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Nguyễn Hữu Có
Mỹ Tho, Tiền Giang Province, French Indochina (now Vietnam)
3 July 2012 (aged 87)
Republic of Vietnam
Vietnamese National Army
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
1963 South Vietnamese coup
Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister (1965–67)
Nguyễn Hữu Có (23 February 1925 – 3 July 2012) served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, rising to the rank of lieutenant general. He was prominent in several coups and juntas in the 1960s.
In 1963, Có came to prominence for his role in the November coup that deposed Vietnam's president, Ngô Đình Diệm, who was assassinated. Có's superior, General Tôn Thất Đính, moved him into command of the 7th Division to lock loyalist forces out of Saigon. Có was promoted to brigadier general after the coup, and as South Vietnam was inflicted with a cycle of coups over the next two years, he became more prominent as other generals defeated one another in power struggles.[citation needed]
By 1965, Có was the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister in a junta headed by Prime Minister and Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, the figurehead chief of state. Có came under increasing scrutiny for his exorbitant wealth and was widely seen as corrupt, while Kỳ viewed him as a political threat. In 1967 Kỳ fired Có when both men were overseas on diplomatic visits. Kỳ then organized military forces to prevent Có from flying back, effectively sending him into exile. Over time, Thiệu began to eclipse Kỳ in a power struggle, and allowed Có to return in 1970. Có then stayed out of public life, and worked in banking and business. In 1975, the communists overran the south, and after hesitating in planning his escape from South Vietnam, Có was captured by the communists, who imprisoned him in re-education camps for 12 years. Có decided not to emigrate after being released and lived in Vietnam until his death in 2012.
1 Early career
2 Diem overthrow
3 Junta
4 Imprisonment by the communists
Có was a field commander for the French-backed Vietnamese National Army that fought against Hồ Chí Minh's Việt Minh during the First Indochina War, he led a "groupement mobile".[1]
Diem overthrow[edit]
See also: 1963 South Vietnamese coup and Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm
He was a participant in the 1963 coup that deposed President Ngô Đình Diệm and ended in his assassination. Colonel Có was the deputy of General Tôn Thất Đính, who commanded the III Corps forces that oversaw the region surrounding the capital Saigon.[2] Đính was entrusted to command III Corps because the Ngô family trusted him to defend them in the face of any coup attempts.[3] However, in late 1963, Đính began to plot against Diệm along with a group of generals.[4]
As part of the generals' plot, Đính sent Colonel Có to Mỹ Tho to talk to the 7th Division commander, Colonel Bùi Đình Đạm, and two regimental commanders, the armoured unit commander, both of the 7th Division, and the Mỹ Tho provincial chief. At that time, the 7th Division was under the control of the IV Corps that was commanded by Diệm loyalist General Cao;[4] this division was on the outskirts of Saigon and its stance would be critical in determining the success or failure of a coup. Exhorting the 7th Division officers to join the coup on the grounds that the Diệm regime was unable to keep the military going forward, he stated that all the generals except Cao were in the plot, while Đính was going to do so.[4] According to one account, Đính had intended that loyalists would report Có's activities to Diệm and Nhu so that it would give him an opportunity to orchestrate a stunt to ingratiate himself with the palace and make the coup easier to carry out.[5]
Nhu's agents heard of the conversation and reported to the palace; when the Ngô brothers confronted with the report of what had happened in Mỹ Tho, Đính feigned astonishment at his deputy's behavior. He began crying and said "This is my fault, because you have suspected me. I have not really gone to work for the last 15 days but have stayed at home because I was sad, but I am not against you. I was sad because I thought I was discredited with you. So Nguyen Huu Co profited from my absence to make trouble." Đính claimed to know nothing of Có's activities and raised his voice, vowing to have his deputy killed.[4][6] Nhu opposed this and said he wanted keep Có alive to catch the plotters, and tried to use Đính to achieve this.[4] Nhu ordered Đính to plan a fake coup against the Ngô family. One of Nhu's objectives was to trick dissidents into joining the false uprising so that they could be identified and eliminated.[7]
Đính was put in charge of the fake coup and was allowed the additional control of the 7th Division, giving his III Corps complete encirclement of Saigon. This would prevent Cao from storming the capital to save Diệm as he had done during the 1960 coup attempt.[8][9][10] Not trusting Có, Diệm put a Catholic loyalist, Colonel Lâm Văn Phát, in command of the 7th Division on 31 October. According to tradition, Phát had to pay the corps commander a courtesy visit before assuming control of the division. Đính refused to see Phát and told him to come back on Friday at 14:00, by which time the real coup had already been scheduled to start. In the meantime, Đính had General Trần Văn Đôn sign a counter-order transferring command of the 7th Division to Có.[4]
With a group of his personal rebel officers, Có flew by helicopter to My Thơ, the division headquarters, to take command on the morning of the coup, 1 November. Reaching the Mekong Delta town two hours before the scheduled start of the coup, he held a ceremony for the division's incumbent officers—who thought the change of command was a routine matter — in a local hall;[11] when the coup started, Có's men charged through the doors with automatic guns and arrested the officers, before taking command. He said "Please remain seated quietly. Anyone who rises will be instantly shot".[4][11]
Có then telephoned Cao, further south in the Mekong Delta's largest town Cần Thơ, where the IV Corps was headquartered; the rebel colonel assured Cao that the divisional and corps transfer had taken place smoothly. Có, a central Vietnamese, was afraid that Cao, a Mekong Delta native would recognise his fake southern accent, and realise that he was impersonating Phát, another southerner. However, Cao did not notice the faked accent; when Cao was informed by his subordinates that there was a coup occurring in the capital, he believed in to be part of the false coup, as he had been told beforehand by Nhu; Cao was one of the regime's most loyal and favourites generals and he was going to help stage the second part of Nhu's plan. However, Cao did tell one regiments and a few tanks to ready themselves for the second part of the plot. Late during the night of the coup, Cao realised the coup was genuine. [4]
He sent the 9th Division under Colonel Bùi Dzinh to move north through Mỹ Tho towards Saigon to save Diệm but Có had already made plans to cut off any attempt by Cao to relieve Saigon;[12] when Cao radioed the 7th Division in Mỹ Tho, Có identified himself and taunted the corps commander, saying "Didn't you recognise my accent?". Có told the general that he had ordered all the ferries to the Saigon side of the Mekong River, and told Cao not to attempt to cross unless he wanted to die.[4]
Seeing that Diệm was lost, Cao expressed solidarity with the coup.[13] After the coup succeeded, Có became a general in the ruling Military Revolutionary Council (MRC). Có said that Diệm "made so many mistakes",[14] most notably his strong preferential treatment of Roman Catholics, usually from his native central Vietnam, at the expense of Buddhists. Diệm had generally promoted military officers on loyalty, rather than merit. [14]
Junta[edit]
The MRC led by General Dương Văn Minh was deposed in a January 1964 coup by General Nguyễn Khánh, and he put several leading generals — Trần Văn Đôn, Tôn Thất Đính and Mai Hữu Xuân — in jail, but Có was not affected.[15] South Vietnam had a series of short-lived juntas, including military-supervised civilian cabinets over the next 18 months.
