A coup was attempted in South Vietnam at 1:00 p.m. local time. Units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) commanded by General Lâm Văn Phát and Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo launched the coup against the nation’s head of state, General Nguyễn Khánh. Fifty tanks and a combination of infantry battalions, led by Colonel Dương Hiếu Nghĩa, seized control of the post office and radio station in Saigon, cutting off communication lines. The home of General Khanh, and Gia Long Palace, the residence of head of state Sửu, were surrounded. The coup collapsed when the U.S., in collaboration with Generals Nguyễn Chánh Thi and Cao Văn Viên, assembled units hostile to both Khanh and the current coup into a Capital Liberation Force. Saigon was recaptured “without a shot” the next day by loyal troops, and Khánh was restored to power, but would remain in office only two more days.
Dissident ARVN officers had moved several battalions of troops into Saigon on the 19th with the intention of ousting General Khánh from leadership. (One of the leaders of the attempted coup is Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, who will be revealed years afterward as a Communist agent.) General Khánh escaped to Đà Lạt with the aid of Marshal Kỳ, who then threatened to bomb Saigon and the Tân Sơn Nhứt airport unless the rebel troops were withdrawn. Kỳ was dissuaded from this by General Westmoreland, and Khánh was able to get troops to take over from the insurgents without any resistance on 20 February. Meanwhile, Marshal Kỳ had met with the dissident officers and agreed to their demand for the dismissal of Khánh; on 21 February the Armed Forces Council dismissed Khánh as chairman and as commander of the armed forces. The next day, Khánh announced he has accepted the council’s decision, after which he is appointed a ‘roving ambassador,’ assigned first to go to the United Nations and present evidence that the war in South Vietnam is being directed by North Vietnamese.
U.S. President Johnson decided, after a meeting with his National Security Council, to make continuous and regular bombing strikes against North Vietnam. Robert S. McNamara, at the time the Secretary of Defense, would note later that Johnson refused to announce his decision publicly and that “This judgment would eventually cost him dearly.”
The first ROLLING THUNDER raid has been scheduled for 20 February but it is postponed by the upheaval in the South Vietnamese government.
Vietnamese Rangers fought Communist guerrillas early today south of the United States air base at Đà Nẵng, 400 miles north of Saigon. Military authorities said a Việt Cộng force had moved into the area from strongholds in the coastal plains in an attempt to stage an attack similar to the raid against a United States helicopter base at Pleiku on February 7. The fighting near Đà Nẵng broke out yesterday. Initial reports said Vietnamese forces had lost 20 killed, 18 wounded, and 28 missing. Guerrilla casualties were not known.
The Johnson Administration. was surprised and chagrined by the attempted coup in South Vietnam today. The fast-moving events — culminating in news reports from Saigon that forces loyal to Lieutenant General Nguyễn Khánh had swept back into Saigon and regained control of most of the city — brought no immediate reaction from Administration spokesmen. Events had moved too rapidly for any full State Department assessment, it was explained. There was some fear, however, that third parties, not involved in the attempted coup, might try to take advantage of the confused situation.
The news of the recovery of the Khanh forces in Saigon coincided with the Administration’s private information earlier that the general might be able to surmount the rebel challenge.The coup attempt was recognized as at least a psychological setback at a time when the Administration was eager to present a position of strength and hope in South Vietnam’s guerrilla war. It was a particular embarrassment on a day set aside for conferences by President Johnson and State Department officials with Maurice Couve de Murville, the French Foreign Minister. Mr. Couve de Murville spent an hour with the President and later resumed his discussions with Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Officials said the problems of Southeast Asia and Vietnam were stressed in the talks, as they were in discussions yesterday.
The French visitor was said to have explained at length his Government’s long-standing belief that the United States; will not be able to reach a satisfactory settlement in Vietnam by military means. He again indicated that France opposed the Administration’s present policy there and would not commit any military resources in support of that policy. Officials here, who have continued to seek allied support for the war effort, said they did not find anything new in Mr. Couve de Murville’s exposition. They denied some press reports that the minister spoke in unusually blunt and harsh terms about United States policies. Bitter jests about the instability of South Vietnam’s leadership and shrugs of frustration were widespread in Washington as news of the attempted coup arrived.
French President de Gaulle renewed his call for an international conference to settle the Vietnam crisis in a letter to Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s chief of state, published today. The French leader expressed “grave concern over the aggravation of the situation in Vietnam.”
Fourteen demonstrators opposed to the Vietnam policies of the United States were arrested yesterday for having blocked entrances to its United Nations mission in New York.
