the fact that they were the primary target; at that time, the MRC was moving toward removing Thơ, and Minh was the only senior general to retain confidence in him. On 29 January, General Nguyễn Khánh ousted Minh's MRC in a bloodless pre-dawn coup; although Khánh accused the junta of intending to make a deal with the communists and claimed to have proof, he was actually motivated by personal ambition. After Khánh was deposed a year later, he admitted that the allegations against Minh's group were false. In later years, Khánh, Thơ and Minh's generals all agreed that the coup was strongly encouraged by the Americans and could not have occurred without their backing. Thơ was apprehended during the coup and put under house arrest while the plotters consolidated their grip on power; he was then removed from the political scene. The civilian arm of the government was replaced with Khánh appointees, and Thơ left politics, having personally enriched himself during his period in government. His activities after leaving politics are not known. He died in 1976 in Saigon. Notes References 1908 births 1976 deaths Nguyen dynasty officials South Vietnamese politicians Prime Ministers of South Vietnam Vietnamese anti-communists Vietnamese people of the Vietnam War People from An Giang Province