Word: khiem
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Dates: during 1964-1964
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Jerry-Built Compromise. The generals meanwhile arrived at a jerry-built compromise: a triumvirate composed of Khanh, Big Minh and Defense Minister General Tran Thien Khiem should run the country for two months. Big Minh was included to placate the Buddhists, Khiem to please certain army factions. A bespectacled, tight-lipped cold fish, who served Diem as a division commander in the embattled south, Khiem, 39, was among the generals who turned against Diem. Last January, as commander of troops surrounding Saigon, Khiem made possible Khanh's coup, but has since become his foremost challenger...
...overlooking Cap St. Jacques on the South China Sea, 58 officers of South Viet Nam's Military Revolutionary Council sat on hard, schoolroom-style chairs and scribbled their votes on the ballots. A colonel chalked up the results on a blackboard: Khanh, 50; Defense Minister General Tran Thien Khiem, 5; General Duong Van ("Big") Minh, 1; General Do Cao Tri, 1: blank ballot...
...Minh, whom Buddhists and leaders of the nationalist Dai Viet Party had wanted to maneuver back into authority, hoping to use him as their puppet. At the same time, Khanh won over one of his most important and dangerous rivals, Defense Minister General Khiem, who got a fourth star and decided to throw in his lot with the Chairman-for the time being at least. Asked whether he was now a dictator, Khanh replied quizzically: "For six months I have been head of a totalitarian regime without being totalitarian. I can head a dictatorial regime without being a dictator...
...population, and has yet to prove the charge he invoked to justify his coup-a purported "neutralist plot" within the former junta. It is far from certain that all the military are behind him. But he has rewarded his chief collaborators hand somely. Major General Tran Thien Khiem, whose III Corps troops arrested former Junta Boss General Du ong Van ("Big") Minh, got the No. 2 military job as Defense Minister and commander in chief. But among the ranks of Khanh's new, expanded, 53-man junta (eight major generals, nine brigadier generals, 25 colonels, ten lieutenant colonels...
...portrayed himself incensed by De Gaulle's meddling in Viet Nam, pleaded with the junta last week to sever diplomatic relations with France. When he was turned down, Khanh at once won pledges of support from several key officers who shared his views, notably General Tran Thien Khiem, commanding the 3rd Corps troops around Saigon. Four of Khiem's battalions had been readied for a strike against the Viet Cong, were used instead against Minh & Co. Nine hours after Minh had refused Khanh's request to break with France, he was under arrest...