Nguyễn Văn Nhung
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Major Nguyễn Văn Nhung (1919 or 1920 – 31 January 1964) was an officer in the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April ...
(ARVN). After joining the
French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...
in 1944 during the colonial era of Vietnam, he soon met and became the '' aide-de-camp'' and bodyguard of
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. ...
, and spent the rest of his career in this role as Minh rose up the ranks to become a general. Nhung and Minh later transferred to 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 ...
(VNA) during the
First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...
and he became an officer; the VNA then became the ARVN after the creation of the Republic of Vietnam (
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
). A soft-spoken man, Nhung was a professional military assassin best known for his role in the November 1963 ''coup d'état'' led by Minh that ousted President
Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of ...
from office. At the end of the coup, Nhung - having shot Colonel
Lê Quang Tung Colonel Lê Quang Tung (13 June 1919 – 1 November 1963) was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngô Đình Nhu. Nhu was the brother of South Vietnam's president, Ngô Đình Diệm. A forme ...
, the loyalist commander of the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces ( vi, Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng Hòa or ') were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Following the establishment of the Repub ...
at a grave at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base the day before - executed President Diệm and his brother
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 ...
. An investigation led by General
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 ...
, 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 was widely believed that Minh had ordered Nhung to execute the Ngô brothers. Following
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 ...
's successful January 1964 coup against Minh's
military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...
, Nhung died in mysterious circumstances, the only fatality in the otherwise bloodless regime change.


Career

Nhung was born in either 1919 or early 1920. At the time, Vietnam was a French colony within
French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...
; and, in 1944, Nhung joined the French Army, where he soon met
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. ...
, 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 The State of Vietnam ( vi, Quốc gia Việt Nam; Chữ Nôm: 國家越南; french: État du Viêt-Nam) was a governmental entity in Southeast Asia that existed from 1949 until 1955, first as a member of the French Union and later as a country ...
, an associated state within the
French Union The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the " French Empire" (). It was the formal end of the "indigenous" () status of French subje ...
, and created 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), and both Minh and Nhung transferred to 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.


1963 coup


Tung assassination

On 1 November 1963, a group of ARVN generals, led by Minh, orchestrated a coup against President
Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of ...
. The plotters summoned a group of ARVN officers to the Joint General Staff headquarters at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base, on the pretext that they were going to attend a lunch meeting.Jones, p. 408. Among those invited was the loyalist commander of the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces ( vi, Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng Hòa or ') were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Following the establishment of the Repub ...
, Colonel
Lê Quang Tung Colonel Lê Quang Tung (13 June 1919 – 1 November 1963) was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngô Đình Nhu. Nhu was the brother of South Vietnam's president, Ngô Đình Diệm. A forme ...
. At 13:30 ( UTC 06:30), General
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 ...
announced that a coup was taking place. Most of the officers rose to applaud, but Tung did not, refusing to join the coup. He was taken away by Nhung, all the while shouting, "Remember who gave you your stars!"Tucker, p. 227. 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 the special forces' commander had disguised his men in regular army uniforms and framed the generals for the
Xá Lợi Pagoda raids The Xá Lợi Pagoda raids were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagodas in the major cities of South Vietnam shortly after midnight on 21 August 1963. The raids were executed by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special For ...
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,Karnow, p. 321. with their hands tied, to 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.Jones, p. 414.


Diệm and Nhu assassination

By the next morning, the loyalist forces had collapsed. 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 ...
, 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 Gia Long Palace ( vi, Dinh Gia Long, french: palais de Gia Long), now officially the Ho Chi Minh City Museum (Vietnamese language: ''Bảo tàng Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh'') is a historical site and museum in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam. ...
in 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 Gia Long Palace ( vi, Dinh Gia Long, french: palais de Gia Long), now officially the Ho Chi Minh City Museum (Vietnamese language: ''Bảo tàng Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh'') is a historical site and museum in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam. ...
via a secret tunnel to a safehouse in Cholon the previous night.Jones, p. 418.Karnow, p. 323. Diệm and Nhu had communicated with the generals via a direct phone link from the safehouse to 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 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 Vi ...
, 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 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 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 ...
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 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 paral ...
with a
semi-automatic firearm A semi-automatic firearm, also called a self-loading or autoloading firearm (fully automatic and selective fire firearms are also variations on self-loading firearms), is a repeating firearm whose action mechanism ''automatically'' loads a follow ...
and that Nhung sprayed them with bullets before repeatedly stabbing their bodies with a knife.Karnow, p. 326. 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
hung Hung may refer to: People * Hung (surname), various Chinese surnames * Hùng king, a king of Vietnam People with the given name Hung include: * Hung Huynh, Vietnamese-American chef, winner of the third season of the television show ''Top Chef'' ...
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 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 a 1994 interview, 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 ...
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 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”''.Jones, p. 429. Despite Đôn's investigation, no one was ever charged with the killings.


Death

Following the coup, Nhung's commanding officer, General Minh, became the President of South Vietnam, ruling through a
military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...
known as the Military Revolutionary Council. After three months of rule, which was criticised for its lack of direction,Shaplen, p. 213.Karnow, pp. 350-54. 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 ...
deposed Minh in a bloodless coup before dawn on 30 January 1964. Minh was briefly put under
house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
, 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 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 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 now-established 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 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.Karnow, pp. 354-55. 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 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 the loss of his aide.


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Van Nhung 1964 deaths 1960s murders in Vietnam 1964 crimes in Vietnam 1964 murders in Asia Assassinated military personnel Assassins of heads of state Deaths by firearm in Vietnam South Vietnamese military personnel of the Vietnam War Vietnamese anti-communists Vietnamese assassins Date of birth unknown Place of birth missing Year of birth uncertain