to Ha Tay to be reunited with the other generals. In 1983 he was moved back to Nam Ha, where he stayed until his release in 1987, after 12 years in captivity.
While he was imprisoned, his wife, who had previously always been a housewife, took her first job, in a knitting factory. Co opted to remain in Vietnam under communist rule after being released.