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Lieutenant General Tôn Thất Đính (20 November 1926 – 21 November 2013), was a retired officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that deposed and resulted in the assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). A favourite of the ruling Ngô family, Đính received rapid promotions ahead of officers who were regarded as being more capable.〔 He converted to Roman Catholicism to curry favour with Diệm,〔 and 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 ever ARVN general and the commander of the II Corps, but he was regarded as a dangerous, egotistical 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 because Diệm regarded him as one of his most loyal officers. This position meant that Đính would be a critical factor in the success or failure of any coup. In late 1963, with Diệm becoming increasingly 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, who became upset and was 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, and the general promptly redeployed loyal units outside Saigon and rebel forces near the capital. On 1 November 1963, the rebels' actual coup proceeded, and the Ngô brothers were deposed and executed. After the coup, Đính became one of the 12 members of the Military Revolutionary Council (MRC), serving as the interior minister. However, the MRC lasted only three months before being ousted in 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 eventually 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 in order to put down the Buddhist Uprising, but Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ disapproved of his reconciliatory policies. Kỳ launched a successful surprise attack against Đính, who fled, but was later captured and briefly 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, when he fled Vietnam. ==Early years== A native of central Vietnam, Đính enlisted in the Vietnamese National Army (VNA) of the French-backed State of Vietnam at Phu Bai in 1949 and trained as a paratrooper in France.〔Sheehan, p. 356.〕 He became a protege of Ngô Đình Cần, 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, during which time it was renamed the 2nd Division.〔Tucker, pp. 526–33.〕 Diệm deposed head of state Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum in 1955 and proclaimed himself president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as South Vietnam).〔Jacobs, pp. 86–89.〕 The VNA thus became the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Born into a nominally Buddhist family, Đính had converted to Catholicism in the hope of advancing his career. The change of religion was widely 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 heavily disenfranchised and disadvantaged the Buddhist majority.〔〔Jacobs, pp. 88–95.〕 Đính once described himself as "fearless and arrogant" and Diệm's adopted son〔Wright, p. 40.〕—the president was a lifelong bachelor.〔Jacobs, p. 19.〕 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,〔Karnow, pp. 307–22.〕〔 making him the youngest ever ARVN general.〔Tucker, pp. 288–89.〕 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, vain and impulsive,〔〔 he was known mainly for heavily drinking in Saigon's nightclubs,〔Jacobs, p. 169.〕 and the Central Intelligence Agency labelled him a "basic opportunist".〔Prochnau, pp. 442–43.〕 He was known for always wearing a paratrooper's uniform with a red beret at a steep angle, and being accompanied by a tall, uncommunicative Cambodian bodyguard.〔〔Jones, p. 397.〕 Senior Australian Army officer Ted Serong, who worked with Đính, called him "a young punk with a gun—and dangerous".〔Blair (2001), p. 56.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tôn Thất Đính」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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