Word: tho
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Three Strongmen. For the living, there remained the task of putting together a government. Premier Nguyen Ngoc Tho, Diem's longtime Vice President, appointed nine civilian ministers -mostly nonpolitical civil servants in the old regime. To counsel Tho's government, the brass named a 15-man "Council of Sages," including business and professional leaders. But it is the military that is running the country. Lieut. General Tran Van Don, 46, the polished, French-schooled staff officer who helped mastermind the coup, was appointed Defense Minister. Major General Ton That Dinh, 36, the aggressive, vain commander of the Saigon...
...were put in a crowded, reeking cell with neither light nor toilet, ankle-deep in human excrement. Minh "almost went crazy," was freed after three months, thanks to a fellow prisoner who was released before Minh and intervened on his behalf with the French commandant. The friend: Nguyen Ngoc Tho, Diem's Vice President and the military junta's choice last week for Premier. Although Minh is universally deemed anti-Communist and pro-West, the experience in jail heightened his nationalism. However, after his release, he accepted a promotion to 1st lieutenant in the French forces, spent four...
Sharing a Cell. Big Minh's "Military Revolutionary Committee" decided it would look better to have a civilian at least nominally at the head of the government, but they did not want another President. Named Premier was Nguyen Ngoc Tho, Diem's figurehead vice president since 1956, the highest-ranking Buddhist in Catholic Diem's regime. Like Minh, Tho is a southerner in a nation where regional loyalties are strong, and has been a close friend of Minh since the two shared the French prison cell...
Born in Longxuyen province 55 years ago, Tho joined the French civil service at 22, entered the Diem government in 1954 as Interior Minister. A modest, easygoing type who habitually sits in the front seat of his official limousine beside the driver, Tho has a reputation as a negotiator. Last June Tho negotiated a compromise pact between Buddhists and Diem, but the regime spurned it. Chances are that Premier Tho will remain as much of a figurehead as was Vice President Tho...
...having discovered that an opportunity for power now exists outside the Ngo family, various military factions may well begin to jockey for sole authority. At week's end, according to one report, this fear was realized at the small town of My Tho, just south of Saigon, where Buddhist and Catholic troops turned on each other...