Major General Lâm Văn Phát served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known for leading two coup attempts against General Nguyen Khanh in September 1964 and February 1965. Although both failed to result in his taking power, the latter caused enough instability that it forced Khanh to resign and go into exile.

A member of the Roman Catholic minority, Phat joined the French-backed Vietnamese National Army which became the ARVN after the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) was established. After being sent to the US for further training in 1958, Phat returned home to head the Civil Guard, a paramilitary force then mostly used to protect the ruling family of President Ngo Dinh Diem, rather than to counteract the communist Vietcong insurgency. Later commanding the 2nd Division, he was known for his fidelity to Diem, who was known for favoring fellow Catholics. A private and introverted man, Phat was regarded as haughty and a dour tactician. In 1963, Diem knew that some of the generals were about to launch a coup against him. He appointed Phat to command the 7th Division located near the capital Saigon so that he could help in the fighting, but the plotters successfully used delaying tactics so that the paperwork for the transfer of the division leadership could not occur before they proceeded to overthrow and execute Diem. Despite his allegiance, Phat was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 7th Division thereafter.

After the January 1964 coup of Khanh, which toppled Diem's conquerors, Phat was made the commander of III Corps and was also Interior Minister for a time until being dismissed in September 1964. This prompted him to join with Duong Van Duc, another general relieved of command, in launching a coup attempt against Khanh on September 13. They initially took over the capital without a fight, but Khanh escaped, and after receiving endorsements from the US, defeated Phat and Duc. At the military trial that followed, charges were dropped.

In February 1965, Phat joined with fellow Catholic, Diem protege and Khanh opponent Pham Ngoc Thao—actually a communist agent intent on maximizing infighting in South Vietnam—in another coup attempt. After the forces were deadlocked, Phat met with Vietnam Air Force chief Nguyen Cao Ky, insisting on Khanh's demise. After the meeting concluded, the coup collapsed, but Khanh was also forced from office by his junta colleagues the next day. Phat and Thao went into hiding and were sentenced to death in absentia by Ky's military tribunal. Thao was killed but Phat evaded capture for three years until surrendering. By this time, Ky's power had been eclipsed by the Catholic General Nguyen Van Thieu, and Phat was allowed to go free.

Early military career

Phat had a habit of customarily being seen in public with a swagger stick, and had a reputation for autocratic leadership that alienated his subordinate officers. He grew his fingernail on his pinky to a great length, a practice that was observed by mandarins during Vietnam's imperial era to denote their status. Some observers claimed that the mandarin style of his fingernail spread to his general behavior, decrying him as "haughty" and "hawklike".

Overthrow of Diem in 1963

By late-1963, Diem knew that a coup was brewing and that the 7th Division at My Tho on the southern outskirts of the capital Saigon might be involved. As it was close to the capital, it would play a crucial role in either attacking or defending Diem, or blocking outlying units from entering the city. Diem put 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. However General Ton That Dinh, commander of the III Corps was part of the plot and deliberately refused to see Phat and told him to come back at 14:00 the following day, by which time the 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 his deputy and co-conspirator Nguyen Huu Co.

Co then trapped and arrested the 7th Division's officers on the day of the coup.Karnow, p. 321. He then phoned General Huynh Van Cao, further south in the Mekong Delta's largest town Can Tho, where the IV Corps was headquartered. Co, a central Vietnamese, imitated Phat's southern accent and tricked Cao into thinking that nothing unusual was happening. Phat's removal had thus stopped Cao from sending loyalists to Saigon to save Diem,Moyar, p. 270. who was captured and executed the following day.Karnow, pp. 323–326.

Despite the fact that Dinh saw Co as being more reliable for the purposes of staging the coup against Diem, Minh had him promoted to brigadier general immediately after the officers seized power. As a brigadier general, he served as the commander of 7th Division, from December 2 1963 until February 2 the following year.

Nguyen Khanh

Pham Duy () (born October 5, 1921) is a very popular and prolific Vietnamese songwriter. He, along with Van Cao and Trinh Cong Son, is widely considered one of the three most salient figures of modern (non-classical) Vietnamese music. Pham Duy's musical career spans fifty years. He has written over one thousand songs which he divides into different periods: Folk, Heart, Spiritual, Profane, and Children's Songs. Many of his songs have been re-licensed to Vietnamese music companies such as Thuy Nga and Lang Van and sung by other artists.

Life

He attended Thang Long High School where his teachers included Vo Nguyen Giap. He then attended the College of Arts and the Ky Nghe Thuc Hanh Vocational College. He taught himself music and studied in France in 1954-55 under Robert Lopez and as an unregistered student at the Institut de Musicologie in Paris.

His musical career started as a singer in the Duc Huy musical troupe, performing around the country in 1943-44. He then became a musical cadre for the Viet Minh during their resistance against the French. He left the Viet Minh after 6 years for French-controlled Hanoi and subsequently moved south to Saigon after becoming disenchanted with their censorship. His work was subsequently banned in communist-controlled areas.

After the fall of Saigon, Pham Duy and his family moved to the United States where he settled in Midway City, California. His music was banned in unified Vietnam between 1975 and 2005. He continues a minstrel's life and appears regularly all over the world to sing his new refugees' songs (tị nạn ca), prisoners' songs (ngục ca), and hoang cam songs.

He first returned to Vietnam for visits in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he announced that he and his son, the singer Duy Quang, would return permanently. His announced return was greeted with much fanfare in Vietnam, and the government began to ease restrictions on his work. To date, dozens of his songs have been allowed to circulate in Vietnam again.

Criticisms

Works

Periods

In addition, his many love songs have been sung and learned by heart by three generations over the last forty years.

Notable Songs

Books

References