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Generals Without Commands. Like many of his brother officers, Minh was to become disenchanted with the President's rule, which often cut humiliatingly through their chains of command. Once, without so much as advising the area commander, the President's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, ordered an entire battalion transferred 80 miles from Cantho to Saigon. Minh protested privately: "Generals do not have power of command, therefore I do not command." He was also concerned about lack of popular support in the war against the Viet Cong, but he took no part in the abortive 1960 coup.
In the end, however, Minh suffered for his views, which ultimately reached the palace. Last year, even though Minh was being pushed vigorously by General Paul D. Harkins, his field operations command was abolished, and Minh was assigned as "military adviser" to the President—a meaningless post in which he was under Diem's surveillance.
Talk with the Pentagon. The downgrading failed to diminish U.S. enthusiasm for Minh, who impressed them not only in military ability. He is one of his country's top all-round athletes, excels at tennis, soccer, swimming and boating. Minh used to delight in running his 16-ft. motorboat up and down the Saigon River by means of a remote-control steering system, terrorizing all other river traffic. One day, a few years ago, Minh was matched against visiting General Maxwell Taylor in a set of tennis doubles and later exulted: "We whipped the hell out of them."
In the angry aftermath of last August's "special forces" raids on Buddhist pagodas, eyes fell on Minh as a man who might lead a coup. Knowing that he was suspect, Minh took care not to implicate himself; as recently as two weeks ago, he showed up with Diem at a palace ceremony. But within the past month, Minh participated in an afternoon's talk with a visiting Pentagon official in which the possibilities of a coup were discussed. The Fat Boy suggested that he was not the man to lead it, if it came, because he considers himself a weak administrator. Minh evidently found his administrator in aristocratic, French-educated Lieut. General Tran Van Don, 46, acting chief of the Joint General Staff, co-leader of the coup, and the sharpest staff officer in South Viet Nam. Says one U.S. officer of Minh: "He is a very nice man and very tough, but General Don is more capable."
Big Minh may lack the political talent to become the leader his country needs, but he has several important factors going for him. For one thing, he is a career infantryman with a bulldog face and a top sergeant's bluntness, yet is popular in the ranks. Next, he is clean of corruption or a pro-Communist past. Finally, Big Minh is popular among civilians. He drinks so little that one joke has it that a quart of whisky would last him a year. He is married to a pretty Vietnamese wife, has three children. He is a Buddhist who eschews fanaticism. Said one Vietnamese last week: "Everyone knows General Minh. He fought the whorehouse sect. He is a good man."