Trần Thiện Khiêm

Khiem lived in retirement in San Jose, California, and was baptized as a Catholic there in 2018. He died on 23 or 24 June 2021, at the age of 95, while recovering from a fall at a nursing home around Irvine, California.

After more arguing between the senior officers, they agreed on 27 August that Khánh, Minh, and Khiêm would rule as a triumvirate for two months, until a new civilian government could be formed. The trio then brought paratroopers into Saigon to end the rioting. However, the momentum petered out due to the lack of unity in the ruling triumvirate. Khánh dominated the decision-making, sidelining Khiêm and Minh. Khánh blamed Khiêm for organizing a failed coup attempt led by Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức on 13 September. General Huynh Van Cao, a Catholic and former Diệm loyalist, claimed in a 1972 newspaper interview that Khiêm, by then prime minister, had asked him to join the coup. Cao claimed that he declined Khiêm's invitation, mildly mocking him by asking "You're part of the 'Troika' now ... won't you be overthrowing yourself?", and pointing out that a political upheaval in Saigon would be a bad idea because Vietnam was prominent during the ongoing US presidential election campaign and negative publicity could lead to weakening US public and political support for South Vietnam. Khiêm's lack of public action was seen as tacit support for the coup; A US Embassy log during the coup claimed that the Thiệu and Khiêm "seem so passive that they appear to have been either tacitly supporting or associated with his move by Đức and Phát", and that Khiêm had "issued expressions of firm support for Khánh somewhat belatedly", as control was eventually reestablished.

In January 1965, the junta-appointed Prime Minister Trần Văn Hương introduced a series of measures to expand the military and war effort by widening the terms of conscription. This provoked widespread anti-Hương demonstrations and riots across the country, mainly from conscription-aged students and pro-negotiations Buddhists. Reliant on Buddhist support, Khánh decided to have the armed forces take over. On 27 January, he removed Hương in a bloodless coup. Khánh's deposal of Hương nullified a counter-plot involving Hương that had developed during the civil disorders. In an attempt to pre-empt his deposal, Hương had backed a plot led by some Đại Việt-oriented Catholic officers, including Thiệu and Nguyễn Hữu Có. They planned to remove Khánh and bring Khiêm back from Washington, D.C. The US Embassy in Saigon was privately supportive of the aim, but 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 Khiêm, between Saigon and Washington.

Despite his failure to take power, Khiêm said he was "very happy. I think my objective has been realized." The new junta decided to ignore Khiêm's involvement in the coup and he remained in Washington as the ambassador, with no further action taken. In October 1965 the junta of Kỳ and Thiệu made Khiêm the Ambassador to Taiwan; he served there until mid-1968, then returned to Vietnam and served under President Thiệu as Interior Minister for a year before becoming Deputy Prime Minister at the start of 1969. In September 1969 he became prime minister and defense minister, and he stayed in the role until April 1975 when he resigned and left the country as the communists were in the process of completing their victory over South Vietnam. However, he had little power as Thiệu operated virtually one-man rule.

He later joined with Nguyễn Khánh to stage a successful January 1964 coup. In the next few months, the Catholic Khiêm fell out with Khánh whom he accused of being too heavily influenced by Buddhist activists. Khiêm tried to plot against Khánh, but was thwarted. He was implicated in the organization of the September 1964 coup attempt by Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức, both Catholics, and was sent into exile to serve as Ambassador to the United States. In February 1965, Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, who had accompanied him to Washington had returned to Saigon and launched a coup with Phát. This was done with Khiêm's support. The coup failed but other officers took the opportunity to force Khánh into exile. Khiêm would return to Vietnam when the political climate among the generals was more favorable and became Prime Minister under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, resigning only in the last month before the fall of Saigon.

In August 1964, after Khánh decided to take more power for himself by declaring a state of emergency and introducing a new constitution, Buddhists launched protests against the new junta, claiming that there was a plot to revive the Diêm era by predominantly Catholic groups such as Cần Lao veterans and Đại Việt supporters, pinpointing Khiêm and Thiệu, both Catholics who had been favoured by Diêm. Khánh's concessions to the Buddhists sparked opposition from Khiêm and Thiệu, who tried to remove Khánh in favour of Minh, recruiting other officers. Khiêm said "Khánh felt there was no choice but to accept since the influence of [Thích] Trí Quang was so great that he could not only turn the majority of the people against the government but could influence the effectiveness of the armed forces". They sought out Taylor and sought a private endorsement for a coup against Khánh, but the US ambassador did not want any more changes in leadership, fearing a corrosive effect on the government. This deterred Khiêm's group from toppling Khánh.

