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...even as the war heated up, the political ferment in Saigon was calming down. Tensions were eased by the departure of Lieut. General Tran Thien Khiem, the professional coup plotter and former member of South Viet Nam's ruling triumvirate who went into exile last week. Ousted by Premier Khanh in response to the wishes of Air Commodore Nguyen Cao Ky and his clique of young officers, Khiem departed Saigon at midweek. It was a lachrymose leavetaking. Tears gleamed in the eyes of General Duong Van ("Big") Minh as he bussed Khiem on both cheeks, and Khiem himself...
They demanded the removal from Saigon's ruling triumvirate of Lieut. General Tran Thien Khiem, long a friend of Khanh and the man who planned and executed both the coup against Ngo Dinh Diem last November and Khanh's coup against General Duong Van ("Big") Minh in January. With a shrug, Khanh accepted the demands and promptly announced that Khiem would depart immediately for Paris and a protracted tour of countries aiding South Viet Nam in its war against the Viet Cong. Khanh hoped this further accommodation might still the noisy protests of his critics...
...lingered in the wake of Khanh's departure. Harvard-educated Acting Premier Nguyen Xuan Oanh (known as Jack Owen) had only been going through the motions of governing, in fact wielded no real authority. The "triumvirate" of Khanh, General Duong Van ("Big") Minh and Defense Minister General Tran Thien Khiem, which supposedly replaced Khanh's junta, was not really working. The students were still restive, and the Buddhists were demanding-successfully, as it turned out-that all of their partisans jailed during the demonstrations be freed...
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...
...stucco villa 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...