General Trần Thiện Khiêm (; 15 December 1925 – 24 June 2021) was a South Vietnamese soldier and ầnThiệnKhiêpolitician, who served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He was born in Saigon, Cochinchina, French Indochina (now Vietnam). During the 1960s, he was involved in several coups. He helped President Ngô Đình Diệm put down a November 1960 coup attempt and was rewarded with a promotion. In 1963, however, he was involved in the coup that deposed and assassinated Diêm.
He later joined with Nguyễn Khánh to stage a successful January 1964 coup. In the next few months, the Catholic Khiêm fell out with Khánh whom he accused of being too heavily influenced by Buddhist activists. Khiêm tried to plot against Khánh, but was thwarted. He was implicated in the organization of the September 1964 coup attempt by Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức, both Catholics, and was sent into exile to serve as Ambassador to the United States. In February 1965, Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, who had accompanied him to Washington had returned to Saigon and launched a coup with Phát. This was done with Khiêm's support. The coup failed but other officers took the opportunity to force Khánh into exile. Khiêm would return to Vietnam when the political climate among the generals was more favorable and became Prime Minister under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, resigning only in the last month before the fall of Saigon.
Career
Khiêm graduated from the Vietnamese National Military Academy in Đà Lạt on 12 July 1947. He became a 1st Lieutenant in June 1948 and served in the Vietnamese National Army of the French-backed State of Vietnam of Emperor Bảo Đại, which fought the Việt Minh of Hồ Chí Minh. Khiêm was appointed captain in 1951 and major in July 1954. In 1957, as a colonel, he became a Deputy Chief of General Staff/Logistics and served as acting Chief of Joint General Staff in October. From 1957 to 1958 he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in the United States, and upon his return, served as 4th Field Division Commander until February 1960. In September, he switched to command the 5th Division, which at the time was based in Mỹ Tho.
1960 defence of Diêm against coup
On 11 November 1960, Colonels Vương Văn Đông and Nguyễn Chánh Thi launched a coup attempt against President Diêm, but after surrounding the palace, they stopped attacking and decided to negotiate a power-sharing agreement. Diêm falsely promised reforms, allowing time for his loyalists to come to the rescue. The rebels had failed to seal the highways into the capital to block loyalist reinforcements.
Khiêm was a Roman Catholic with ties to Diêm's older brother, Archbishop Thục; Diêm was also Khiêm's godfather. Khiêm brought in tanks from the Second Armored Battalion from Mỹ Tho, a town in the Mekong Delta, south of Saigon. As the false promises of reform were being aired, Khiêm's men approached the palace grounds. Some of the rebels switched sides as the power balance changed. After a brief but violent battle that killed around 400 people, the coup attempt was crushed. Khiêm was made a brigadier general after serving as the head of the 21st Division, and was appointed Chief of Staff of the combined armed forces and made a major general in December 1962.
1963 coup against Diệm
One of Khiêm's subordinates, Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a Communist double agent, was planning one of the many coup plots that engulfed Saigon and destabilised the regime, with the help of Trần Kim Tuyến. Thảo's plans were shelved when an American CIA agent, Lucien Conein, instructed Khiêm, to stop the coup on the grounds that it was premature. Thảo was actually a communist double agent whose involvement in the plotting is generally attributed to cause infighting within the ARVN whenever possible. He later joined the main plot, of which Khiêm was part.
As Diêm was known for his ability to outwit coup plotters, those in the plot did not fully trust each other. On the morning of the coup, an emotional Khiêm approached General Tôn Thất Đính with tears welling in his red eyes and asked him to keep their conversation confidential. After the III Corps commander agreed, Khiêm claimed he wanted to cancel the coup, saying "Đính, I think we still have time to talk to the old man. I don't want to hurt him. Have pity on him!" Đính contemplated the situation and said that he would proceed. Khiêm then reported this to Đôn, and claimed that he had placed Chinese medicinal oil into his eyes to irritate and redden them and thus give the appearance he had become remorseful about the coup, in order to test Đính's loyalty to the plot.