1964 South Vietnamese coup

Date	January 30, 1964
Location	Saigon, South Vietnam
Result	Bloodless coup successful

Belligerents

Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) rebels

Military Revolutionary Council of South Vietnam

Commanders and leaders

Nguyễn Khánh
Trần Thiện Khiêm
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
Nguyễn Chánh Thi
Đỗ Mậu

Dương Văn Minh
Trần Văn Đôn
Lê Văn Kim
Tôn Thất Đính
Mai Hữu Xuân

Strength

Part of the III Corps and one paratroop unit

None (caught off guard)

Casualties and losses

Bloodless coup successful
Don, Kim, Dinh and Xuan put under house arrest
Nguyễn Văn Nhung, aide and bodyguard of Minh was summarily executed after the coup

Before dawn on January 30, 1964, General Nguyễn Khánh ousted the military junta led by General Dương Văn Minh from the leadership of South Vietnam without firing a shot. It came less than three months after Minh's junta had themselves come to power in a bloody coup against then President Ngô Đình Diệm. The coup was bloodless and took less than a few hours—after power had been seized Minh's aide and bodyguard, Major Nguyễn Văn Nhung was arrested and summarily executed.

Distrusted by his colleagues because of his tendency to change sides and his reputation as an intriguer, Khánh was assigned to I Corps in the far north of the country after Diệm's overthrow to keep him away from the capital Saigon. Khánh, who had played a minor role in Diệm's overthrow, joined forces with Generals Trần Thiện Khiêm, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, who felt they deserved better posts in the junta, and Colonels Nguyễn Chánh Thi and Đỗ Mậu, the latter being the director of military security under Diệm and an effective strategist.

During the three months of his rule, Minh, his civilian Prime Minister Nguyen Ngoc Tho, and his leading military colleagues, Generals Trần Văn Đôn and Lê Văn Kim, attempted to defeat the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) non-militarily. They felt that a battleground victory was impractical or impossible and pursued a strategy of trying to politically integrate the insurgents into the mainstream. This meant an intensification of rural non-military initiatives and a reduction in armed operations. This brought them into conflict with the United States, who had plans to start bombing North Vietnam. At the same time, in January 1964, the French government of President Charles de Gaulle proposed the neutralization of Vietnam and the withdrawal of American forces. Khánh and his fellow plotters exploited this to spread rumors that Minh's junta was about to make a deal with Hanoi and then gained the support of the US, most notably through the chief of military forces in Vietnam, General Paul Harkins, who supported Diệm and opposed Minh's November coup.

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Wikipedia