The general who for a day emerged as a probable strongman in a South Vietnamese government was sleeping in his home in suburban Maryland while a former subordinate was carrying out a short-lived military coup in Saigon. About 7:30 o’clock this morning, Lieutenant General Trần Thiện Khiêm, the Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States, was awakened to receive a teletype message that had come into the embassy shortly before dawn. The message, from Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a leader of the coup, requested General Khiêm to return immediately to Saigon to join a new government. One of General Khiem’s first actions was to send the following cablegram to Colonel Thảo: “Please accept and forward my appreciation of the sacrifices of all our brothers in our armed forces. I pledge total support of the revolution and will return as soon as possible.”
Tonight in Washington, General Khiêm got the word: the coup had failed and the forces loyal to Lieutenant General Nguyễn Khánh had swept back into Saigon and recaptured the city.
Bonn tried to shift responsibility to the United States for arms shipments to Israel. The West German Government expressed chagrin today that the United States support for West Germany in its difficulties in the Middle East had been given reluctantly. “We do not hide the fact that a statement on its part in this whole affair was only gradually wrung out of the American Government,” said KarlGünther von Hase, the Government press chief. It is an open secret in Bonn — although not officially confirmed — that West Germany undertook heavy weapons deliveries to Israel last year on United States urging. Last week, under pressure from the United Arab Republic, Bonn suspended the shipments. Mr. von Hase also took note at a press conference of calls in United States business quarters for a boycott of West German goods in protest against Bonn’s withdrawal of support for Israel.
“So forceful a reaction is all the more disappointing when it is recalled that respect for public opinion in America was a factor in the Federal Republic’s long and continuing concern for good relations with Israel,” he declared. The spokesman said that the West German Government took the boycott appeal “very seriously.” It is grateful that the United States Government has deplored that idea, he said. According to reliable information available here, a high United States official made the appeal to ship arms to Israel directly to Chancellor Ludwig Erhard last summer. The Chancellor agreed reluctantly to ship a large quantity of surplus tanks to Israel, it was stated. Mr. von Hase said that he could “in no way deny” this report.
In a separate development today, political sources in Bonn reported that West Germany would soon halt all economic and military aid to Tanzania in response to that African nation’s decision to permit an East German consulate general. A Government spokesman would not confirm these reports and said only that the West German Cabinet would discuss the situation when it meets Wednesday. Bonn has repeatedly warned Tanzania that the opening of an East German consulate to replace an embassy in Zanzibar, which merged with Tanganyika to form Tanzania, would severely strain relations between the African republic and West Germany.
Premier Moise Tshombe accused Uganda tonight of “carefully premeditated” violations of Congolese territory, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Ugandan troops. “If in 24 hours they do not leave Mahagi,” he said at a news conference, “we will take all necessary measures.” He was delivering what seemed to be an ultimatum. Reports reached here that Mahagi changed hands twice today. Mahagi, a town six miles inside the Congo near the northern end of Lake Albert, was reported to have fallen Tuesday to about 300 Ugandans. Today’s reports said the Congolese Army, supported by a small contingent of Belgian mercenaries, had pushed a column of Ugandan and rebel troops back from Nioka, about 35 miles beyond Mahagi. Then, it was said, the Government forces took Mahagi itself, only to lose it again a few hours later.
The General Assembly President, Alex Quaison-Sackey, began efforts today to settle the United Nations political-financial crisis over peacekeeping costs under the mandate given him by the Assembly yesterday. He was reported to be having troubles because of rivalries within various geographic areas as to which countries should represent those areas. The composition of a committee authorized in a resolution by the General Assembly yesterday was not set forth. The resolution said only that the Assembly President was authorized to establish a special committee to review peacekeeping operations “including ways of overcoming the present financial difficulties of the organization.” He was to announce its composition “after appropriate consultations.” Those consultations were going on today.
The skipper of a lobster dragger said yesterday that while his craft was disabled off Montauk Point crew officers of a Russian fishing trawler had refused to transmit a distress message to the Coast Guard and had tried to seize his ship, claiming it was a ‘derelict’.
Archbishop Joseph Beran of Prague ended 16 years of confinement by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia to go to Rome, where he will be elevated to cardinal by Pope Paul.
A full-page denunciation of the new Soviet leaders as a “Khrushchevist troika” accused of trying to conceal treasonous behavior behind formal gestures and phrases has appeared in the Albanian newspaper Zeri Popullit.
Turkish Premier-designate Suat Hayri Urguplu succeeded tonight in forming a new four-party coalition Government. Word to this effect came after a day-long session attended by Mr. Urguplu and the leaders of the proposed coalition.
The Permanent Representative of Cyprus complained today to U Thant, Secretary General of the United Nations, that Turkey’s representative had been trying to “create an atmosphere of tension and alarm” by false allegations that Greek Cypriots were preparing a mass armed attack on the Turkish minority on the Island.
Indonesia carried out today her long-threatened withdrawal from the United Nations Children’s Fund but added a polite “thank you” to UNICEF for past assistance.
Chief Justice Earl Warren told a world gathering in New York that peace can be established and maintained only through law.
