Nguyễn Văn Nhung
South Vietnamese military officer, 1919/20-1964 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Nguyễn Văn Nhung?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Nguyễn Văn Nhung (1919 or 1920 – 31 January 1964) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). After joining the French Army in 1944 during the colonial era of Vietnam, he soon met and became the aide-de-camp and bodyguard of Dương Văn Minh, and spent the rest of his career in this role as Minh rose up the ranks to become a general. Nhung and Minh later transferred to the French-backed Vietnamese National Army (VNA) during the First Indochina War and he became an officer; the VNA then became the ARVN after the creation of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). A soft-spoken man, Nhung was a professional military assassin best known for his role in the November 1963 coup d'état led by Minh that ousted President Ngô Đình Diệm from office.
Major Nguyễn Văn Nhung | |
---|---|
Born | 1919 or 1920 French Indochina |
Died | 31 January 1964 (aged 44–45) Saigon, South Vietnam |
Allegiance | South Vietnam |
Service/ | French Army (1944–49) Vietnamese National Army (1949–55) Army of the Republic of Vietnam (1955–63) |
Rank | Major |
Battles/wars | First Indochina War
1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état Ngô Đình Diệm, Ngô Đình Nhu and Lê Quang Tung |
Other work | Aide-de-camp and bodyguard of General Dương Văn Minh, military hitman who assassinated or executed 50 people |
At the end of the coup, Nhung - having shot Colonel Lê Quang Tung, the loyalist commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces at a grave at Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base the day before - executed President Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu. An investigation led by General Trần Văn Đôn, another coup plotter, determined that Nhung had repeatedly stabbed and shot the Ngô brothers while escorting them back to military headquarters after having arrested them. It was widely believed that Minh had ordered Nhung to execute the Ngô brothers. Following Nguyễn Khánh's successful January 1964 coup against Minh's military junta, Nhung died in mysterious circumstances, the only fatality in the otherwise bloodless regime change.