In August 1964, Khánh tried to give himself more power, but this provoked strong protests and forced him to back down into a weaker position than before, and his rule became unstable as more concessions were demanded.[16] Khánh promised to dissolve the junta and create a National Assembly within a year;[17] the division among the generals came to a head at a meeting of the junta on 26/27 August, as they blamed each other's policies and machinations for the problems.[18][19] Thiệu and Có called for the replacement of Khánh with Minh, but the latter refused. Minh reportedly claimed that Khánh was the only one who would get funding from Washington, so they supported him, prompting angry arguments as to whether Khánh was a puppet.[18] After more arguing between the senior officers, they agreed that Khánh, Minh, and Khiệm would rule as a triumvirate for two months, until a new civilian government could be formed.[17] However, the triumvirate did little due to their disunity. Khánh dominated the decision-making and sidelined Khiệm and Minh.[17]
In January 1965, the junta-appointed Prime Minister Trần Văn Hương introduced a series of measures to expand the military and war effort, most notably by widening the terms of conscription; this provoked widespread anti-Huong demonstrations and riots, mainly from conscription-aged students and pro-negotiations Buddhists.[20] Reliant on Buddhist support,[20][21] Khánh decided to have the armed forces take over, removing Hương on 27 January. Khánh removed Hương in a bloodless coup with the support of Thi and Kỳ, he promised to leave politics once the situation was stabilized and hand over power to a civilian body. It was believed that some of the officers supported Khánh's increased power so that it would give him an opportunity to fail and be removed permanently.[20][22]
Khánh's deposal of the prime minister nullified a counter-plot involving Hương which developed during the civil disorders that forced him from office. In an attempt to preempt his being deposed, Hương had backed a plot led by some Đại Việt-oriented Catholic officers reported to include Generals Có and Thiệu, they planned to remove Khánh and bring Khiệm back from Washington. The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was privately supportive of the aim,[23] but was not ready to fully back the move as they regarded it as poorly thought out and potentially a political embarrassment due to the need to use an American plane to transport some plotters, including Khiệm, between Saigon and Washington; as a result, they only promised asylum for Hương if necessary.[23]
By this time, the U.S. relationship with Khánh had broken down, [24] and the U.S. became more intent on a regime change as Khánh was reliant on Buddhist support, which they saw as an obstacle to an expansion of the war.[25] In the first week of February, Taylor told the leading officers that the US was "in no way propping up General Khánh or backing him in any fashion".[26]
At this stage, the U.S. Embassy thought highly of three officers as possible replacements for Khánh: Thiệu, Có the commander of II Corps and Admiral Chung Tấn Cang, Commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy.[26] A U.S. Defense Department report stated that Có was an "outstanding officer ... friendly to Americans".[27] At the same time, the CIA knew that Có had become disillusioned with Khánh and had stopped attending junta meetings after Khánh accused him of "having been bought off by the Americans".[27]
However, the relatively cautious Thiệu, Có and Cang's preparations were well behind those of Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a communist double agent.[28] Có and the other American-preferred officers maintained a guarded approach, waiting to see what others would do, rather than boldly taking the initiative,[28] and Thảo struck first; the Americans opposed Thảo, and with their support, Kỳ and Thi defeated the coup and then overthrew Khánh as well, becoming the most important officers in the resulting junta.[29][30][31][32] In mid-1965, Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ became prime minister and General Thiệu as the figurehead president, they headed a 10-man junta of which Có was a part until elections were held in 1967. Có was the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister.[1]
Có was generally regarded as being corrupt; as a general, he had a base pay of US$177 monthly, but he managed to purchase three villas in Saigon and owned property estimated at US$600,000 near Tan Son Nhut Air Base on the capital's outskirts. His wealth was believed to have come from bribes from subordinate officers who wanted postings away from danger, usually desk jobs, as well as charging up to US$3,400 a head for draft evaders, depending on how rich they were.[1] Có was also accused of using his position as defense minister to pocket the rent collected from the American military for building U.S. bases on land rented from the Saigon government.[33] His wife was known to be a gambling addict during his halcyon days and was reputed to have once lost US$8,500 in one outing.[1]
Có was seen as a political threat to Kỳ and a magnet for dissidents. For his part, Có deemed Kỳ to be "immature".[14] In early 1967, Kỳ sent Có to Taiwan, ostensibly to represent the junta at a ceremony to opening direct air services from Taipei to Saigon. In the meantime, Kỳ made a state visit to Australia. With Có out of the country and unable to stage a coup, and Kỳ not within striking distance in case anyone wanted to capture him, news of Có's removal was broken in Saigon. Có expressed a desire to return to Saigon, but was threatened with arrest and trial, and soldiers were deployed to the airport.[1] Có spent three years in exile in Hong Kong; when President Thiệu sidelined Kỳ from real power, he allowed Có to return to South Vietnam in 1970. Có stayed away from politics and worked as a commercial banker and then as a businessman.[14]
Imprisonment by the communists[edit]
On 30 April 1975, Saigon fell and the communists took control. Có made plans to leave but hesitated and was not evacuated by the US military, he considered leaving by boat, but deemed it too risky with 11 children. In June 1975, Có was told to report to a re-education camp along with the vast majority of public servants and military officers.[14]
Có was initially held at Quang Trung Training Camp, about 15 km north of Saigon (later Hồ Chí Minh City), which had been an ARVN training center for newly enlisted men. According to him, the conditions were good, although there were political propaganda lectures. In June 1976, he was suddenly moved by an airplane in the middle of the night to Yên Bái in the north of the country where he was forced to perform manual labor. In 1978, he and some other ARVN generals were relocated to Hà Tây, in the Red River Delta east of the capital Hanoi, where he was imprisoned in an Interior Ministry facility, where he was asked to write what he knew about South Vietnam's military strategies and government mechanisms.
