ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a full account of the War Cabinet of General Nguyễn Cao Kỳ (from June 19, 1965 to November 9, 1967), focusing on the two most important events during his administration: The Civil Revolt in Central Vietnam in the summer of 1966, and the Cabinet Crisis of October 1966. After the resignation of Dr. Phan Huy Quát government, the military created two governing bodies: the National Leadership Committee (commonly called the Directorate) with Lieutenant-General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu as Chairman, playing the role of Chief of State, and the Central Executive Committee (CEC) with Major-General (or Air Marshall) Nguyễn Cao Kỳ as Chairman, playing the role of Prime Minister. General Kỳ presented his cabinet to the Directorate on June 19, 1975 and called it the War Cabinet. At that time, nobody thought that his government would be able to last more than three or four months. In reality, the War Cabinet lasted more than two years because General Kỳ was clever enough to obtain the full support of the whole military circle. There were, however, two political crises that seriously threatened to topple his government. In March 1966, citing his insubordination to the central government as reason, the Directorate decided to remove Lieutenant-General Nguyễn Chánh Thi from his Command of I Corps and ignited The Civil Revolt of Central Vietnam, which lasted until June, and led to the forced departure of General Thi from Vietnam to the United States. The second crisis happened in October 1966 when Brigadier-General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, Director-General of National Police, the right-hand man of Prime Minister Kỳ, arrested Dr. Nguyễn Tấn Lộc, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Health, for what he called North-South discrimination, a non-existing crime in the Criminal Code. Six southern ministers submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Kỳ to protest against General Loan’s abuse of power. Thanks to his good-will and his political skills, General Ky was able to defuse the crisis and had four of the six resigning ministers agree to withdraw their resignations. The cabinet crisis ended peacefully.
