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
The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army ( vi, Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam, lit=Army of the State of Vietnam, french: Armée Nationale Vietnamienne, lit=Vietnamese National Army) was the State of Vietnam's military force create ...
of the French-backed
State of Vietnam and worked in military security and 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
Ngô Đình Nhu (; 7 October 19102 November 1963; baptismal name Jacob) was a Vietnamese archivist and politician. He was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm. Although he held n ...
, after their hiding place was discovered. During the trip back to headquarters, the Ngô brothers were assassinated, leading to a debate over who gave the order.
Prior to 1963, 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
Nguyễn Khánh (; 8 November 192711 January 2013) was a South Vietnamese military officer and Army of the Republic of Vietnam general who served in various capacities as head of state and prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a ...
and Xuân was arrested along with Generals
Trần Văn Đôn
Trần Văn Đôn (August 17, 1917 – 1997) was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and one of the principal figures in the 1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état which overthrew President Ngô Đình Diệm.
Personal life
Đôn w ...
,
Lê Văn Kim
Lieutenant General Lê Văn Kim (1918 – 28 March 1987) was a general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was the brother-in-law of General Trần Văn Đôn and together with General Dương Văn Minh, the trio organised the 1963 Sou ...
and
Tôn Thất Đính
Lieutenant General Tôn Thất Đính (, ; November 20, 1926 – November 21, 2013) was an officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that led to the ...
, accused of plotting to make peace with 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.
Early career
Xuân served under Prime Minister
Nguyễn Văn Tâm
Nguyễn Văn Tâm (16 October 1895 – 23 November 1990) served as Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, a political entity created by the French in an attempt to regain control of the country. He held that office from June 1952 to Decembe ...
during 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
The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army ( vi, Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam, lit=Army of the State of Vietnam, french: Armée Nationale Vietnamienne, lit=Vietnamese National Army) was the State of Vietnam's military force create ...
(VNA) in the
Battle for Saigon
The Battle of Saigon was a week-long battle between the Vietnamese National Army of the State of Vietnam (later to become the Army of the Republic of Vietnam) and the private army of the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate. At the time, the B ...
in May 1955, against the
Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate that sought to take over the capital.
[Hammer, p. 298.] The VNA dismantled the Bình Xuyên and Xuân was made a general.
[ Xuân turned against Diệm after he was relegated to a minor job, and he readily joined the plot against Diệm as opposition to his rule grew in 1963.
]
Diệm assassination
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 Training Camp 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 the siege on the palace, agreed to surrender. The coup leader, General Dương Văn Minh
Dương Văn Minh (; 16 February 19166 August 2001), popularly known as Big Minh, was a South Vietnamese politician and a senior general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and a politician during the presidency of Ngô Đình Diệm ...
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 the convoy: Major Dương Hiếu Nghĩa
Colonel Dương Hiếu Nghĩa (born c. 1925, Sa Đéc) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He
graduated from the Đà Lạt National Military Academy. During the Vietnam War, he served in various infantry and armored units. His ...
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 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.[Jones, p. 429.]
After the arrest, Nhung and Nghĩa sat with the Ngô brothers in 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 General 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 the information, Xuân killed them with his pistol. An investigation by Đôn later determined Nghĩa shot the brothers at point-blank range
Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm can hit a target without the need to compensate for bullet drop, and can be adjusted over a wide range of distances by sighting in the firearm. If the bullet leaves the barrel para ...
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 the brothers had died in an accident. He went to confront Minh in his office.
: Đôn: Why are they dead?
: Minh: And what does it matter that they are dead?
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.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (July 5, 1902 – February 27, 1985) was an American diplomat and Republican United States senator from Massachusetts in both Senate seats in non-consecutive terms of service and a United States ambassador. He was considered ...
thought that Xuân was partly culpable asserting that "Diệm and Nhu had been assassinated, if not by Xuân personally, at least at his direction."[Jones, p. 436.]
Junta and overthrow
Under 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.[Shaplen, p. 221.] 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 I Corps, 1st Corps, or First Corps may refer to:
France
* 1st Army Corps (France)
* I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars
* I Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French A ...
, based around Huế
Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...
and Đà Nẵng
Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is on ...
in the far north of Vietnam.[Karnow, pp. 354-55.][Shaplen, p. 230.] 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
Major General Đỗ Mậu (1 January 1917 – 11 April 2002) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) best known for his roles as a recruiting strategist in both the 1963 coup that toppled President Ngô Đình Diệm and ...
,[ the Minister of Information,][ Colonel Nguyễn Chánh Thi,][ and General Khiệm, who had been demoted from being Chief of Staff of the ARVN to the commander of the III Corps that surrounded Saigon, which meant that he controlled the troops near the capital.][Shaplen, p. 231.][Karnow, p. 352.]
At the time, French President Charles de Gaulle was contemplating recognising the People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
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
Lieutenant General Lê Văn Kim (1918 – 28 March 1987) was a general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was the brother-in-law of General Trần Văn Đôn and together with General Dương Văn Minh, the trio organised the 1963 Sou ...
were "pro-French and pro-neutralist" and part of de Gaulle's plan.[Logevall, p. 162.] Before dawn on 30 January, Khánh and his colleagues seized power in a bloodless coup before dawn, catching the MRC completely off guard.[Shaplen, p. 233.] Khánh had Xuân arrested, along with Minh, Đôn, Kim and Tôn Thất Đính
Lieutenant General Tôn Thất Đính (, ; November 20, 1926 – November 21, 2013) was an officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that led to the ...
, claiming that they were part of a neutralist plot with the French. Khánh noted they had served in the French-backed Vietnamese National Army
The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army ( vi, Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam, lit=Army of the State of Vietnam, french: Armée Nationale Vietnamienne, lit=Vietnamese National Army) was the State of Vietnam's military force create ...
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.[
]
Retribution by Khánh
On May 28 1964, Khanh put his rivals on trial. The generals were secretly interrogated for five and 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".[Langguth, pp. 289–291.] The tribunal then "congratulated" Xuân and his colleagues, but found that they were of "lax morality", unqualified to command due to 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
Da Lat (also written as Dalat, vi, Đà Lạt; ), is the capital of Lâm Đồng Province and the largest city of the Central Highlands region in Vietnam. The city is located above sea level on the Langbian Plateau. Da Lat is one of the mo ...
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 the United States for military study, but this fell through.][Shaplen, pp. 244-45.][Karnow, p. 355.] In any case, the younger generation of officers forcibly retired Xuân and the other generals by making it compulsory for officers to retire after 25 years of military service. When Khánh was himself deposed in 1965, he handed over dossiers proving that Xuân and his colleagues were innocent.[Langguth, p. 347.]
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mai, Huu Xuan
Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals
South Vietnamese military personnel of the Vietnam War
Possibly living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)