By the end of the year, Khánh had prevailed in the power struggle with Khiêm and Minh. He despatched Khiêm to Washington as ambassador, being convinced Khiêm was destabilizing Saigon. In late December 1964, Khánh summoned Thảo back to Saigon. Thảo suspected Khánh was attempting to have him killed, while Khánh thought that Thảo and Khiêm were plotting against him. Fearing that he would be arrested upon arrival, Thảo attempted to outmanoeuvre Khánh and went underground to plot. In the meantime, Khiêm had been putting pressure on Khánh while serving as his ambassador by charging he and the Buddhists with seeking a "neutralist solution" and "negotiating with the communists".

After the 1963 coup, the key figures took the choice jobs in the Military Revolutionary Council, and Khiêm was demoted from being Chief of Staff of the armed forces to the commander of the III Corps that surrounded Saigon. Khiêm controlled the 5th and 7th Divisions of the ARVN, which were based in Biên Hòa and Mỹ Tho, north and south of Saigon respectively. Khiêm was disgruntled and easily recruited into another coup.

Khiêm was a Roman Catholic with ties to Diêm's older brother, Archbishop Thục; Diêm was also Khiêm's godfather. Khiêm brought in tanks from the Second Armored Battalion from Mỹ Tho, a town in the Mekong Delta, south of Saigon. As the false promises of reform were being aired, Khiêm's men approached the palace grounds. Some of the rebels switched sides as the power balance changed. After a brief but violent battle that killed around 400 people, the coup attempt was crushed. Khiêm was made a brigadier general after serving as the head of the 21st Division, and was appointed Chief of Staff of the combined armed forces and made a major general in December 1962.

On 11 November 1960, Colonels Vương Văn Đông and Nguyễn Chánh Thi launched a coup attempt against President Diêm, but after surrounding the palace, they stopped attacking and decided to negotiate a power-sharing agreement. Diêm falsely promised reforms, allowing time for his loyalists to come to the rescue. The rebels had failed to seal the highways into the capital to block loyalist reinforcements.

Khiêm graduated from the Vietnamese National Military Academy in Đà Lạt on 12 July 1947. He became a 1st Lieutenant in June 1948 and served in the Vietnamese National Army of the French-backed State of Vietnam of Emperor Bảo Đại, which fought the Việt Minh of Hồ Chí Minh. Khiêm was appointed captain in 1951 and major in July 1954. In 1957, as a colonel, he became a Deputy Chief of General Staff/Logistics and served as acting Chief of Joint General Staff in October. From 1957 to 1958 he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in the United States, and upon his return, served as 4th Field Division Commander until February 1960. In September, he switched to command the 5th Division, which at the time was based in Mỹ Tho.

On the night of 29 January, Khiêm ordered troops to assume their positions around Saigon, including armored cars and tanks and some elements from the 5th and 7th Divisions. Khiêm then went to sleep. Khánh headed to the staff headquarters, where he saw that the compound was empty apart from a few guards. When he telephoned Khiêm, he found that his co-conspirator had overslept after having forgotten to set his alarm clock. Despite this, by daybreak, Khánh had taken over without a shot being fired. Generals Dương Văn Minh, Trần Văn Đôn and Lê Văn Kim woke up to find Khiêm's men surrounding their houses and thought it to be a quixotic stunt by some disgruntled young officers, having had no inkling of the plot. Khánh put them under house arrest, later charging them with neutralism. In a morning radio broadcast Khánh said he had conducted the coup because of the junta's failure to make progress against the Viet Cong. After the coup, Khiêm became Defense Minister and the Chairman of Joint General Staff while serving on the junta.

General Trần Thiện Khiêm ([ʈəŋ˨˩ tʰiəŋ˨˩˨ kʰim˧˧]; 15 December 1925 – 24 June 2021) was a South Vietnamese soldier and politician, who served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He was born in Saigon, Cochinchina, French Indochina (now Vietnam). During the 1960s, he was involved in several coups. He helped President Ngô Đình Diệm put down a November 1960 coup attempt and was rewarded with a promotion. In 1963, however, he was involved in the coup that deposed and assassinated Diêm.