Dương Văn Minh

Dương Văn Minh (16 February 19166 August 2001), popularly known as Big Minh, was a South Vietnamese politician and a senior general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and a politician during the presidency of Ngô Đình Diệm.

Minh was born on 16 February 1916 in Mỹ Tho Province in the Mekong Delta, to a wealthy landowner who served in a prominent position in the Finance Ministry of the French colonial administration.

He went to Saigon where he attended a top French colonial school, now Le Quy Don High School, where King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia also studied.

Unlike many of his classmates, Minh declined French citizenship and joined the Corps Indigène, the local component of the French colonial army.

He began his military career in 1940, and was one of only 50 Vietnamese officers to be commissioned when he graduated from the École Militaire in France.

During the 1940s, Imperial Japan invaded Indochina and seized control from France.

Minh was captured and later had only a single tooth that remained from the torture he had suffered at the hands of the Kempeitai (Japanese military police).

He always smiled displaying the single tooth, which he regarded as a symbol of his toughness.

Minh then transferred to the French-backed State of Vietnam's Vietnamese National Army in 1952.

In 1954, Minh was captured by the Việt Minh.

He escaped after strangling a communist guard and fighting off a few others.

In 1955, when Vietnam was partitioned and the State of Vietnam controlled the southern half under Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm, Minh led the VNA in decisively defeating the Bình Xuyên paramilitary crime syndicate in street combat and dismantling the Hòa Hảo religious tradition's private army.

This made him popular with the people and Diệm, but the latter later put him in a powerless position, regarding him as a threat.

In May 1955, he led VNA forces in the Battle of Saigon, when they dismantled the private army of the Bình Xuyên crime syndicate in urban warfare in the district of Chợ Lớn.

With the Bình Xuyên vanquished, Diệm turned his attention to conquering the Hòa Hảo.

As a result, a battle between Minh's VNA troops and Ba Cụt's men commenced in Cần Thơ on 5 June.

Five Hòa Hảo battalions surrendered immediately; Ba Cụt and three remaining leaders had fled to the Cambodian border by the end of the month.

The soldiers of the three other leaders eventually surrendered in the face of Minh's onslaught, but Ba Cụt's men fought to the end.

In 1963, he became chief of a military junta after leading a coup in which Diệm was assassinated.

In 1963, the authoritarian Diệm became increasingly unpopular due to the Buddhist crisis and the ARVN generals decided to launch a coup, which Minh eventually led.

Diệm was assassinated on 2 November 1963 shortly after being deposed.

Minh was accused of ordering an aide, Nguyễn Văn Nhung, to kill Diệm.

Minh then led a junta for three months, but he was an unsuccessful leader and was heavily criticized for being lethargic and uninterested.

During his three months of rule, many civilian problems intensified and the communist Viet Cong made significant gains.

Angered at not receiving his desired post, General Nguyễn Khánh led a group of similarly motivated officers in a January 1964 coup.

Khánh allowed Minh to stay on as a token head of state in order to capitalize on Minh's public standing, but retained real power.

After a power struggle, Khanh had Minh exiled.

Minh stayed away before deciding to return and challenge General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in the presidential election of 1971.

When it became obvious that Thieu would rig the poll, Minh withdrew and did not return until 1972, keeping a low profile.

Minh then advocated a "third force", maintaining that Vietnam could be reunified without a military victory to a hardline communist or anti-communist government.

However, this was not something that Thiệu agreed with.

Minh lasted only three months before being toppled by Nguyễn Khánh, but assumed power again as the fourth and last President of South Vietnam in April 1975, two days before surrendering to North Vietnamese forces.

He earned his nickname "Big Minh", because he was approximately 1.83 m (6 ft) tall and weighed 90 kg (198 lb).

Born in Tiền Giang province in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam, Minh joined the French Army at the start of World War II, and was captured and tortured by the Imperial Japanese, who invaded and seized French Indochina.

After his release, he joined the French-backed Vietnamese National Army (VNA) and was imprisoned by the communist-dominated Viet Minh before breaking out.

In April 1975, as South Vietnam was on the verge of being overrun, Thieu resigned.

A week later, Minh was forcibly chosen by the legislature and became president on 28 April.

Saigon fell two days later on 30 April, and Minh ordered a surrender to prevent bloody urban street fighting.

Minh was spared the lengthy incarceration meted out to South Vietnamese military personnel and civil servants, and lived quietly until being allowed to emigrate to France in 1983.

He later moved to California, where he died.