Đỗ Cao Trí | |
---|---|
Allegiance | Vietnamese National Army, Army of the Republic of Vietnam |
Years of service | 1947–1971 |
Rank | General (posthumous) |
Commands held |
Airborne Brigade (1954–1955) I Corps (1963) II Corps (1963–1964) III Corps (1968–1971) |
Battles/wars | Ambassador to South Korea (1967-68) |
Lieutenant General Đỗ Cao Trí (20 November 1929 – 23 February 1971) was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) known for his fighting prowess and flamboyant style. Trí started out in the French Army before transferring to the Vietnamese National Army and the ARVN. Under President Ngô Đình Diệm, Trí was the commander of I Corps where he was noted for harsh crackdowns on Buddhist civil rights demonstrations against the Diệm government. Trí later participated in the November 1963 coup which resulted in the assassination of Diệm on 2 November 1963.
Years later, Trí was exiled by Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, the most powerful member of the junta, but when Nguyễn Văn Thiệu came to power, he was called back to command III Corps. He led III Corps during the 1970 Cambodian Campaign, earning the laudatory sobriquet as "the Patton of the Parrot's Beak". In 1971, Trí was ordered north to take command of I Corps in Operation Lam Son 719, an incursion into Laos, which had gone astray. He was killed, aged 41, in a helicopter accident before being able to take control.
Trí was born in Bình Tuoc, Biên Hòa, Đồng Nai Province, French Indochina, just northeast of Saigon. His father was a wealthy landowner and his grandfather served as a Nguyễn Dynasty mandarin during the French colonial era.