At Luanda in the Portuguese West African colony of Angola, 27 children were fatally poisoned and six others in critical condition when they ate supper at the Sisters of the Misericordia orphanage. The deaths of the children, who ranged in age from 6 to 10 years old, were traced to insecticide used to prevent weevils from damaging beans served with the evening meal.
The massive Dutch cargo ship MV Sophocles caught fire and exploded when its cargo of fertilizer ignited, then sank in the Atlantic Ocean, drowning three of her crew of 44. Another Dutch ship, MV Ulysees, rescued the 41 survivors.
State and Federal authorities began investigations today into a bloody suppression by Alabama state troopers of a Black demonstration in the town square. One Black was shot and critically wounded and at least 10 were injured by nightsticks when 50 troopers attacked a crowd of 400 last night. A reporter and two photographers were beaten by white toughs who roamed the street during the melee. Col. Al Lingo, State Director of Public Safety, who directed the attack, said that a trooper had suffered a head injury from a missile hurled from the crowd of Blacks.
Night marches were attempted tonight in both Marion and Selma but in both instances the authorities persuaded Blacks to turn back. In Selma, Blacks agreed to withhold night marches until Monday to give the white community time to meet a list of demands that include faster voter registration, biracial negotiations and paved streets in the Black community. Governor George C. Wallace, who has been silent on racial matters recently, said: “I regret the incident that happened in Marion. I am conducting a full investigation.” However, he blamed “career agitators” for the violence and said: “I don’t want to jump to conclusions of what happened in the still of the night in a small community. I will take proper action.”
In Washington, Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach said the Justice Department also was conducting a full investigation. Both state investigators and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were on the scene today taking statements from witnesses. The Alabama Press Association, newspapers in Alabama and the employers of the newsmen who were beaten protested the incidents and called for prompt action. The riotous disturbance in the usually quiet antebellum town of 3,800 broke out about 9:30 PM when Blacks attempted to stage a march on the Perry County jail.
The state troopers waded into the Blacks with flailing nightclubs when they did not disperse immediately, as ordered by Police Chief T. O. Harris. Jimmy Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old laborer, was reported in “very critical” condition in Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma. He was shot in the stomach in a cafe where a crowd of Blacks had taken refuge from the troopers. Other Blacks in the cafe said today that Mr. Jackson had fought the troopers when one of them clubbed his mother, Mrs. Viola Jackson. The Blacks said that a trooper had then taken out his pistol and shot Mr. Jackson. His mother was hospitalized with a head wound.
The troopers, in an apparent attempt to disperse the Blacks, went into the cafe and onto the porches of nearby buildings, clubbing those who huddled there. Perry County deputies clubbed three leaders who were arrested at the front of the march. Also arrested was Searcy Wright, a Marion Black, on a charge of assault with intent to murder. Mr. Wright’s lawyer said he had been held without bond, accused of hitting a trooper with a coke bottle. Mayor R. L. Pegues said: “We’re sorry that someone was struck. Actually, very little went on. It all happened in a very short time.”
He pointed out that Blacks had been demonstrating here without violence and without arrests almost daily since February 3, when 700 school children were taken into custody for marching on the courthouse. A night march was held the night before without incident. “But last night they got outside leadership from Selma and they were determined to take over the town. Of course, we can’t have that,” the Mayor said.
The demonstrations here have been part of a campaign that has been centered in Selma, 23 miles away, to speed the registration of Black voters in the Alabama Black Belt, a band of dark and fertile land in the central and south portions of the state.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., recuperating at home from a cold, plans to return to the Selma, Ala., area Monday to expand voter registration work in adjacent Black Belt rural areas. “Marion probably will be the focal point during the next few days, and Monday we will be back in Selma in force,” said the Rev. Andrew Young, executive assistant to Dr. King. Preliminary meetings among Blacks are to begin this weekend in Marengo County. Marion is in adjacent Perry County. Mr. Young said that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which Dr. King is president, next week will be pushing the campaign in five counties in the heavily Black area of Alabama around Selma. The counties are Marengo, Dallas, Perry, Wilcox and Lowndes. Dr. King also plans to return to nearby Montgomery for meetings there.
“Most of the work will be organizing to get people to attempt to register,” Mr. Young said. “But we are prepared to do whatever it takes to get registered.” He said that that could mean more mass marches. Dr. King, who returned from Alabama yesterday, was at home resting and recovering from a cold that had been worsened by exposure to rain most of the week. He had had a fever and a sore throat, aides said.
He was to have addressed a rally Wednesday night in Lowndes County, where no Blacks are registered. The rally was postponed until next week. Dr. King had just made an appearance at Gee’s Bend in Wilcox County. Until early this morning, from his home in Atlanta, he was in telephone contact with the situation in Marion. He sent a telegram to Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach noting the state troopers’ violence against Blacks in Marion and requesting federal protection for those engaged in voter registration activity.
