Coup No. 2

Through the moonlit streets of Saigon at 1 a.m. Thursday, armored cars, a dozen M24 light tanks, and truckloads of troops in battle gear moved cautiously into position. Paratroopers and marines quietly surrounded the houses occupied by South Viet Nam's Chief of State, General Duong Van ("Big") Minh, and four other top members of his ruling junta. With no opposition from the police guards on duty at each house, squads of soldiers efficiently swooped on the sleeping generals, knocked politely on their doors, and swiftly carried them off without firing a shot in anger.

Thus, only three months after the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Big Minh's regime was itself overturned in a bloodless coup that was so well planned and unexpected that most Saigon citizens first heard of it from a government broadcast 16 hours later. Arrested with Minh were Commander in Chief General Tran Van Don; General Le Van Kim, chief of the joint general staff; Interior Minister General Ton That Dinh; and National Police Chief General Mai Huu Xuan.

Beaten to the Draw. The new strongman, Lieut. General Nguyen Khanh, 36, is a goateed, poker-playing, guerrilla-fighting veteran. Like Big Minh, he attended the U.S. Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and is considered staunchly pro-American. The irony of Khanh's accession is that it could have happened three months ago. Khanh and a few other disgruntled Vietnamese officers were actually planning to topple the Diem regime when Big Minh and his fellow conspirators beat them to the draw.

In the subsequent reshuffle of commands, Minh irked his seasoned fellow general by assigning Khanh to the 1st Corps in the North, one area that the Diem regime had pretty well cleared of Viet Cong guerrillas. However, Khanh firmly denied that it was personal resentment or ambition that prompted him to overthrow Minh. His sole aim, he insisted, was to forestall a takeover by "neutralist" agents who, said he, had been "blatantly" slipped into South Viet Nam for the purpose by France's Charles de Gaulle. Khanh charged, moreover, that the four generals arrested with Minh included a clique within the junta that was "soft on neutralism." Who the guilty men were Khanh did not say. But to support his charges, he pointed to the recent return to Saigon of two South Vietnamese generals after years of exile in France, argued that they had been sent by De Gaulle and sheltered by the junta's neutralist clique.

As for Khanh, he portrayed himself incensed by De Gaulle's meddling in Viet Nam, pleaded with the junta last week to sever diplomatic relations with France. When he was turned down, Khanh at once won pledges of support from several key officers who shared his views, notably General Tran Thien Khiem, commanding the 3rd Corps troops around Saigon. Four of Khiem's battalions had been readied for a strike against the Viet Cong, were used instead against Minh & Co. Nine hours after Minh had refused Khanh's request to break with France, he was under arrest.

Big Minh, however, is a popular figure in Viet Nam, and Khanh tried hard to make him stay on as a figurehead Chief of State. Minh finally agreed to continue as an "adviser" to the new regime, at week's end even planned to accompany his successor on a tour of the hinterland. The other generals remained under arrest but, promised Khanh, will get "a fair trial." Khanh, who became the new chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council, did not at once invest himself with any Cabinet title. The morning of his accession, Khanh breakfasted with U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, assured him that he plans no letup in the war against the Viet Cong.

Ably Equipped. After months of alarming reverses under Minh, Khanh faces no easy task--even assuming that he himself is not toppled by another coup in a few months. To his credit, U.S. military advisers consider him one of South Viet Nam's ablest corps commanders, one of the few in fact who would rather fight than sleep at night. For that matter, Big Minh had an even higher reputation with the U.S. brass--even if, as one U.S. official hedged last week, "we never claimed that he had much upstairs." Khanh at least seems well enough equipped topside. A Buddhist, he was born the son of a wealthy Mekong Delta planter, attended French-run military academies, and actually fought on both sides during France's battle for Indo-China against the Communist Viet Minh. For his first press conference, Khanh trimmed his goatee, donned a paratrooper's camouflage uniform and, chain-smoking Salems, vowed that he would "fight Communism to the final victory."

The Communists, buoyed by De Gaulle's recognition of Red China and his call for a neutral, unified Indo-China, will probably prove more aggressive than ever. In neighboring Laos, the pro-Communist Pathet Lao and infiltrating North Vietnamese guerrillas are already engaged in their biggest offensive in months. They used artillery and tanks last week to blast right-wing and neutralist forces out of a strategic plateau at Nakay in southern Laos. Weighing South Viet Nam's chances of survival, Khanh said quietly: "A lot of blood was shed during the war against French colonialism. We must not betray the dead who died so that we can be free."

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