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| - Although Khanh had seized power in January 1964 in alliance with Khiem, the pair had soon fallen out over policy disputes along religious lines, and the Catholic Khiem began to plot against Khanh. Khiem was believed to have helped plan a failed coup in September 1964, and Khanh exiled him as a result. While in Washington, Khiem continued to plot alongside his aide Thao, who was actually a communist agent bent on trying to foment infighting at every opportunity. Aware of Thao's plans, Khanh summoned him back to Vietnam in an apparent attempt to capture him, and Thao responded by going into hiding and preparing for his attack. In the meantime, Khanh's hold on power was slipping as his military support dwindled, and he became increasingly reliant on the support of civilian Buddhist activists
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| abstract
| - Although Khanh had seized power in January 1964 in alliance with Khiem, the pair had soon fallen out over policy disputes along religious lines, and the Catholic Khiem began to plot against Khanh. Khiem was believed to have helped plan a failed coup in September 1964, and Khanh exiled him as a result. While in Washington, Khiem continued to plot alongside his aide Thao, who was actually a communist agent bent on trying to foment infighting at every opportunity. Aware of Thao's plans, Khanh summoned him back to Vietnam in an apparent attempt to capture him, and Thao responded by going into hiding and preparing for his attack. In the meantime, Khanh's hold on power was slipping as his military support dwindled, and he became increasingly reliant on the support of civilian Buddhist activists who favored negotiations with the communists and opposed escalation of the Vietnam War. The Americans—most notably Ambassador Maxwell Taylor—were opposed to this and had been lobbying various senior Vietnamese officers such as Ky to overthrow Khanh, who knew that American-sponsored moves to depose him were afoot. However, the Americans were not counting on Thao and his fellow Catholic Phat trying to seize power on an explicitly religious platform, claiming fidelity to slain former Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem and promising to recall Khiem from the US to lead the new regime. This caused alarm among the Buddhist majority, who had campaigned heavily against Diem's discriminatory religious policies in the months leading up to his ouster in November 1963. Although they wanted Khanh gone, the Americans did not want Thao and Phat to succeed, so they sought out Ky and Thi in an attempt to have them defeat the original coup and then depose Khanh. During the initial attack, Thao and Phat tried to capture both Khanh and Ky, but both men escaped narrowly, although some of their colleagues in the Armed Forces Council were arrested. Although the rebels were able to take control of Tan Son Nhut Air Base, the largest in the country and the military headquarters of South Vietnam, Ky was able to regroup quickly and retain control of the nearby Bien Hoa Air Base, using it to mobilize air power and stop the rebel advance with threats of bombing. Late in the night, Thao and Phat met Ky in a meeting arranged by the Americans, where an agreement was reached for the coup to be ended in return for Khanh's ouster. By early next morning, the bloodless military action was over as Thao and Phat went into hiding, and the junta voted to sack their leader Khanh, who was absent on a military inspection tour, thinking that Ky and Thi were on his side. When Khanh heard of his ouster, he declared it to be illegal. After defying his colleagues and travelling around the country for a day in a fruitless attempt to rally support for a comeback, Khanh went into exile after being named to fill the meaningless post of Ambassador-at-Large and allowed an elaborate ceremonial military send-off to save face. Phat and Thao were later sentenced to death in absentia. Thao was hunted down and killed in July 1965, while Phat remained on the run for several years before turning himself in and being pardoned.
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