Le Quang Tung
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Colonel Le Quang Tung (1923-1963) was the head of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam's Special Forces under the command of Ngo Dinh Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem. He was assassinated in the November 1963 coup that toppled Diem's government.
[edit] Biography
A Roman Catholic from central Vietnam, Tung had been trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States. A Diem loyalist, he lead a force of 1840 men,[1] which operated under Nhu's direction. He did not conduct operations against Vietcong activity, but instead used his forces mainly in Saigon for repressing dissidents against the Diem regime. His special forces under Nhu's orders were responsible for the raid on August 21, 1963 of the Xa Loi Pagoda, in which 1400 monks were arrested and more than 30 were injured in government attacks, as well as extensive property damage.[2][3] Following the attacks, US officials threatened to withhold aid to the Special Forces unless they were used in fighting communists, rather than attacking dissidents.[1][4]
Tung also headed a group run by the CIA, in which ARVN personnel of northern origin were sent into North Vietnam posing as locals, in order to gather intelligence as well as sabotaging communist infrastructure and communications. They were trained in bases at Nha Trang, Da Nang and sometimes offshore in Taiwan, Guam and Okinawa. Of the eighty groups of operatives, numbering six or seven per group, that were deployed in 1963 via parachute drops or night time sampan journeys, nearly all were captured or killed. Those who were captured were often used for propaganda by communist broadcasting authorities. Tung was heavily criticised for his management of the operations.[5][4]
[edit] Coup and assassination
In September, when Diem and Nhu realised that a group of generals were planning a coup, Nhu ordered Tung and Ton That Dinh, another loyalist general who commanded the Saigon region to plan a fake "coup" against the government by loyalist soliders disguised as insurgents. This was to be followed by a fake "counter-coup", whereupon Tung's Special Forces, having left Saigon on the pretext of fighting communists, as well as Dinh's forces would triumphantly re-enter Saigon to reaffirm the Diem regime.[2][4]
Nhu and Tung were unaware that Dinh was part of the coup, and agreed to send his four Special Forces companies north out of Saigon on October 29. On November 1, Tung was summoned to the military headquarters near Tan Son Nhut airport by the organisers of the coup, on the pretext of a routine officer's meeting. At 1330, General Tran Van Don announced that a coup was taking place. All but Tung rose to applaud, who was taken away by Nguyen Van Nhung, the bodyguard of General Duong Van Minh, another of the coup plotters. As he was lead away, he shouted "Remember who gave you your stars!".[2][4]
After nightfall, he was taken outside the military headquarters with his brother Le Quang Trieu, also a Diem loyalist officer, and executed by Nhung.[2][4]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Langguth, A. J. (2000). Our Vietnam. Simon and Schuster, 248. ISBN 0-684-81202-9.
- ^ a b c d Karnow, Stanley (1997). Vietnam:A history. Penguin Books, 306-324. ISBN 0-670-84218-4.
- ^ Maclear, Michael (1981). Vietnam:The ten thousand day was. Methuen, 89-90. ISBN 0-423-00580-4.
- ^ a b c d e Tucker, Spencer C. (2000). Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. ABC-CLIO, 227. ISBN 1-57607-040-0.
- ^ Karnow, Stanley (1997). Vietnam:A history. Penguin Books, 378. ISBN 0-670-84218-4.