Roy Wilkins, the executive director of the N.A.A.C.P., called yesterday for demonstrations at city halls and state capitols throughout the country “to protest the denial of voting rights for Negro citizens in Alabama and Mississippi.”
Governor George C. Wallace said today that he was conducting a “full investigation” of the beatings of newsmen in Marion last night. The Governor said: “I regret the incident that happened in Marion. I am conducting a full investigation.” Mr. Wallace’s remarks came at a news conference held in conjunction with “Governor George Wallace Week” in Gadsden. The Governor had scheduled several speeches around town today, including the news conference to publicize Alabama’s residential and industrial advantages. The Governor did not explain the details of his investigation, and he offered several reservations on the Marion incidents.
He said: “I don’t want to jump to conclusions on what happened in the still of the night in a small rural community. You have to remember there were 400 Blacks trying to conduct a march and there was a lot of confusion going on.” Mr. Wallace blamed “career agitators” for creating the situation. However, he assured the newsmen that “if State Troopers did stand by while (N.B.C.’s Richard) Valeriani and other newsmen were ‘beaten,’ I’ll take the proper action.” Mr. Wallace said he knew Mr. Valeriani personally “and I am shocked and saddened he was hurt. This should not happen in Alabama,” he added. Mr. Valeriani was one of three newsmen beaten. He was hospitalized in Marion.
The U.S. Senate unanimously (72–0) approved the proposed Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for appointment and confirmation to fill any vacancy in the office of Vice President of the United States, as well as allowing the Vice President to serve as Acting President if the incumbent was “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” The U.S. House of Representatives would approve the amendment, with changes, on April 13 by a vote of 368 to 29.
Mississippi is “tired of being led by the dead hand of the past,” a Greenville leader told the United States Civil Rights Commission today. Leroy Percy, cotton planter, bank executive and member of a distinguished Mississippi family, said: “The people of Mississippi want a change and I believe they are going to get it.” As the Civil Rights Commission went through its fourth day of testimony on the status of Black rights in Mississippi, Dr. John Hannah, the chairman, called testimony by Blacks and whites on race relations in Greenville a “breath of fresh air.” He said that the agreement by both Black and white spokesmen, with regard to fair administration of the law and social justice in Greenville, showed that “people of both races can work out responsible solutions” in Mississippi.
Barry Goldwater urged Republicans tonight to adhere to conservative principles in battling Democrats for public office. He conceded that the party had taken “a tremendous trouncing” under his leadership last November, but contended that the Presidential election had been decided by “image, not truth.”
Two hundred boycotting Black students marched peacefully yesterday past 400 New York policemen who lined Fulton Street and saturated downtown Brooklyn. It was the students’ first nonviolent demonstration in three days.
The government’s top economist warned that “restraining measures” may be needed later this year if the nation’s economy grows at the highest rate foreseen in current predictions.
Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson appealed to an assembly of some of the most glamorous women in America today to volunteer as aides in a project to help prepare deprived children for the first grade. The appeal was for the Head Start p[rogram.
Ranger 8 neared its rendezvous with the moon while a panel of scientists prepared to analyze the world’s second sequence of close-up lunar pictures.
Landing men on the moon by an arbitrary deadline of 1970 is not nearly so important as “the tremendously exciting exploration of the universe,” the former astronaut, John H. Glenn Jr., said today.
The Syncom III communications satellite could provide a fulltime link between the United States and Southeast Asia, an official of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said today.
A random sampling of patients in a state mental hospital showed that 41% did not need psychiatric hospitalization, a California official reported.
Comptroller of the Currency James J. Saxon announced a number of major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles and Orange County, now “are considered closed to new bank entry for the time being.”
An expected Congressional campaign for a new air force bomber program opened on the Senate floor today with a speech by John Stennis, chairman of the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee.
A solemn memorial service was held for the 6,821 Americans who died in the bloody battle to wrest the tiny island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese, that began 20 years ago today.
The NFL adds a 6th game official, the line judge.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 885.61 (+1.92)
Born:
Andrew Jameson, English swimmer (Olympics, bronze medal, 100 m butterfly, 1988), in Crosby, England, United Kingdom.
Wayne Rosenthal, MLB pitcher (Texas Rangers), in Brooklyn, New York, New York.
Vincent Barnett, NFL defensive back (Cleveland Browns), in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.
Died:
Forrest Taylor, 81, American character actor in film and television (This is Life, Man Without a Gun); of natural causes.
[Ed: The original caption does not make it clear that Valeriani was hit in the head with an ax handle by either Alabama State Troopers or their white supporters, when a peaceful march was attacked and law enforcement and segregationists beat dozens of people, and shot one, who died a week later.]
History Diaries 