(February 16 1916 – August 6 2001), known popularly as
Big Minh, was a Vietnamese general and politician. He led the South Vietnamese army under Prime Minister
Ngô Đình DiệmNgô Đình Diệm , was the first President of South Vietnam .-Family and childhood:...
. In 1963, he became leader of
South VietnamSouth Vietnam refers to a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the State of Vietnam and later as the “Republic of Vietnam” . Its capital was Saigon...
after a coup in which Diệm was assassinated. Dương’s rule lasted only three months, but he briefly led South Vietnam again in 1975 before surrendering the nation to Communist forces.
He got the nickname, “Big Minh”, because being 1.83 m (6 ft) tall and weighing 90 kg (198 lb), he dwarfed all the other Vietnamese soldiers. It also serves to distinguish him from another military general of South Vietnam,
Trần Văn MinhMajor General Trần Văn Minh was born on August 19, 1923 in Saigon, French Indochina.He was sometimes known as Little Minh to distinguish him from the huge Duong Van Minh....
.
Biography
Dương Văn Minh was born on February 16, 1916 in Mỹ Tho province in the
Mekong DeltaThe Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southeastern Vietnam of...
. He went to
SaigonHo Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh is the largest city in Vietnam. It was known as Prey Nokor before being annexed by the Vietnamese in the 17th century. Under the name Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn; ), it was the capital of...
where he attended a top
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
colonial school, where King
Norodom SihanoukKing Norodom Sihanouk regular script wasthe King of Cambodia until his abdication on 7 October 2004. He is now "King-Father of Cambodia," a position in which he retains many of his former responsibilities as constitutional King.The son of King Norodom Suramarit and Queen Sisowath Kossamak,...
of
CambodiaThe Kingdom of Cambodia , formerly known as Kampuchea , is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh...
had also studied.
He began his military career in the 1940s when he joined the French colonial army. He was one of only 50 Vietnamese officers to be commissioned.
In 1954, he joined the new South Vietnamese military. In 1956, he defeated the armed religious sect,
Hoa HaoHòa Hảo is a religious tradition, based on Buddhism, founded in 1939 by Huynh Phu So, a native of the Mekong River Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider So to be a prophet, and Hoa Hao a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known as Buu Son Ky Huong...
, that threatened the South Vietnamese regime, and the drug-dealing pirate organisation,
Binh XuyenBinh Xuyen was a powerful Vietnamese criminal organization active from 1945 to 1960.-Pacific War:The Binh Xuyen river pirates first emerged in the early 1920s in the marshes and canals along the southern fringes of Saigon-Cholon...
. This gained him the respect of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Minh was sent there to study, where he attended the U.S. Command and General Staff College at Fort
LeavenworthLeavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is situated on the west bank of the Missouri River. The population was 35,420 at the 2000...
in
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
, despite his poor English.
He was a military adviser to President
Ngô Đình DiệmNgô Đình Diệm , was the first President of South Vietnam .-Family and childhood:...
from 1962 to 1963.
Overthrow of Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was a very unpopular leader, and in 1963 the
United States of AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
informed Minh that it would not object if Diệm were to be overthrown. Minh was the second highest ranking general at the time, and he led the
coup to overthrow DiệmOn November 1, 1963, President Ngo Dinh Diem 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-dominated...
on November 1 of 1963.
The next day, Diệm and his brother
Ngô Ðình Nhu', , was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first President, Ngô Ðình Diệm. He was widely regarded as the brains behind Diem's autocratic regime.-Biography:...
were executed by Minh’s bodyguard
Nguyen Van NhungMajor Nguyễn Văn Nhung was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . The bodyguard of General Duong Van Minh, Nhung was a professional military hitman who was reputed to have etched a line on his revolver for each of his killings. He was well-known for his role in the November 1963 coup...
after surrendering. Minh took over the government under a
military juntaA military dictatorship is a form of government wherein the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
on November 6.
Minh is said to have preferred playing
mah-jonggMahjong is a game for four players that originated in China. It was called , meaning sparrow in ancient China. It is still the name most commonly used in some southern Chinese dialects such as Cantonese and Minnan, as well as in Japanese...
and giving tea parties to fighting the Việt Cộng or running the country. His military junta lasted only a couple of months before it was overthrown by General
Nguyễn KhánhNguyễn Khánh is a former Chief of State and Prime minister of South Vietnam. He was a General, Commander-in-chief, Chief of Staff in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and Ambassador....
on January 30, 1964. Dương Văn Minh went into exile in
BangkokBangkok is the capital, largest urban area and primary city of Thailand. Known in Thai as Krung Thep Mahanakhon , or กรุงเทพฯ Krung Thep for short, it was a small trading post at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River during the Ayutthaya Kingdom. It came to the forefront of Siam when it was given the...
,
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
. He still had many American friends, particularly in the CIA, who gave him support during this period, including paying for his dentist bills. In return, he wrote a hawkish article about Vietnam for the respected
Foreign Affairs quarterly in 1968, condemning the Việt Cộng and disparaging any possible coalition government with the Communists. This article helped end his exile and get him back into Vietnam with the support of the U.S. in 1968.
