his deposal, Hương had backed a plot led by some Đại Việt-oriented Catholic officers reported to include Generals Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and Nguyễn Hữu Có. They planned to remove Khánh and bring Khiem back from Washington. The US Embassy in Saigon was privately supportive of the aim, but was not ready to fully back the move as they regarded it as poorly thought out and potentially a political embarrassment due to the need to use an American plane to transport some plotters, including Khiem, between Saigon and Washington. As a result, the Deputy Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson only promised asylum for Hương if necessary. Khánh's deposal of Hương further heightened American opposition to him and fears that his reliance on Buddhist support would result in his not taking a hardline position against the communists. Aware that US support for him was further ebbing away, Khánh tried to initiate peace negotiations with the VC, but he only managed an exchange of letters and was yet to organize any meetings or negotiations before he was overthrown. In the meantime, this only intensified US efforts to engineer a coup, and many of Khánh's colleagues—mostly Catholic Đại Việt supporters—had by then privately concluded that he was set to pursue a deal with the communists. Many of whom felt that Khánh thought of himself as the "Sihanouk of Vietnam"; the Cambodian monarch had managed to avoid the Cold War for the time being by shunning both communist and anti-communist blocs. During the first half of February, suspicions and evidence against Khánh began to solidify, an example being his order to release the wife of communist leader Huỳnh Tấn Phát from jail. Taylor's superiors in Washington began to align with his view, giving him more scope to agitate for a coup. 1967 Presidential election In the 1967 South Vietnamese presidential election, Hương finished fourth with 474,100 votes (10.0%). In May 1968, President Thiệu appointed Huong to the post of prime minister, replacing Nguyen Van Loc. After a week of negotiations with Thiệu, Kỳ, various military officers and civilians, Huong assembled a cabinet with representation from a variety of interests but not members of the Đại Việt. Huong mostly favoured technocrats, keeping six of Loc's ministers in his 18-man cabinet. Huong also appointed himself the minister for Rural Development and Pacification, and stated upon taking office that "The life and death of this country depend on this