Lieutenant General ÃÂá» Cao Trà(20 November 1929 – 23 February 1971) was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) known for his fighting prowess and flamboyant style. Tràstarted out in the French Army before transferring to the Vietnamese National Army and the ARVN. Under President Ngô ÃÂình Diá»Âm, Tràwas the commander of I Corps where he was noted for harsh crackdowns on Buddhist civil rights demonstrations against the Diá»Âm government. Tràlater participated in the November 1963 coup which resulted in the assassination of Diá»Âm on 2 November 1963.
Years later, Tràwas exiled by Nguyá» n Cao Kỳ, the most powerful member of the junta, but when Nguyá» n VÃÂn Thiá»Âu came to power, he was called back to command III Corps. He led III Corps during the 1970 Cambodian Campaign, earning the laudatory sobriquet as "the Patton of the Parrot's Beak". In 1971, Tràwas ordered north to take command of I Corps in Operation Lam Son 719, an incursion into Laos, which had gone astray. He was killed, aged 41, in a helicopter accident before assuming command.
Tràwas born in Bình Tuoc, Biên Hòa, ÃÂá»Âng Nai Province, French Indochina, just northeast of Saigon. His father was a wealthy landowner and his grandfather served as a Nguyá» n dynasty mandarin during the French colonial era.
He earned his baccalaureate (Part II) from Petrus Ký High School, Saigon. After entering the French colonial forces in 1947, he graduated from Do Huu Vi Officer Class and the following year was sent to Auvour, France to attend infantry school. In 1953, while an officer in the Vietnamese National Army, he graduated from General Staff and Command Class in Hanoi. His first command was as a young airborne officer, and until his death he survived three attempts on his life, leading him to his belief that he had an "immunity from death on the battlefield". As a young lieutenant colonel, he was made the commander of the Airborne Brigade in 1954 and was based in Saigon. Towards the end of the May 1955 Battle for Saigon, in which Prime Minister Diá»Âm asserted his rule over the State of Vietnam by defeating the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate, some of Diá»Âm's supporters tried to move against some generals whom they accused of questionable loyalty. When he heard that three top generals, including Nguyá» n VÃÂn Vy, were being detained in the palace by one of the factions backing Prime Minister Diá»Âm, Tràtelephoned and threatened them: "Free the generals in one half-hour or I will destroy the palace and everything inside it."
In 1958, he attended the United States Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. That same year he graduated from Air-Ground Operations School at Fort Kisler, Washington.
During the Buddhist crisis of 1963, Tràgarnered considerable notoriety for his crackdown on Buddhist protests against the Diá»Âm regime in the central region of Vietnam. In Huế, demonstrations were banned and TrÃÂ's forces were ordered to arrest those who engaged in civil disobedience. At 13:00 on 3 June, some 1,500 protestors attempted to march towards the Từ ÃÂàm Pagoda in Huế for a rally, having gathered at Bến Ngá»± bridge near the Perfume River. A confrontation ensued when the protestors attempted to cross the bridge. Six waves of ARVN tear gas and attack dogs failed to disperse the crowd. At 18:30, military personnel at the scene dispersed the crowd by emptying vials of brownish-red liquid on the heads of praying protestors, resulting in 67 Buddhists being hospitalised for chemical injuries. The symptoms consisted of severe blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments. By midnight, tensions were high as curfews and martial law were enacted. Rumours circulated that three people had been killed. Newsweek reported the police had lobbed blister gas into the crowd. The incident raised concerns among the Americans that poison gas was used, and the U.S. threatened to publicly condemn and distance itself from Saigon. An investigation, however, cleared the troops of using blister or poison gas.
The main raids in Saigon were accompanied by attacks across the country. Under TrÃÂ, the violence was worse in Huế than in the capital. The approach of TrÃÂ's forces was met by the beating of Buddhist drums and cymbals to alert the populace. The townsfolk left their homes in the middle of the night in an attempt to defend the city's pagodas. At the Từ ÃÂàm Pagoda, which was the base of leading Buddhist activist leader, ThÃÂch TràQuang, Monks tried to cremate as per their custom the coffin of their colleague who had self-immolated. ARVN soldiers, firing M1 rifles, overran the pagoda and confiscated the coffin. They demolished a statue of Gautama Buddha and looted and vandalized the pagoda before detonating explosives and leveling much of the pagoda. A number of Buddhists were shot or clubbed to death.
The most determined resistance occurred outside the Diá»Âu ÃÂế Pagoda in Huế. As troops attempted to erect a barricade across the bridge leading to the pagoda, the crowd fought the heavily armed military personnel with rocks, sticks and their bare fists, throwing back the tear gas grenades that were aimed at them. After a five-hour battle, the military finally took the bridge at dawn by driving armored cars through the angry crowd. The defense of the bridge and Diá»Âu ÃÂế left an estimated 30 dead and 200 wounded. Ten truckloads of bridge defenders were taken to jail and an estimated 500 people were arrested in the city. Seventeen of the 47 professors at Huế University, who had resigned earlier in the week in protest after the firing of the school's rector, Father Cao VÃÂn Luân, a Catholic priest and opponent of Diá»Âm's brother Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô ÃÂình Thục, were also arrested. Despite his vigorous application of Diá»Âm's military policies against Buddhists in central Vietnam, where in the words of Ellen Hammer, Trà"ruled...with an iron hand", he was still involved in plotting against the regime even before the attacks on the pagodas.
