General Nguyen Khanh Seizes Power in Saigon

On November 1, 1963, he joined General Dương Văn Minh and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) generals in a coup d'etat against President Ngô Đình Diệm which led to the President's removal from power.

General Khánh was transferred from the II Corps to the I Corps, further away from Saigon because the other generals found him to be distrustful.

Thereafter, he began to plot against General Dương Văn Minh's government. Khanh alleged that Generals Dương Văn Minh and Tran Van Don were supporting a neutralist position for South Vietnam.

On January 30, 1964, General Nguyen Khanh led a coup d'etat replacing Dương Văn Minh as Prime Minister. General Dương Văn Minh was placed under house arrest, but was allowed to remain as a figurehead chief-of-state. General Nguyen Khanh assumed the leadership from the junta as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council that took over after Ngô Đình Diệm's assassination. During this time, Khanh's regime suffered several military setbacks such as the Battle of Long Dinh.

On 24 November 1963, Johnson said, "the battle against communism... must be joined... with strength and determination." The pledge came at a time when Vietnam was deteriorating, especially in places like the Mekong Delta, because of the recent coup against Diem.[

The military revolutionary council, meeting in lieu of a strong South Vietnamese leader, was made up of 12 members headed by General Minh—whom Stanley Karnow, a journalist on the ground, later recalled as "a model of lethargy." His regime was overthrown in January 1964 by General Nguyen Khanh. Lodge, frustrated by the end of the year, cabled home about Minh: "Will he be strong enough to get on top of things?"