Tôn Thất Đính

Lieutenant General Tôn Thất Đính (, ; November 20, 1926 – November 21, 2013 ) was an officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).

Đính was born in the central highlands resort town of Da Lat on November 20, 1926, into the Tôn Thất family of Huế that were relatives of the Nguyễn dynasty.

In 1943, he took a clerical job at Da Lat Court.

He enlisted in the Vietnamese National Army (VNA) of the French-backed State of Vietnam at Phu Bai in 1949, and was first trained as a non-commissioned officer at Mang Cá, Huế, before being accepted into the first intake of the Huế Military Academy.

After one year of training, he was commissioned as a lieutenant.

He then trained as a paratrooper and attended Cavalry School in Saumur, France.

As a captain, he was made the commanding officer of the VNA's Mobile Task Force (GM 2) in Ninh Giang in northern Vietnam, and after graduating at the top of a Military Staff Training Course in Hanoi, was promoted to the rank of major and put in command of the forces in Duyên Hải, in the northern coastal province of Thái Bình as a battalion commander.

In 1952, he was made a lieutenant colonel as appointed to command the 31st Tactical Group (GM 31), based in the province of Hải Dương but also covered the adjoining provinces of Nam Định and Ninh Bình.

He was the Deputy Commander of Operations for Colonel Paul Vanuxem when the VNA and French Far East Expeditionary Corps withdrew from Ninh Bình to Tuy Hòa on the South Central Coast as part of Operation Auvergn following the partition of Vietnam.

He became a protege of Ngô Đình Cẩn, a younger brother of Prime Minister Diệm.

Cẩn, 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 January 1, 1955.

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.

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.

Đính once described himself as "fearless and arrogant" and Diệm's adopted son; the president was a lifelong bachelor.

Đính led the unit until November 1956, during which time it was renamed the 2nd Division.

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 ever 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.

In 1962, Đính, whom Diệm regarded as one of his most loyal officers, was appointed commander of the III Corps that oversaw the region surrounding the capital Saigon, making him important to the prospects of any coup.

He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that led to the arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, commonly known as South Vietnam.

A favorite 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 favor with Diệm and headed the military wing of the Cần Lao party, a secret Catholic organization 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 late 1963, as Diệm became increasingly unpopular, Đính's colleagues recruited him into a coup plot by playing on his ego and pitting him against Diệm.

Diệm and his brother and chief advisor Ngô Đình Nhu were aware of the 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 strengthen the family's regime.

Đính was placed in charge of the fake coup and sabotaged it.

On November 1 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), 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 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 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 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.