In 1979, Có was moved by himself to Nam Ha, where he underwent propaganda lessons and did manual labor alongside military and civilian prisoners, he was returned to Hà Tây to be reunited with the other generals. In 1983 he was moved back to Nam Ha, where he stayed until his release in 1987, after 12 years in captivity. While he was imprisoned, his wife, who had always been a housewife, took her first job, in a knitting factory to support their children. Có decided to remain in Vietnam under communist rule after being released.[14]
Nguyễn Hữu Có died at his private residence in Saigon on 3 July 2012 after a six-year battle with diabetes, he was interred four days later. He was survived by his wife and children.
^ a b c d e "South Viet Nam: Low Ky Friday". Time. 3 February 1967. Missing or empty |url= (help); |access-date= requires |url= (help)
^ Halberstam, p. 181.
^ Blair (2001), p. 56.
^ a b c d e f g h i Halberstam, David (6 November 1963). "Coup in Saigon: A Detailed Account". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
^ Jones, p. 399.
^ Moyar, p. 265.
^ Jones, pp. 398–99.
^ Karnow, pp. 307–22.
^ Gettleman 1966, pp. 280–82.
^ Hatcher, pp. 145–46.
^ a b Karnow, p. 321.
^ a b c d e f Crossette, Barbara (18 December 1987). "Ho Chi Minh City Journal; 'Re-educated' 12 Years, An Ex-General Reflects". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
^ Shaplen, pp. 228–34.
^ Moyar (2004), pp. 760–64.
^ a b c Moyar (2004), p. 762.
^ a b Moyar (2006), p. 318.
^ Kahin, pp. 229–30.
^ a b c Kahin, pp. 267–69
^ Moyar (2006), p. 775.
^ a b Kahin, p. 297.
^ Kahin, pp. 298–302.
^ Kahin, p. 303.
^ Langguth, pp. 346–47.
^ Karnow, p. 457.
Blair, Anne E. (2001). There to the Bitter End: Ted Serong in Vietnam. Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-468-9.
Gettleman, Marvin E. (1966). Vietnam: History, documents and opinions on a major world crisis. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Halberstam, David; Singal, Daniel J. (2008). The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-6007-4.
Hatcher, Patrick Lloyd (1990). The suicide of an elite: American internationalists and Vietnam. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1736-2.
Jones, Howard (2003). Death of a Generation: how the assassinations of Diem and JFK prolonged the Vietnam War. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505286-2.
Kahin, George McT. (1979). "Political Polarization in South Vietnam: U.S. Policy in the Post-Diem Period". Pacific Affairs. Vancouver, British Columbia. 52 (4): 647–73. doi:10.2307/2757066.
Kahin, George McT. (1986). Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam. New York City: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-54367-X.
Karnow, Stanley (1997). Vietnam: A history. New York City: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-84218-4.
Langguth, A. J. (2000). Our Vietnam: the war, 1954–1975. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81202-9.
Moyar, Mark (2006). Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965. New York City: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86911-0.
Topmiller, Robert J. (2006). The Lotus Unleashed: The Buddhist Peace Movement in South Vietnam, 1964–1966. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-9166-1.
Tucker, Spencer C. (ed.) (2000). Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social and Military History. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-57607-040-9. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
Lieutenant General Nguyễn Hữu Có military profile
Nguyễn Hữu Có obituary (in Vietnamese)
Buddhist crisis
Huế Phật Đản (Vesak) shootings
Hue chemical attacks
Self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức
Double Seven Day scuffle
Xá Lợi Pagoda raids
1963 South Vietnamese coup (reaction)
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nguyễn_Hữu_Có&oldid=877597113"
Vietnamese evangelicals
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CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list
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Nguyễn Cao Kỳ served as the chief of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force in the 1960s, before leading the nation as the prime minister of South Vietnam in a military junta from 1965 to 1967. Until his retirement from politics in 1971, he served as vice president to bitter rival General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, in a nominally civilian administration. Born in northern Vietnam, Kỳ joined the Vietnamese National Army of the French-backed State of Vietnam and started as an infantry officer before the French sent him off for pilot training. After the French withdrew from Vietnam and the nation was partitioned, Kỳ moved up the ranks of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force to become its leader. In November 1963, Kỳ participated in the coup that deposed president Ngô Đình Diệm and resulted in Diệm's assassination. In 1964 Kỳ became prominent in junta politics, regarded as part of a group of young, aggressive officers dubbed the Young Turks. Over the next two years, there were repeated coup attempts, many of which were successful, Kỳ was a key player in supporting or defeating them.