When Tràwas informed that coup was imminent, he left Huế on 29 October 1963 for ÃÂàNẵng, so he would be away from Ngô ÃÂình Cẩn, Diá»Âm's younger brother, who ruled central Vietnam from for the Ngô family. The coup took place on 1 November with Tràhelping by causing diversions. He scheduled a meeting with the province chief and other pro-Diá»Âm officials during the time that the coup was to take place. As a result, the Diá»Âm loyalists were stuck in a meeting room and were unable to mobilize the Republican Youth and other Ngô family paramilitary and activist groups. After the coup, angry crowds surrounded the Ngô family home where Cẩn and his elderly mother lived. It was agreed they would be given safe passage out of the country by the junta. Tràtold Cẩn he would be safe and would be taken out to Saigon, where it would be safer. Tràcould only promise safe passage on an American plane to the capital, where embassy officials would meet Cẩn who wanted asylum in Japan. The Americans handed Cẩn over to the junta, and he was executed in 1964.
Following the arrest and assassination of Diá»Âm in early November 1963, there was pressure on the new regime to remove Diá»Âm supporters from power. Prime Minister Thá's approach to removing Diá»Âm supporters from positions of influence drew criticism. Some felt that he was not vigorous enough in removing pro-Diá»Âm elements from authority, but pro-Diá»Âm elements opposed the turnover, some claiming it was excessive and vengeful. One contentious non-removal was TrÃÂ, who had gained notoriety for his anti-Buddhist crackdowns in the central region around Huế. He was transferred to the II Corps in the Central Highlands directly south of the I Corps region.
Tràlived lavishly and flamboyantly, leading to suspicions of corruption. In 1965, he tried to kill himself during a government investigation. One of the main forces behind the inquiry was then-Prime Minister Nguyá» n Cao Kỳ, then head of the air force and the leading figure in the ruling military junta. The pair became bitter rivals, and Kỳ sent Tràinto exile. In 1967, General Nguyá» n VÃÂn Thiá»Âu became president and Kỳ became his deputy. Thiá»Âu sent Tràto South Korea as Vietnam's ambassador.
The power struggle between Thiá»Âu and Kỳ played to TrÃÂ's advantage. At the time of the communists' Tet Offensive, Thieu was out of the capital, celebrating the lunar new year in the Mekong Delta. Kỳ, who was still in Saigon, stepped into the spotlight, organizing military forces against the Viá»Ât Cá»Âng, who were temporarily repelled. Kỳ's strained relations with Thiá»Âu led the Americans to pressure Thiá»Âu to give Kỳ more responsibility, but Thiá»Âu refused.
Thiá»Âu's regime became more pro-active, declaring martial law, widening conscription, and organising token anti-corruption campaigns were carried out. Thiá»Âu used the threat of the Viá»Ât Cá»Âng to increase his political power, arresting, exiling or relieving senior officers who supported Kỳ.
Thiá»Âu recalled Tràfrom South Korea and made him Commander of III Corps, which surrounded the capital Saigon and was crucial in blocking or orchestrating coups. Tràreplaced Lieutenant General Lê Nguyên Khang, a prominent Kỳ supporter. Thiá»Âu gave orders directly to his supporters in senior positions, bypassing TrÃÂ's own superior, Cao VÃÂn Viên. According to Creighton Abrams, the head of U.S. forces in Vietnam at the time, "Tri has dinner with the President once or twice a week. He gets operational approval, that sort of thing, and Viên's not in on that". Although Tràand Kỳ often crossed paths at official functions thereafter, they never shook hands.
Tràwas accused of involvement in a money-smuggling ring at the same time of his successful campaign in Cambodia in 1970. At the time, he lived in a spacious villa equipped with a swimming pool in Biên Hòa. He was known for his flamboyant style, wearing a camouflage jungle suit, a black three-starred cap to indicate his rank, carrying a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 handgun, and was always seen with a swagger stick, quipping "I use it to spank the Viet Cong". As a lieutenant general, he performed brilliantly as commander of III Corps during the 1970 Cambodian Campaign, earning a laudatory sobriquet from the United States news media as "the Patton of the Parrot's Beak".
In late February 1971 Tràwas ordered north to take command of beleaguered I Corps forces after Operation Lam Son 719, a 1971 incursion into Laos, had gone astray due to the incompetent leadership of Lieutenant General Hoàng Xuân Lãm. On 23 February 1971 TrÃÂ's command helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff from Trang Lon airstrip, Tay Ninh Province, killing all onboard (other than photojournalist François Sully who died of his wounds several hours later at Long Binh US Military Field Hospital) and he was interred at Biên Hoa Military Cemetery.