Khanh Fought Against And With The French

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30530, 27 August 1964, Page 10

Khanh Fought Against And With The French

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, August 25. Major-General Nguyen Khanh became President of South Vietnam only 10 days ago, six and a half months after he seized power as Prime Minister in a bloodless coup. . He ousted Major-General Duong Van Minh ("Big Minh”), leader of last year’s coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem, and installed him as token head of State.

On August 16 the 58-man military junta elected General Khanh as President, completing the ousting of General Minh and causing a wave of unease at what seemed to be the imposition of a “military dictatorship.” A keen poker-player, General Khanh was born in Southern Vietnam in 1927, graduated from Dalat'Military Academy in 1947, and’then-joined the Viet Minh underground resistance against the French. But after a time he returned to the French, receiv-

ing higher military training both in France and the United States, and becoming aide-de-camp successively to General de la Tour, commander in chief of Cochin China, and General Nguyen Vanxuan, Prime Minister under Emperor Bao Dai in 1949. He entered the French colonial army • as a lieutenant in 1954, the year France pulled out of Indo-China, and from then until 1960 he commanded the entire Mekong delta under President Diem.

In an attempted coup by paratroopers in November, 1960, General Khanh was largely responsible for saving the President by rushing troops into Saigon to rout the dissidents.

In 1962 General Khanh was made commander of the Second Army Corps and, just before the coup which brought him to power this year, was switched to command the First Corps, guarding the border with Communist North Vietnam. He was not a member of the miltiary junta which took power after the anti-Diem coup last November, but finally agreed to support it if the leaders promised not to kill President Diem. He was given this underDiem was killed a few hours later and General Khanh was said to have been bitter about it. General Khanh is married with two children.