In September 1964, he helped put down a coup attempt by Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức against Nguyễn Khánh, the following February he thwarted another attempt by Phát and Phạm Ngọc Thảo. His favored tactic in such situations was to send fighter jets into the air and threaten large-scale air strikes, given his reputation for impetuosity, he attained the desired backdown. After the latter attempt, he had the weakened Khánh forced into exile and took the leading position in the junta in mid-1965 by becoming prime minister, while General Thiệu was a figurehead chief of state. During his period at the helm, he gained notoriety for his flamboyant manner and risky and brash behavior, which concerned South Vietnam's American allies and angered the Vietnamese public, who regarded him as a "cowboy" and "hooligan", he cared little for public relations, on occasion publicly threatened to kill dissidents and opponents as well as to flatten parts of North Vietnam and South Vietnamese units led by rival officers with bombings, although none of this materialized.
Kỳ and Thiệu were able to end the cycle of coups, the Americans backed their regime. In 1966 Kỳ decided to purge General Nguyễn Chánh Thi, another officer in the junta regarded as his greatest rival, from a command role; this provoked major unrest in South Vietnam, where some units joined with Buddhist activists supportive of Thi and hostile to Kỳ in defying his junta's rule. Three months of large-scale demonstrations and riots paralyzed parts of the country, after much maneuvering and some military battles, Kỳ's forces put down the uprising, Thi was exiled, entrenching the former's grip on power. In 1967, a transition to an elected government was scheduled, after a power struggle within the military, Thiệu ran for the presidency with Kỳ as his running mate—both men had wanted the top job. To allow the two to work together, their fellow officers had agreed to have a military body controlled by Kỳ shape policy behind the scenes; the election was rigged to ensure that Thiệu and Kỳ's military ticket would win, strong executive powers meant that junta, in effect, still ruled.
Leadership tensions persisted, Thiệu prevailed, sidelining Kỳ supporters from key military and cabinet posts. Thiệu passed legislation to restrict candidacy eligibility for the 1971 election, banning all would-be opponents. With the fall of Saigon, Kỳ fled to the United States, he continued to criticize both the communists and Thiệu, the former prevented him from returning. However, in 2004, he became the first South Vietnamese leader to return, calling for reconciliation between communists and anti-communists. A northerner, Kỳ was born in a town west of Hanoi. After completing his secondary schooling in Hanoi, he enlisted in the French-backed Vietnamese National Army of the State of Vietnam and was commissioned in the infantry after attending an officers training school. After a brief period in the field against the communist Việt Minh of Hồ Chí Minh during the First Indochina War, the French military hierarchy sent Kỳ a lieutenant, to Marrakech in Morocco to train as a pilot. Kỳ gained his wings on 15 September 1954.
The French defeat at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ and the Geneva Conference ended the colonial presence in Indochina, Kỳ came back to the new Republic of Vietnam. The commander of a transport squadron, Kỳ was put in charge of Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base, the main aerial facility in the capital, Saigon. Kỳ went to the United States to study for six months at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Field, where he learned to speak English, he continued to rise up the ranks. A soldier in the Vietnamese National Army who became commander of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force, prime minister and vice president of the Republic of Vietnam, Kỳ had little political experience or ambition initially. After flight training by the French, he returned to Vietnam in 1954 and held a series of commands in the Republic of Vietnam Air Force. Under the regime of Dương Văn Minh, whose coup Kỳ had supported, he was made an air marshal, replacing Colonel Đỗ Khắc Mai as head of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force. Kỳ began his association with the American covert operations community in 1961.
While still ranked as a major commanding Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base, he became the first pilot for South Vietnam's presidential liaison officer, organizing to infiltrate military intelligen
Major General Lâm Văn Phát served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He is best known for leading two coup attempts against General Nguyễn Khánh in September 1964 and February 1965. Although both failed to result in his taking power, the latter caused enough instability that it forced Khánh to resign and go into exile. A member of the Roman Catholic minority, Phát joined the French-backed Vietnamese National Army which became the ARVN after the Republic of Vietnam was established. After having been sent to the U. S. for further training in 1958, Phát returned home to head the Civil Guard, a paramilitary force mostly used to protect the ruling family of President Ngô Đình Diệm, rather than to counteract the communist Việt Cộng insurgency. Commanding the 2nd Division, he was known for his loyalty to Diệm, who favored fellow Catholics. In 1963, Diệm knew, he appointed Phát to command the 7th Division, located near the capital, Saigon, so he could help in the fighting, but the plotters used delaying tactics so that the paperwork for the transfer of the division leadership could not occur before they proceeded to overthrow and execute Diệm.
Despite Phát's pro-Diệm allegiance he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 7th Division. After the January 1964 coup against Khánh, Phát was made the commander of III Corps and Interior Minister for a time until he was dismissed in September 1964; this prompted him to join Dương Văn Đức, another general relieved of command, in launching a coup attempt against Khánh on 13 September. They took over the capital without a fight, but Khánh escaped, after having received endorsements from the U. S. defeated Đức. At the military trial that followed, charges were dropped. In February 1965, Phát joined with fellow Catholic, Diệm protégé and Khánh opponent Phạm Ngọc Thảo – a communist agent intent on maximizing infighting in South Vietnam – in another coup attempt. After the forces deadlocked, Phát met with Republic of Vietnam Air Force chief Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, insisting on Khánh's assassination. After the meeting concluded, the coup collapsed. Phát and Thảo were sentenced to death in absentia by Kỳ's military tribunal.
