In the meantime, the other key generals in the junta, Don, Kim, Đính and Xuân, were put under house arrest, accused by Khánh of attempting to negotiate a peace deal with North Vietnam.

[2] Khánh parleyed with the rebels long enough for loyal forces to arrive from the outside the capital to suppress the uprising, but his critics contended that he was waiting to see which side would gain the upper hand and was not committed to Diệm.

[8] The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also reported that Khánh was motivated by a suspicion that Minh's junta knew he was untrustworthy and was going to give him an overseas government post to sideline him completely.

[24] Minh, the leading generals and Tho, favored a politically oriented solution, feeling that the deposal of Diệm and Nhu had created new possibilities for ending the insurgency of the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong, mainly through an outreach program.

[27] At the same time, in accordance with the political strategy, Minh's junta was reluctant to carry out large-scale offensives, which concerned the Americans, particularly Harkins, Taylor and CIA chief John McCone.

[28] During the latter part of Diệm's rule, a centerpiece of the rural pacification campaign was the large-scale construction of strategic hamlets, whereby villagers were compelled to move into fortified camps in an attempt to lock out insurgents.

They forecast that they could reduce the insurgency's support by 30% alone through these less restrictive arrangements, citing more cooperative attitudes in Mekong Delta regions heavily populated with Hòa Hảo and Cao Đài.

[34] In December McNamara and McCone visited Vietnam and wrote a very pessimistic report to Washington expressing concern at the effectiveness of the current policies in Saigon with respect to military gains and rural consolidation, and whether it would lead to a communist takeover.

This was objected to on the grounds that it would lose moral capital for Saigon as they promoted their cause as just and compatible with the physical safety of fellow Vietnamese, as well as fears that it would provoke a communist land invasion from the north.

[9] There was also growing concern that the calls by Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia for the neutralization of his own country, and his attempts to convene an international conference on the matter, would increase such sentiment in Vietnam, something that was oft-repeated in the American media.

[10] A significant boost to the plotter's scheme came on January 5, when Dinh relinquished command of the III Corps to Khiêm following persistent pressure by the US military establishment that he needed to fully concentrate on his work as interior minister.

They purported to show that three prominent members of the junta: Generals Minh, Kim and Đôn had been bought by French agents and were on the brink of declaring South Vietnam's neutrality and signing a peace deal to end the war with the North.

[49][50][51] Khánh told various American officials that Đôn, Kim and General Mai Hữu Xuân, along with Minh, were "pro-French and pro-neutralist" and part of de Gaulle's plan.

Khánh claimed that pre-emption was needed because if the plot was not stopped immediately crushed, it was a realistic chance of success as a "neutralist platform might strike [a] responsive chord among junior officers.

[55] It was later revealed that Harkins had reported in a cable that Wilson had seen him around 15:00 on behalf of Khánh to determine whether Washington would support a "counter-coup" against those who "planned to seize control and immediately announce a position of neutralization".

[47] According to the plan, Khiêm's forces in Saigon would surround the homes of the sleeping junta members while Khánh and a paratrooper unit would occupy the Joint General Staff headquarters near Tan Son Nhut Air Base.

The plotters needed help from Colonel Dương Hiếu Nghĩa, one of the leading Đại Việt officers and temporary head of the Capital Armored Command, who was key to the coup's success.

[55] This caught the plotters off guard, and as Harkins left on his "fieldtrip" at the same time, Kahin conjectured that he had actually gone to lobby Nghia to support the coup or at least partially back it by agreeing to help depose Minh's confidants Đôn, Đính, Kim and Xuân.

[57] General Nguyen Van Vy, who had returned from France after Diệm's deposal to serve as Deputy Chief of Staff for training, was put under house arrest before being released within a day of the coup's success.

[60] Bui Diệm, the future South Vietnamese Ambassador to the US, reflected years later that many people knew of the coup and the lack of action on the part of American officials was a sure indication of encouragement for Khánh.

Although Khánh had already told CIA officer Lucien Conein—who helped to plan the coup against Diệm—in December 1963 that he intended to overthrow Minh, the report was filed away among the many rumors that were received by American representatives.

[57] Khánh vowed to intensify the war effort, ask Lodge for guidance constantly, introduce democracy and install a direct phone line between Vietnamese military headquarters and the US Embassy.

[60] All the main Vietnamese figures from both sides, including Khánh himself, Minh, Đôn, Đính and Tho all agreed in later years that the US was heavily and decisively involved and that a coup would have otherwise been impossible.

[53] He wrote that the progress of history was often made in many phases by different individuals or groups, using the analogy that in an American political party, the people who manage the primary campaigns are different from those who run the national elections, while the officer-holders are entirely separate.

"[66] The State Department appeared to not be well-informed about the action, as Ball cabled Lodge a few hours after the coup started: "We have so little info on motivations and other factors involved in current crisis that we leave to your judgment how to handle.

The day after coming to power, Khánh further claimed to Lodge that Đôn was in possession of briefing papers from the Americans on plans for the bombing of North Vietnam and said that they were in danger of being handed over to the communists.

[70] Khánh tried to ease hostile sentiment among the enlisted men in the South Vietnamese military towards the deposal of the popular Minh by raising the wages of privates and corporals by 20%, with the approval and funding of the US.

A week after taking power, Khánh summoned Dr. Nguyễn Tôn Hoà, a Catholic who was one of the former leaders of the southern branch of the Đại Việt Quốc dân đảng (Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam).

However, the second most powerful member of the new regime was Khiêm, who was defense minister, and Khánh firmly controlled the civilian government through the junta, which he rearranged to give greater weight to his fellow coup-plotters.

Many Vietnamese and American observers considered this rash and premature, as promises of elections been frequently broken and that the council had at least been an effective forum for dissent, giving the semblance of democracy in the absence of parliamentary representation.