ABSTRACT
This chapter is a study of General Nguyễn Khánh’s rise and fall. He came to power with the help of a number of important but unsatisfied and ambitious members of the MRC and the Đai Việt Party. But he soon discovered that the Đai Việt was plotting against him and had to force Hà Thúc Ký, a Đại Việt leader, to resign from his position of Minister of the Interior. Now, without a political base support, General Khánh tried to cultivate the support from within the Armed Forces. In a short period of time, he promoted several colonels, mostly commanders of important armed forces service units, to general officer rank and made them members of the newly created Armed Forces Council headed by him. The USmedia later gave this group of young generals the collective name of “Young Turks.” Ironically, it was the “Young Turks” group that toppled him and forced him to leave Vietnam in February 1965.