Thảo was killed under mysterious circumstances, but Phát evaded capture for three years until surrendering. By this time Kỳ's power had been eclipsed by another Catholic, General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, who freed Phát from prison; the President of South Vietnam, Ngô Đình Diệm favored Catholics, and, as a result, Phát rose up the ranks. Having started his career in the French-backed Vietnamese National Army of the State of Vietnam, Phát became a member of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam after the State of Vietnam became the Republic of Vietnam. In 1958, holding the rank of colonel, Phát was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for officer training. Described as being tall for short Vietnamese norms, Phát "spoke halting English". After returning to Vietnam, he served as the head of the Civil Guard, a paramilitary force, used at the time to protect the ruling family of President Ngô Đình Diệm rather than to counteract the communist Viet Cong insurgency. Phát has been described as a "political Catholic", a term for those who practiced or converted to the religion to curry favor with Diệm, who made most military and political appointments and promotions on the basis of religion.
Phát's habit of customarily being seen in public with a swagger stick and his reputation for autocratic leadership alienated most of his subordinate officers. He grew his pinky fingernail to great length, a practice observed by mandarins during Vietnam's imperial era to denote their status; some observers claimed that the mandarin style of his fingernail spread to his general behavior, decrying him as "haughty" and "hawklike". U. S. military advisors regarded Phát as "mediocre". As a colonel, he served as the commander of 2nd Division, located in central Vietnam from 8 June 1961 until 18 June 1963, when he was replaced by Colonel Trương Văn Chương. By late 1963, Diệm knew a coup was brewing and that the 7th Division at Mỹ Tho outside Saigon might be involved; as it was close to the capital, it would play a crucial role in either attacking or defending Diệm, or blocking outlying units from entering the city. Diệm put Phát in command of the 7th Division on 31 October. According to tradition, Phát had to pay the corps commander a courtesy visit before assuming control of the division.
However, General Tôn Thất Đính, commander of the III Corps was part of the plot and deliberately refused to see Phát and told him to come back at 14:00 the following day, by which time the coup had been scheduled to start. In the meantime, Đính had General Trần Văn Đôn sign a counter-order transferring command of the 7th Division to his deputy and co-conspirator Nguyễn Hữu Có. Có trapped and arrested the 7th Division's officers on the day of the coup, he phoned General Huỳnh Văn Cao, further south in the Mekong Delta's largest town, Cần Thơ, where the IV Corps was headquartered. Có, a central Vietnamese, imitated Phát's southern accent and tricked Cao into thinking that nothing unusual was happening. Phát's removal had thus stopped Cao from sending loyalists to Saigon to save Diệm, captured and executed the following day. Despite the fact that Đính saw Có as being more reliable for the purposes of staging the coup against Diệm, Minh promoted him to brigadier general after the officers seized power.
As a brigadier general, he served as the commander of the 7th Division, from 2 December 1963 until 2 February 1964. He was promoted and served as the commander of III Corps
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam known as the South Vietnamese army, were the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. It is estimated to have suffered 1,394,000 casualties during the Vietnam War; the ARVN began as a post-colonial army trained and affiliated with the United States and had engaged in conflict since its inception. Several dramatic changes occurred throughout its lifetime from a'blocking-force' to a more modern conventional force using helicopter deployment in combat. During the U. S. intervention, the role of the ARVN was marginalised to a defensive role with an incomplete modernisation, transformed again most notably following Vietnamization as it was up-geared and reconstructed to fulfil the role of the departing U. S. forces. By 1974, it had become much more effective with foremost counterinsurgency expert and Nixon adviser Robert Thompson noting that Regular Forces were well-trained and second only to U. S. and IDF forces in the free world and with General Creighton Abrams remarking that 70% of units were on par with the U.
S. Army. However, the withdrawal of American forces through Vietnamization meant the armed forces could not fulfil all the aims of the program and had become dependent on U. S. equipment, given it was meant to fulfill the departing role of the United States. At its peak, an estimated 1 in 9 citizens of South Vietnam were enlisted and it had become the fourth-largest army in the world composed of Regular Forces and more voluntary Regional Militias and Village-level militias. Unique in serving a dual military-civilian administrative purpose in direct competition with the Viet Cong political and armed wing, the PLAF; the ARVN had in addition became a component of political power and notably suffered from continual issues of political loyalty appointments, corruption in leadership, factional in-fighting and occasional open conflict between itself. After the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese army, the ARVN was dissolved. While some high-ranking officers had fled the country to the United States or elsewhere, thousands of former ARVN officers were sent to reeducation camps by the communist government of the new, unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Five ARVN generals commit suicide on Black April to avoid captured by PAVN/VC. On March 8, 1949, after the Élysée Accords the State of Vietnam was recognized by France as an independent country ruled by the Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại, the Vietnamese National Army was soon created; the VNA fought in joint operations with the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps against the Viet Minh forces led by Ho Chi Minh. The VNA fought in a wide range of campaigns including but not limited to the Battle of Nà Sản, Operation Atlas and the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Benefiting from French assistance, the VNA became a modern army modelled after the Expeditionary Corps, it included infantry, signals, armored cavalry, airforce, navy and a national military academy. By 1953 troopers as well as officers were all Vietnamese, the latter having been trained in Ecoles des Cadres such as Da Lat, including Chief of Staff General Nguyễn Văn Hinh, a French Union airforce veteran. After the 1954 Geneva agreements, French Indochina ceased to exist and by 1956 all French Union troops had withdrawn from Vietnam and Cambodia.
