Word: minh
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Saigon. Forced to resign and flee the country, Thieu was replaced by his aging, ineffectual Vice President, Tran Van Huong, who in turn gave way after just six days to the only man thought to have a chance of negotiating a ceasefire: Buddhist opposition leader Duong Van ("Big") Minh. His presidential tenure proved the briefest of all and set the stage for the final Communist triumph...
...Saigon leaders to resign, capitulated at about 4:30 Sunday afternoon, saying that he would transfer the presidency to the "personality" chosen by South Viet Nam's legislature?and "the sooner the better." Hours later, the National Assembly voted 134 to 2 to give the job to Big Minh...
Later that day, Big Minh formally took power from the feeble Huong in a ceremony at the presidential palace. "We sincerely want reconciliation," he told the unseen Provisional Revolutionary Government. "You clearly know that. Reconciliation demands that each element of the nation respect the other's right to live." Minh proposed an immediate cease-fire "as a manifestation of our good will, and to quickly end the soldiers' and people's sufferings...
...Minh spoke in the chandeliered reception hall, deeply carpeted and hung with gold brocade, great rolls of thunder and flashes of lightning accompanied him. The Communists were not impressed. P.R.G. representatives promptly rejected Minn's proposal, charging that he had not met their conditions: 1) all U.S. military personnel must leave Viet Nam, and 2) the new Saigon government must have no holdovers from the old U.S.-supported regime. As Minh worked frantically to arrange a settlement, Saigon was gripped by the fear that the Communists would launch an all-out attack. "There is just...
...SURRENDER. At 10:24 a.m. Wednesday, President Minh announced in a brief radio address that he was offering an unconditional surrender to the P.R.G. "I believe in reconciliation among Vietnamese to avoid unnecessary shedding of blood," he said. "For this reason I ask the soldiers of the Republic of Viet Nam to cease hostilities in calm and to stay where they are." Afterward Minh told a French journalist, "Yes, it [the surrender] had to be done. Human lives had to be saved...