Once back in his home country, Minh opposed General
Nguyễn Văn ThiệuNguyễn Văn Thiệu was a general and served as president of South Vietnam .- Biography :Born in a coastal village, central Vietnam , Thiệu was a son of a small but well-to-do landowner...
, who was still supported by the United States. Minh was going to run against Thiệu in the 1971 election but he withdrew because it became obvious to him (and most other observers) that the elections were rigged. Thiệu was then the only candidate in this election. Minh kept a low profile after this.
Minh was regarded as a potential leader of a “third force” which could come to a compromise with the North to avoid an armed takeover. His brother,
Dương Văn NhutDương Văn Nhut was a major general in the North Vietnamese army during the Vietnam war. He was also brother of Dương Văn Minh, the last president of South Vietnam....
, was a one-star general in the
North VietnamNorth Vietnam, also called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976....
ese army. In 1973, Minh proposed his own political program for South Vietnam, which was a compromise between the proposals of Thiệu and the Việt Cộng. Thiệu and the United States however, were strongly opposed to any sort of compromise. He is known to have had contact with the North Vietnamese government, but it carefully avoided either endorsing or condemning Minh.
In late April 1975, when it was obvious South Vietnam was going to lose the
warThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
, President Thiệu fled to
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
and handed over power to Vice-President
Tran Van HuongTrần 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:...
. President Tran Van Huong prepared for peace talks with North Vietnam but when his meeting failed he handed over power to General Dương Văn Minh.
Minh became President a few days later on April 28, 1975, promising to seek reconciliation with the North. He was unsuccessful in his efforts at conciliation, largely because by this point the military situation of the South Vietnamese government, such as remained of it, was entirely untenable and the North felt no compulsion to negotiate with him. Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. Minh announced that South Vietnam was surrendering unconditionally, when he went on national radio and television at 11 AM on April 30. He announced, “The Republic of Vietnam policy is the policy of peace and reconciliation, aimed at saving the blood of our people. We are here waiting for the Provisional Revolutionary Government to hand over the authority in order to stop useless bloodshed.”
When the Communist troops entered the Independence Palace in Saigon, they found Minh and his Cabinet sitting around the big oval table in the Cabinet room. As they entered, Minh looked at Phạm Xuân Thệ and said, “We have been waiting for you so that we could turn over the government.” The ranking North Vietnamese officer,
Bui TinFormer People's Army of Vietnam Colonel Bùi Tín is a Vietnamese dissident.-Biography:Bùi Tín was born near Hanoi in 1927, and was educated in Huế....
said “You have nothing left to turn over.”
Later in the afternoon he went on radio again and said, “I declare the
Saigon government is completely dissolved at all levels.”
After his official surrender to Communist troops, he was summoned to report back. After a few days he was permitted to return to his villa. He lived there for the next eight years in seclusion, where he continued to raise birds and grow exotic
orchidsOrchidaceae, the Orchid family, is the largest family of the flowering plants . Its name is derived from the genus Orchis....
.
Life in exile
Dương Văn Minh was allowed to emigrate to
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in 1983 and settled near
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He has two sons living in France (Minh Duc Duong and Minh Tam Duong). In the last few years of his life, he lived in
PasadenaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States; and is a satellite city of Los Angeles. Famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home of many leading scientific and cultural institutions, including the...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
,
U.S.A.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with his daughter, Mai Duong. As he aged, he found he needed a
wheelchairA wheelchair is a wheeled mobility device in which the user sits. The device is propelled either manually or via various automated systems. Wheelchairs are used by people for whom walking is difficult or impossible due to illness , injury, or disability...
for mobility.
On 5 August 2001, Dương Văn Minh was at his home in Pasadena when he fell. He was taken to
Huntington Memorial HospitalHuntington Hospital is a 636-bed hospital in Pasadena, California.Huntington Hospital serves as the regional trauma center for the San Gabriel Valley area and nearby communities. It is one of 13 trauma centers in Los Angeles County....
in Pasadena and he died the next night at the age of 85. He was buried in
Rose Hills Memorial ParkRose Hills Memorial Park is the largest cemetery in the United States and is located in Whittier, California. It is owned & operated by Service Corporation International .-Mausoleums and chapels:...
in
Whittier, CaliforniaWhittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 83,680. It is the home of Whittier College...
.
Both supporters of the old South Vietnamese government and supporters of the current Vietnamese government have mixed feelings about Dương Văn Minh, in large part due to his surrender.
External links
- General Duong Van Minh Dies at 86, Asian Week, August 17-23, 2001
- General Duong Van Minh, The Independent
The Independent is a British newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers. The daily edition was named National...
(UK), 9 August 2001
- Gen. Duong Van Minh Buried at Rose Hills, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
, August 19, 2001
- Duong Van Minh; Last President of S. Vietnam, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
, August 8, 2001
- Duong Van Minh, 85, Saigon Plotter, Dies, New York Times, August 8, 2001
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