In 1955, by the order of Prime Minister Diệm, the VNA crushed the armed forces of the Bình Xuyên. On October 26, 1955, the military was reorganized by the administration of President Ngô Đình Diệm who formally established the Army of the Republic of Vietnam on December 30, 1955; the air force was known as the Vietnamese Air Force. Early on, the focus of the army was the guerrilla fighters of the Vietnam National Liberation Front, formed to oppose the Diệm administration; the United States, under President John F. Kennedy sent advisors and a great deal of financial support to aid the ARVN in combating the insurgents. A major campaign, developed by Ngô Đình Nhu and resurrected under another name was the "Strategic Hamlet Program", regarded as unsuccessful by Western media because it was "inhumane" to move villagers from the countryside to fortified villages. ARVN leaders and President Diệm were criticized by the foreign press when the troops were used to crush armed anti-government religious groups like the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo as well as to raid Buddhist temples, which according to Diệm, were harboring NLF guerrillas.
The most notorious of these attacks occurred on the night of August 21, 1963, during the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids conducted by the Special Forces, which caused a death toll estimated to range into the hundreds. In 1963 Ngô Đình Diệm was killed in a coup d'état carried out by ARVN officers and encouraged by American officials such as Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. In the confusion that followed, General Dương Văn Minh took control, but he was only the first in a succession of ARVN generals to assume the presidency of South Vietnam. During these years, the United States began taking more control of the war against the NLF and the role of the ARVN became less and less significant, they were plagued by continuing problems of severe corruption amongst the officer corps. Although the US was critical of the ARVN, it continued to be US-armed and funded. Although the American news media has portrayed the Vietnam War as a American and North Vietnamese conflict, the ARVN carried the brunt of the fight before and after large-scale American involvement, participated in many major operations with American troops.
ARVN troops
Lieutenant General Tôn Thất Đính was an officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that led to the assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam. A favourite of the ruling Ngô family, Đính received rapid promotions ahead of officers who were regarded as more capable, he converted to Roman Catholicism to curry favour with Diệm, headed the military wing of the Cần Lao party, a secret Catholic organisation that maintained the Ngôs' grip on power. At the age of 32, Đính became the youngest ARVN general and the commander of the II Corps, but he was regarded as a dangerous and impetuous figure with a weakness for alcohol and partying. In 1962, Đính was appointed commander of the III Corps, which oversaw the region surrounding the capital Saigon, he was given the post. This position meant that Đính would be important to the failure of any coup. In late 1963, with Diệm becoming unpopular, Đính's colleagues recruited him into a coup by playing on his ego.
They convinced him to ask Diệm for a cabinet post, knowing that the president was adamantly opposed to military officers serving as ministers and would chastise him. Diệm promptly rebuffed Đính, lured into the plot. Diệm and his brother and chief advisor Ngô Đình Nhu were aware of a coup plot, but did not know of Đính's involvement. Nhu planned a fake coup of his own in an attempt to trap his opponents and generate positive publicity for his family's regime, he put Đính in charge of the fake coup, the general promptly redeployed loyal units outside Saigon and rebel forces near the capital. On 1 November 1963, the rebels' actual coup proceeded, the Ngô brothers were deposed and executed. After the coup, Đính became one of the 12 members of the Military Revolutionary Council, but this lasted only three months before a bloodless coup by General Nguyễn Khánh. Đính and his colleagues were put under house arrest by Khánh and falsely accused of promoting a neutralist plot. The subsequent military trial collapsed.
The generals were convicted of "lax morality", but were allowed to resume their military service, albeit in meaningless desk jobs. Following Khánh's exile by another group of generals, Đính was appointed to command the I Corps in 1966 and ordered to put down the Buddhist Uprising, but Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ disapproved of his conciliatory policies. Kỳ launched a successful surprise attack against Đính, who fled, but was captured and imprisoned by Kỳ. After his release, Đính worked in the media and was elected to the Senate in 1967, he served in the upper house until the fall of Saigon in April 1975. A native of central Vietnam, Đính enlisted in the Vietnamese National Army of the French-backed State of Vietnam at Phu Bai in 1949 and trained as a paratrooper in France, he became a protege of a younger brother of Prime Minister Diệm. Cần, who unofficially controlled the region of central Vietnam near Huế, was impressed by what he considered to be an abundance of courage on the part of Đính.
Within six years of enlisting in the military, Đính had risen to the rank of colonel and was made the inaugural commander of the newly formed 32nd Division based in Da Nang in the centre of the country on 1 January 1955. Đính led the unit until November 1956. Diệm deposed head of state Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum in 1955 and proclaimed himself president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam; the VNA thus became the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Born into a nominally Buddhist family, Đính had converted to Catholicism in the hope of advancing his career; the change of religion was perceived to be a factor in his rapid promotion above more capable officers. A devout member of the Catholic minority, Diệm dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary and disenfranchised and disadvantaged the Buddhist majority.Đính once described himself as "fearless and arrogant" and Diệm's adopted son—the president was a lifelong bachelor. In August 1957, he was appointed commander of the 1st Division based in Huế, the old imperial capital and Cần's base.
Đính served there for one year, until he became a one-star general and received a wider-reaching command in August 1958, making him the youngest ARVN general. Đính's favour among the Ngô family saw him appointed in 1958 to head the military wing of the Cần Lao, the secret organisation of Vietnamese Catholics loyal to the Ngô family that maintained the family's grip on power. Despite the high regard in which the Ngô family held him, Đính had a poor reputation among his colleagues. Regarded by his peers as ambitious and impulsive, he was known for drinking in Saigon's nightclubs, the Central Intelligence Agency labelled him a "basic opportunist", he was known for always wearing a paratrooper's uniform with a red beret at a steep angle, being accompanied by a tall, uncommunicative Cambodian bodyguard. Senior Australian Army officer Ted Serong, who worked with Đính, called him "a young punk with a gun—and dangerous". In August 1958, Đính was made the commander of the II Corps, which oversaw the Central Highlands region inhabited by indigenous tribes.
