Word: phat
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Lean Phat. According to official Washington last week, the coup was hardly to be expected. Maxwell Taylor, U.S. Ambassador to Saigon, back in the U.S. for consultation, referred to an "upward trend" in the fighting. President Lyndon Johnson spoke of "continued progress" in embattled South Viet Nam. Hours later, the political balance in Saigon was being challenged by an array of dissatisfied soldiers...
...concessions Khanh had been forced to grant the Buddhist majority in his strife-torn nation in the past few weeks. The coup leaders are officers who had either been fired by Khanh or were on the brink of being cashiered. Top man seemed to be Brigadier General Lam Van Phat, a lean, taciturn officer who last week was eased out of his job as Interior Minister in Khanh's Cabinet. Under the murdered Roman Catholic President Diem, Lam Van Phat had been appointed 7th Division commander, but he was considered by U.S. military advisers to be a "mediocre" general...
Nevertheless, Phat was doing quite well at week's end, and was supported by a handful of able officers, particularly Brigadier General Duong Van Due, commander of the IV Corps, and Co'onel Ba, chief of the 7th Division's armored section. Soldiers gathered rapidly in front of a large U.S. communications center. Several U.S. advisers were chased away by their colleagues among the Vietnamese officers participating in the coup. As the rebel troops moved into the center of the city, Phat sat calmly in a civilian car. "We'll be holding a press conference...
...Roman Catholic cathedral fled in panic. The Buddhists who earlier in the week had mounted a parade of 150,000 people for the burial of two "martyrs" in the recent religious riots, were evidently taken by surprise. Strangely, however, Buddhist army detachments were making no resistance to Phat's takeover, and there was no sign of activity from the air force commander, who had pledged two weeks earlier that his planes would swiftly crush any uprising. Premier Khanh himself was still unheard from...
Since the coup took place shortly after sunrise, and Saigon, at least, does not begin to function as a city until after breakfast, no one could be sure how secure Phat's new government would be. In the confusion, one South