He was based in the mountainous town of Pleiku and oversaw the surrounding region and the lowlands to the north of the capital of Saigon. This put him in control of the 5th, 22nd and 23rd Divisions, one third of the divisions in the country. At the time, the CIA had been training Montagnard tribesmen under the Village Defense Program (later to bec
II Corps (South Vietnam)
The II Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps in the ARVN, it oversaw the region of the central highlands region, north of the capital Saigon, its corps headquarters was in the mountain town of Pleiku. One notable ARVN unit of II Corps, the 3d Armored Cavalry Squadron, earned the Presidential Unit Citation; the 21st Tank Regiment was formed at Pleiku in 1972. The objective of the North Vietnamese forces during the third phase of the Nguyen Hue Offensive was to seize the cities of Kon Tum and Pleiku, thereby overrunning the Central Highlands; this would open the possibility of proceeding east to the coastal plains, splitting South Vietnam in two. The highlands offensive was preceded by NLF diversionary operations that opened on 5 April in coastal Bình Định Province, which aimed at closing Highway 1, seizing several ARVN firebases, diverting South Vietnamese forces from operations further west.
The North Vietnamese were under the command of Lieutenant General Hoang Minh Thao, commander of the B-3 Front. The Front included the 320th and 2nd PAVN Divisions in the highlands and the 3rd PAVN Division in the lowlands – 50,000 men. Arrayed against them in II Corps were the South Vietnamese 22nd and 23rd Divisions, two armored cavalry squadrons, the 2nd Airborne Brigade, all under the command of Lieutenant General Ngo Du, it had become evident as early as January that the North Vietnamese were building up for offensive operations in the tri-border region and numerous B-52 strikes had been conducted in the area in hopes of slowing the build-up. ARVN forces had been deployed forward toward the border in order to slow the PAVN advance and allow the application of airpower to deplete North Vietnamese manpower and logistics; the Bình Định offensive, threw General Du into a panic and convinced him to fall for the North Vietnamese ploy and divert his forces from the highlands. Tucker, Spencer C..
Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. Pp. 526–533. ISBN 1-57607-040-9
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War began in French Indochina on December 19, 1946, lasted until July 20, 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Việt Minh opponents in the south dated from September 1945; the conflict pitted a range of forces, including the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps, led by France and supported by Bảo Đại's Vietnamese National Army against the Việt Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh and the People's Army of Vietnam led by Võ Nguyên Giáp. Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia. At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Combined Chiefs of Staff decided that Indochina south of latitude 16° north was to be included in the Southeast Asia Command under British Admiral Mountbatten. Japanese forces located south of that line surrendered to him and those to the north surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In September 1945, Chinese forces entered Tonkin, a small British task force landed at Saigon.
The Chinese accepted the Vietnamese government under Ho Chi Minh in power in Hanoi. The British refused to do in Saigon, deferred to the French there from the outset, against the ostensible support of the Việt Minh authorities by American OSS representatives. On V-J Day, September 2, Ho Chi Minh had proclaimed in Hanoi the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam; the DRV ruled as the only civil government in all of Vietnam for a period of about 20 days, after the abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại, who had governed under Japanese rule. On 23 September 1945, with the knowledge of the British commander in Saigon, French forces overthrew the local DRV government, declared French authority restored in Cochinchina. Guerrilla warfare began around Saigon but the French retook control of the South and North of Indochina. Hô Chi Minh agreed to negotiate the future status of Vietnam, but the talks, held in France, failed to produce a solution. After over one year of latent conflict, all-out war broke out in December 1946 between French and Việt Minh forces as Hô and his government went underground.
The French tried to stabilize Indochina by reorganizing it as a Federation of Associated States. In 1949, they put former Emperor Bảo Đại back in power, as the ruler of a newly established State of Vietnam; the first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against the French. In 1949 the conflict turned into a conventional war between two armies equipped with modern weapons supplied by the United States and the Soviet Union. French Union forces included colonial troops from the whole former empire, French professional troops and units of the French Foreign Legion; the use of metropolitan recruits was forbidden by the government to prevent the war from becoming more unpopular at home. It was called the "dirty war" by leftists in France; the strategy of pushing the Việt Minh into attacking well-defended bases in remote parts of the country at the end of their logistical trails was validated at the Battle of Nà Sản. However, this base was weak because of a lack of concrete and steel.
French efforts were made more difficult due to the limited usefulness of armored tanks in a jungle environment, lack of strong air forces for air cover and carpet bombing, use of foreign recruits from other French colonies. Võ Nguyên Giáp, used efficient and novel tactics of direct fire artillery, convoy ambushes and massed anti-aircraft guns to impede land and air supply deliveries together with a strategy based on recruiting a sizable regular army facilitated by wide popular support, a guerrilla warfare doctrine and instruction developed in China, the use of simple and reliable war material provided by the Soviet Union; this combination proved fatal for the bases' defenses, culminating in a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. At the International Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, the new socialist French government and the Việt Minh made an agreement which gave the Việt Minh control of North Vietnam above the 17th parallel; the south continued under Bảo Đại. The agreement was denounced by the United States.
A year Bảo Đại would be deposed by his prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, creating the Republic of Vietnam. Soon an insurgency, backed by the north, developed against Diệm's government; the conflict escalated into the Vietnam War. Vietnam was absorbed into French Indochina in stages between 1858 and 1887. Nationalism grew. Early Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual Phan Bội Châu. Châu looked to Japan, which had modernized and was one of the few Asian nations to resist European colonization. With Prince Cường Để, Châu started two organizations in Japan, the Duy Tân hội and Vietnam Cong Hien Hoi. Due to French pressure, Japan deported Phan Bội Châu to China. Witnessing Sun Yat-sen's Xinhai Revolution, Châu was inspired to commence the Viet Nam Quang Phục Hội movement in Guangzhou. From 1914 to 1917, he was imprisoned by Yuan Shikai's counterrevolutionary government. In 1925, he was captured by French agents in spirited to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940.
In September 1940, shortly after Phan Bội Châu's death, Japan launched its invasion of French Indochina, mirroring its ally Germany's co
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Image: VTN WHEC Turnover
Phạm Ngọc Thảo [videos]
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, also known as Albert Thảo, was a communist sleeper agent of the Viet Minh who infiltrated the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and also became a major provincial …
Ngô Đình Nhu (r), appointed Thảo to supervise the Strategic Hamlet Program, unaware he was a communist agent intent on sabotage. (with US VP LBJ in 1961)
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem [videos]
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963. On 2 November 1963, Diệm and his adviser, his younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu, were arrested after the Army of …
Lucien Conein, the CIA's contact with the ARVN generals
Ngo Dinh Diem
Tôn Thất Đính [videos]
Lieutenant General Tôn Thất Đính was an officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that led to the assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the first president of the Republic of …
Image: Tonthatdinh 1
1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt [videos]
On November 11, 1960, a failed coup attempt against President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was led by Lieutenant Colonel Vương Văn Đông and Colonel Nguyễn Chánh Thi of the Airborne Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. — The rebels launched the coup in response to Diệm's …
The rebels demanded the removal of First Lady Madame Nhu (pictured left, with Lyndon Johnson).
Lâm Văn Phát [videos]
Major General Lâm Văn Phát served as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He is best known for leading two coup attempts against General Nguyễn Khánh in September 1964 and February 1965. Although both failed to result in his taking power, the latter caused enough …
Generals Thi (left) and Thiệu (right) during the 1960s. Thi helped stop both of Phát's coup attempts. Thiệu later pardoned Phát after he had been sentenced to death.
7th Division (South Vietnam) [videos]
The Seventh Division was part of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was part of the IV Corps, which oversaw the Mekong Delta region of the country. — History — The Seventh Division was based in Mỹ Tho, and …
Image: Flag of the South Vietnamese Army
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu [videos]
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was the president of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1975. He was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, became head of a military junta, and then president after winning a scheduled election …
President Thiệu's briefing map
Dương Văn Minh [videos]
Dương Văn Minh, popularly known as Big Minh, was a South Vietnamese politician and a senior general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and a politician during the presidency of Ngô Đình Diệm. In 1963, he became …
Image: Duong Van Minh
Nguyễn Khánh [videos]
Nguyễn Khánh was a South Vietnamese military officer and Army of the Republic of Vietnam general who served in various capacities as head of state and prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a military junta from January 1964 …
Image: Nguyễn Khánh 1964
Trần Văn Hương [videos]
Trần Văn Hương was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the penultimate president of South Vietnam prior to its surrender to the communist forces of North Vietnam. — Biography — He served as mayor of Saigon twice, and was the Prime Minister from November 1964 …
Image: Tran Van Huong
II Corps (South Vietnam) [videos]
The II Corps was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps in the ARVN, and it oversaw the region of the central highlands region, north of the capital …
U.S. advisor (probably a MACV officer) confers with II Corps' 3rd Cav commander in front of an M113 APC.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis [videos]
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis was an American socialite and First Lady of the United States during the presidency of John F. Kennedy from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. — Bouvier was born in Southampton, New York, to Wall Street …
Six-year-old Bouvier in 1935
Senator John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy on their wedding day, September 12, 1953
Jacqueline Kennedy standing over her husband, John F. Kennedy, after his spinal surgery, December 1954
Jacqueline with her husband as he campaigns for the presidency in Appleton, Wisconsin, March 1960
Oslo [videos]
Oslo is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. Founded in the year 1040 as Ánslo, and established as a kaupstad or trading place in 1048 by Harald Hardrada, the city was elevated …
The Royal Palace is the home of the Norwegian royal family
Frogner Park
Office buildings and apartments in Bjørvika, part of the redesign of former dock and industrial land in Oslo known as The Barcode Project.
The faculty of Law, University of Oslo.
Musée d'Orsay [videos]
The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings …
Main Hall of the Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay as seen from the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor
Musée d'Orsay Clock, Victor Laloux, Main Hall
The interior of the museum.
Shaquille O'Neal [videos]
Shaquille Rashaun "Shaq" O'Neal, is an American retired professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program Inside the NBA on TNT. He is widely considered one of the greatest players in the history of the National Basketball …
O'Neal in 2011
In 8 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers (1996–2004), O'Neal won three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002 and appeared in the 2004 NBA Finals.
O'Neal with Miami in 2007
O'Neal with Phoenix teammate Steve Nash.
Lamborghini [videos]
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese and tractors Lamborghini Trattori in Pieve di Cento, Italy. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi …
L900 marine engine
The Miura began as a clandestine prototype, a car that had racing pedigree in a company that was entirely against motorsport.
The 1990 Lotus 102 featured a Lamborghini V12.
A Murcielago R-GT participating in the FIA GT Championship at Silverstone in 2006
Taraji P. Henson [videos]
Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress, singer, and author. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest-roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy. She received praise for playing …
Henson at the premiere of Hidden Figures in 2016
Henson in 2011